The Reason for the Season – January 3, 2023

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law.
Galatians 4:4,5

The Reason for the Season

People started celebrating Christmas two months ago, and most are tired of it by now. The tree is down, the lights are stored away, and they are back to work. Even though they know the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” they don’t realize that those twelve days start on Christmas day, and we are only on day nine today!

Maybe without all the distractions of celebration, the time has come to concentrate on the reason for the season. People realize that we celebrated the birth of Jesus. Did they realize that the birth was at exactly the right time? It happened at precisely the time God had planned it when he first promised it.

The Savior, Jesus, was the Son of God, begotten from the Father from eternity. That eternal God took on flesh and was actually born as an actual human being. Even though his Father was God, his mother was an actual woman, and he was true man.

That meant that he was under God’s law. He was required to keep it; and he managed to do that perfectly. Then he took the punishment for breaking the law, which was death and hell, and because he did not deserve that punishment, he was able to credit his perfect life to us. He paid the price of shedding his blood, innocently suffering, and dying. Now we have forgiveness as a result. We are redeemed.

Those extraordinary events make Christmas worth celebrating every year. Let the celebration continue!

Prayer: (Christian Worship: Hymnal – 366)
Jesus, guard and guide your members, fill them with your boundless grace,
Hear their prayers in ev’ry place.
Fan to life faith’s glowing embers; grant all Christians far and near,
Holy peace, a glad new year. Amen.