What Christmas Means to Me
What Christmas Means To Me
I love all the festivities, the food, the lights, the giving and receiving, church on Christmas Eve, the movies, the amazing Christmas episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” and especially the times with family. But those are only secondary to the reason, well, at least the original reason, for all that.
It’s all about the gift, a free gift, which lasts for eternity.
I once learned this outline from a study course by Rev. D. James Kennedy, and it has proved to tell thousand about Jesus for decades.
Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you died you would have eternal life?
The Bible says that it is appointed to man once to die, and then to be judged. What if you died and stood before God, and He said, "Why should I let you into My heaven?" What would you say?
There are many possible answers, but only one right answer. Let's explore the path.
First, what does the Bible say about heaven?
Ephesians 2:8. tells us: "by grace you are saved, through faith, it is the free gift of God."
Romans 6:33 reads: "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life"
So, you see, heaven is a free gift, it cannot be earned or deserved.
Second, what does the Bible say about man?
Romans 3:23 states that man is a sinner. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
Also, man cannot save himself. Ephesians 2:9 continues: “Salvation is not a result of one's own works, so that no one should boast."
Suppose you were to make an omelet. You put in four good eggs and one rotten egg. Would it be a good omelet? No, it would taste rotten. That is like our lives. We might think we are good, but even one sin taints us. God's standard for heaven is perfection. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus said, "Be ye perfect as I am perfect."
But you might think, I don't sin that much. What if you sin only 3 times a day? That does not seem like much, does it? But if you look in Psalms, it reads that a man's life is 3 score and ten, i.e., 70 years. They add up. 3 sins a day come to about 1,000 sins a year. Times 70 years, that is 70,000 sins. What if you stood before God and he said you have 70,000 sins against you, would you get into heaven? I sure wouldn’t.
Third, what does the Bible say about God?
Exodus 34:7 tells us that God is just. He will not allow sin to go unpunished. Uh oh. With 70,000 sins—or more—against me, I am headed for trouble.
But the Bible tells us, also, in I John 4:8, that "God is love." Also, in II Peter 3:9, the Bible tells us that “God is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance." And in I Timothy 2:4 the Bible says that "God desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
But how do we find that repentance and truth? Lets see what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
First, Christ is God. John 1 reads: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." So, Jesus is and was God.
Second, the Bible tells us "the word became flesh" (John 1:14). And in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.”
Third, Jesus died to pay the price for our sin. Imagine you have a book in your right hand which contains the record of each and every sin you have committed, those sins which are keeping you from being perfect and therefore receiving God's gift of eternal life.
Now, imagine Christ walking up and taking that book from you, saying, "I will take that sin, I will pay the price for your sins on the cross. Believe in Me and you will be free." Isaiah prophesied almost 800 years before Jesus was born that in Him, "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
We were separated from God by our sin, even one sin as in the omelet, but Jesus paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross, in His perfection, so that we might be saved and not separated any longer.
Just before Jesus died, He uttered a statement, "It is finished." When the Bible was written in Greek, the word in that verse was a business term which meant, "The debt has been paid." In biblical times, when a debt was paid the note was nailed above the doorway of the person who had paid it off. The Apostle Paul later wrote that "Christ paid for our sins, having nailed them to a cross."
But we are not believing in a dead man. All religion founders have died: Confucius, Muhammad, Buddha, etc., even Moses and Abraham. But only one, Jesus, conquered death. On the third day He came back from being dead. Paul wrote: "On the third day He arose according to the prediction of the Scriptures, and He appeared to many" (I Corinthians 15:3-8). Therefore, what Jesus said carries infinitely more weight and importance than any of those dead religious leaders.
And He made clear, in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by Me."
But how do we accept that free gift of Christ's sacrificial death on the cross? Lets see what the Bible says about faith, the key to heaven. Before talking about what saving faith is, let's see what it is not.
First, faith is not mere intellectual assent. The Bible says that even the devil believes in God, and "the demons believe and they shudder" (James 2:19) but they will not be in heaven.
Second, faith is not temporal. Some people believe in Jesus the same way they believe in George Washington or Aristotle—that He lived, but not that He is now alive and can do anything for them.
Some who even believe that He is alive, still only trust in Him for temporal things, for safety on a trip or to take care of their family. But saving faith is trusting in Christ eternally.
In Acts 16:31 the Apostle Paul was asked by a jailer how he might be saved. Paul's reply was, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."
Suppose there is a chair in the room you are in. Do you believe that chair will support you if you sit in it? Sure you do. But is it supporting you now, before you sit in it? Of course not. You have to actually sit in it, place your weight in it, place your trust in the chair to support you. That is the same way with belief in Christ. We have to put our trust in Him. To receive eternal life we must transfer our trust from ourself to Christ.
It means to transfer your trust from yourself to Christ. To receive the resurrected and living Christ as your savior. But also to receive Him as Lord, sitting on the throne of your heart by repenting of sin, and turning to Him.
Faith is also the motive for Christian living. A former president of Princeton University once said: "As a young man I accepted Christ and the gift of eternal life. All the rest of my life has been simply a PS to that day, saying, 'Thank you Lord for what you gave to me then.'"
First, we must repent of our sins. Repentance is more than being sorry for sin. Repentance, in the original Greek language, means turning from sin, 180 degrees, and turning to God. Not that we will never sin again, but that we no longer live to sin. God promises that "If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9).
Second, it means accepting the resurrected and living Christ. In Revelation, Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone opens that door I will come in." He is a gentleman, He will not kick down the door, but waits—for our entire life if necessary—for us to open it and let Him come in. But we don’t know when our last breath will be, so we are taking a terrible chance in waiting.
Third, we accept the guarantee of our salvation. John 6:47 assures us: "Truly I say unto you, he who believes in Me has eternal life." And Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to walk alongside us and continually provide that assurance.
So, does all this make sense to you? If so, would you like to receive the free gift of eternal life? If so, I can lead us in a prayer and we can tell God what you just told me.
"Dear Jesus, I am a sinner, Lord. But I believe in You. I believe that You came to pay
What Christmas Means To Me
I love all the festivities, the food, the lights, the giving and receiving, church on Christmas Eve, the movies, the amazing Christmas episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” and especially the times with family. But those are only secondary to the reason, well, at least the original reason, for all that.
It’s all about the gift, a free gift, which lasts for eternity.
I once learned this outline from a study course and it has proved to tell thousand about Jesus for decades.
Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you died you would have eternal life?
The Bible says that it is appointed to man once to die, and then to be judged. What if you died and stood before God, and He said, "Why should I let you into My heaven?" What would you say?
There are many possible answers, but only one right answer. Let's explore the path.
First, what does the Bible say about heaven?
Ephesians 2:8. tells us: "by grace you are saved, through faith, it is the free gift of God."
Romans 6:33 reads: "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life"
So, you see, heaven is a free gift, it cannot be earned or deserved.
Second, what does the Bible say about man?
Romans 3:23 states that man is a sinner. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
Also, man cannot save himself. Ephesians 2:9 continues: “Salvation is not a result of one's own works, so that no one should boast."
Suppose you were to make an omelet. You put in four good eggs and one rotten egg. Would it be a good omelet? No, it would taste rotten. That is like our lives. We might think we are good, but even one sin taints us. God's standard for heaven is perfection. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus said, "Be ye perfect as I am perfect."
But you might think, I don't sin that much. What if you sin only 3 times a day? That does not seem like much, does it? But if you look in Psalms, it reads that a man's life is 3 score and ten, i.e., 70 years. They add up. 3 sins a day come to about 1,000 sins a year. Times 70 years, that is 70,000 sins. What if you stood before God and he said you have 70,000 sins against you, would you get into heaven? I sure wouldn’t.
Third, what does the Bible say about God?
Exodus 34:7 tells us that God is just. He will not allow sin to go unpunished. Uh oh. With 70,000 sins—or more—against me, I am headed for trouble.
But the Bible tells us, also, in I John 4:8, that "God is love." Also, in II Peter 3:9, the Bible tells us that “God is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance." And in I Timothy 2:4 the Bible says that "God desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
But how do we find that repentance and truth? Lets see what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
First, Christ is God. John 1 reads: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." So, Jesus is and was God.
Second, the Bible tells us "the word became flesh" (John 1:14). And in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.”
Third, Jesus died to pay the price for our sin. Imagine you have a book in your right hand which contains the record of each and every sin you have committed, those sins which are keeping you from being perfect and therefore receiving God's gift of eternal life.
Now, imagine Christ walking up and taking that book from you, saying, "I will take that sin, I will pay the price for your sins on the cross. Believe in Me and you will be free." Isaiah prophesied almost 800 years before Jesus was born that in Him, "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
We were separated from God by our sin, even one sin as in the omelet, but Jesus paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross, in His perfection, so that we might be saved and not separated any longer.
Just before Jesus died, He uttered a statement, "It is finished." When the Bible was written in Greek, the word in that verse was a business term which meant, "The debt has been paid." In biblical times, when a debt was paid the note was nailed above the doorway of the person who had paid it off. The Apostle Paul later wrote that "Christ paid for our sins, having nailed them to a cross."
But we are not believing in a dead man. All religion founders have died: Confucius, Muhammad, Buddha, etc., even Moses and Abraham. But only one, Jesus, conquered death. On the third day He came back from being dead. Paul wrote: "On the third day He arose according to the prediction of the Scriptures, and He appeared to many" (I Corinthians 15:3-8). Therefore, what Jesus said carries infinitely more weight and importance than any of those dead religious leaders.
And He made clear, in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by Me."
But how do we accept that free gift of Christ's sacrificial death on the cross? Lets see what the Bible says about faith, the key to heaven. Before talking about what saving faith is, let's see what it is not.
First, faith is not mere intellectual assent. The Bible says that even the devil believes in God, and "the demons believe and they shudder" (James 2:19) but they will not be in heaven.
Second, faith is not temporal. Some people believe in Jesus the same way they believe in George Washington or Aristotle—that He lived, but not that He is now alive and can do anything for them.
Some who even believe that He is alive, still only trust in Him for temporal things, for safety on a trip or to take care of their family. But saving faith is trusting in Christ eternally.
In Acts 16:31 the Apostle Paul was asked by a jailer how he might be saved. Paul's reply was, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."
Suppose there is a chair in the room you are in. Do you believe that chair will support you if you sit in it? Sure you do. But is it supporting you now, before you sit in it? Of course not. You have to actually sit in it, place your weight in it, place your trust in the chair to support you. That is the same way with belief in Christ. We have to put our trust in Him. To receive eternal life we must transfer our trust from ourself to Christ.
It means to transfer your trust from yourself to Christ. To receive the resurrected and living Christ as your savior. But also to receive Him as Lord, sitting on the throne of your heart by repenting of sin, and turning to Him.
Faith is also the motive for Christian living. A former president of Princeton University once said: "As a young man I accepted Christ and the gift of eternal life. All the rest of my life has been simply a PS to that day, saying, 'Thank you Lord for what you gave to me then.'"
First, we must repent of our sins. Repentance is more than being sorry for sin. Repentance, in the original Greek language, means turning from sin, 180 degrees, and turning to God. Not that we will never sin again, but that we no longer live to sin. God promises that "If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9).
Second, it means accepting the resurrected and living Christ. In Revelation, Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone opens that door I will come in." He is a gentleman, He will not kick down the door, but waits—for our entire life if necessary—for us to open it and let Him come in. But we don’t know when our last breath will be, so we are taking a terrible chance in waiting.
Third, we accept the guarantee of our salvation. John 6:47 assures us: "Truly I say unto you, he who believes in Me has eternal life." And Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to walk alongside us and continually provide that assurance.
So, does all this make sense to you? If so, would you like to receive the free gift of eternal life? If so, I can lead us in a prayer and we can tell God what you just told me.
"Dear Jesus, I am a sinner, Lord. But I believe in You. I believe that You came to pay the price for my sin. You died on the cross and three days later You rose from the dead. And I want the gift of eternal life, to accept You into my heart. Now, come in, Lord, forgive me of my sin, and I will live for You, and I will serve You, all the days of my life. Amen."
That's it! If you prayed that prayer, and really believed it in your heart, you are saved, you have eternal life. Now accept your free gift from God. Thank Him for it, praise Him for it. Tell someone what you have done. Enjoy this Christmas as never before. He was born for you, He lived for you, He died for you, and He rose for you.
Welcome to the family of God. Read His word. Tell someone what you have done. Make a comment below this post. Go to church and learn about Jesus. Find a Bible believing church. Allow His Holy Spirit to fellowship with you. God is One, but chose to exist in the form of three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God loves you, He really does. Merry Christmas
!
the price for my sin. You died on the cross and three days later You rose from the dead. And I want the gift of eternal life, to accept You into my heart. Now, come in, Lord, forgive me of my sin, and I will live for You, and I will serve You, all the days of my life. Amen."
That's it! If you prayed that prayer, and really believed it in your heart, you are saved, you have eternal life. Now accept your free gift from God. Thank Him for it, praise Him for it. Tell someone what you have done. Enjoy this Christmas as never before. He was born for you, He lived for you, He died for you, and He rose for you.
Welcome to the family of God. Read His word. Tell someone what you have done. Make a comment below this post. Go to church and learn about Jesus. Find a Bible believing church. Allow His Holy Spirit to fellowship with you. God is One, but chose to exist in the form of three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God loves you, He really does. Merry Christmas!
Amen and again I say Amen!