The Reason For The Season?

It is that time of year when the babe laying in the manger is talked about.  There are scenes with shepherds, animals, and wise men worshiping the Christ child.  Many churches celebrate His birth with special ceremonies and services.  How should we react?  There is no command or example from the New Testament to indicate that Jesus’ birth is something we are to observe as a part of worship.  We can, however, use the season for an opportunity for evangelistic outreach.

How?  As people discuss the season, as they talk about the birth of Jesus, ask them, “Why was He born?  Why did Jesus leave heaven to come to earth and live as a human?”  What could possibly have motivated Jesus to surrender the glories of heaven and become a servant to those He had created (Philippians 2:5ff)?

As the questions are pondered we can point them to passages such as Luke 19:10 where we learn, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  His visit to planet earth was for the salvation of souls.  This salvation was made possible by His death on the cross. Jesus stated He came “not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  A ransom is the price paid to buy someone or something back.  Jesus, by his death on the cross, bought us back from the penalty of sin (see Romans 6:23).

Jesus was aware of the cross when He left heaven and came to earth. Peter proclaimed that fact on Pentecost when he stated concerning Jesus, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23).  Isaiah prophesied of that fact more than seven hundred years before Jesus birth in Isaiah 53.  Philip told the eunuch from Ethiopia that the prophet spoke of Jesus (See Acts 8:26- 39).

His shed blood is what washes away the guilt of sin.  John wrote in Revelation 1:5, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” The cleansing blood is contacted through belief in Jesus as the Son of God (Mark 16:15), repentance from sin (Acts 17:30), confession of Jesus as Lord (Acts 8:37), and immersion, baptism, in water for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16).  Paul referred to this process as obeying “from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17).

Jesus was born to die that you and I and all others may live.  Why not take advantage of the season’s opportunities to tell others what Jesus did after His birth?

—Denny