Friday, December 23, 2011

What Christmas is really about

I heard this lyric on the radio this morning...

He made a way in a manger
To make a way to the cross

[by Lee Black and Steve Merkel]

Isn't that good? I have been thinking a lot about the REAL meaning of Christmas over the last couple of weeks. And I've been struck by how much Christmas music out there is not about Jesus.

Christmas—root word: CHRIST.

My boys love music and have been listening to the Cedarmont Kids singing the old Christmas hymns—and the words of "Good Christian Men Rejoice" stood out to me...

Good Christian men, rejoice—with heart and soul and voice! Now ye need not fear the grave; Jesus Christ was born to save!

THAT'S why we celebrate Christmas! Yes, God came to earth in human form—Immanuel, God with us—and that is wonderful in and of itself. But the whole reason Jesus came was to save us from the penalty of sin (eternal separation from God)! His death on the cross—the shedding of His blood as the sacrificial lamb—atoned for our sin once for all time! Now we, who believe, stand before God clean and without blame.

What greater gift is there than that?!!!