By Matt Gordon
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord – Romans 6:23
All around the world people are spending time today opening gifts. Some of the scenes are meager—bare provisions and scant offerings. And then, in some places, opulence carries the day, mountains of gifts become rivers of wrapping paper . . . mounds of materialism.
Regardless of the situation, for many gifts have become synonymous with Christmas.
Imagine receiving a gift. You take it in your hands, get a feel for the weight. Maybe you guess aloud what might be under the layers of packaging and wrapping paper. To know for sure, though, you must open it.
Then after getting this new possession, it would be downright disturbing if the person who had given you the gift passed you an invoice. You’d be appalled! For a gift by very nature is bought and paid for—and not by you.
Jesus is a gift. Faith is. By the grace of God, we receive this thing into our hands. We feel it and take guesses at what it might be. Some of us spend years in that guessing: perhaps God has finally given me that raise I’ve been hoping for or that relationship I so desperately crave? Maybe it is health . . . or a cure?
The only way to find out, though, is to open it.
And when we rip open the gift of God, what we find there is Jesus. That Jesus has given us the raise—he has raised us to life. That he has given us the relationship our soul has been craving since we entered the world. That he’s given us life abundant, an everlasting cure, restoring us to a forever flourishing.
And there is no secret cost. No backdoor dealings. We don’t have to fork over anything, save our life. To save our life, we give our life—to Jesus. Just as Jesus gave his very life for us.
Oh yes, this is an expensive gift. But it has been bought and paid for through the birth, life, and death of Jesus. He has died so that we can have life. It is a Christmas present that we get to grasp dearly every day of the year, forever.
This Christmas, whether you are doing presents or not, you have been given a tremendous gift. God, in his love, has given lavishly—his provision, his life, his Kingdom. He has written your name in red ink—an awful lot like blood—on the tag. He watches warmly, in anticipation, as you open this gift—he is a cheerful giver.
As you consider the gift of Jesus, we pray you feel his peace, his love, and his hope this season.
Merry Christmas—a child is born! Merry Christmas—a gift is given! Merry Christmas—God with us.