Question: why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day?
Answer: In order to call sinners to repentance
For that’s what we are told in Luke 5:32, just after Jesus, having been criticised by the religious types of his day for hanging out with ne’er-do-wells and scallywags, explains that, just as it is the sick who need a doctor, so it is sinners who need a saviour.
Two groups of people – who both need to get better.
Some people confuse how much God loves us with how wonderful God thinks we are. They imagine that, because Jesus was sent to die for us, it indicates just how terrific he considers us to be.
But it was whilst we were still sinners that Christ died for us. [Romans 5:8] He loves us, therefore, not because of our awesomeness but despite our wickedness – not because we are lovely, but because he is loving.
And so, whilst it is true that God, in sending his son to suffer and die for us, does indeed reveal his deep deep love for us, we need to also realise that the sacrifice made is an indicator of how horrible our sins actually are
And to imagine that it was because he considered us worthy of the sacrifice that was made for our salvation, would be a bit like Al Capone bragging that the $1 million reward being offered for his capture was evidence, not of the seriousness of his crimes, but of how highly he was esteemed by the Chicago law enforcement agencies.
And so we must recognise that, whilst it is true that, as we considered yesterday, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he didn’t come to leave us that way. Rather, he came to call us to repentance, to a better way of life, a life lived according to his good and perfect law.
And for that, there will need to be a change of heart on our part, a turning both away from the life that we have long felt appropriate for us to live, and toward the life that we now see as the one we really always ought to have aspired to.
And that is the meaning of the word ‘repentance’ – a word that conveys, not only a sense of sorrow for how we have been living in the past, but also an acceptance that we need to change our ways such that we try to live better lives in the future.
That’s not to say that we will be fully successful in our endeavours – but the desire to do better should nonetheless be there. Because it is impossible to appreciate how much we have been forgiven by Jesus, and not to love him more as a result. And it is impossible to love Jesus more, and not desire to keep his commands. [John 14:15]
As such, if we find we are content to go on living our lives with no regard for his law, then we must conclude that we have no real love for God. And if we do not have any love for God, then we must conclude that we have yet to know his forgiveness and remain, therefore, unrepentant sinners who are still dead in our sin.
But there is yet hope. For Jesus came to earth that first Christmas Day to call sinners to repentance.
I wonder, can you hear him calling you?
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 4 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Some musings 