Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day?
Answer: In order to give his life as a ransom for many.
For that’s what we’re told in the second half of the verse we considered yesterday, namely that of Mark 10:45.
When we think about a ransom, we tend to think about a sum of money that is paid to secure the release of one who has been kidnapped by somebody who, in the event of the payment not being made, threatens to do all kinds of harm to the person who’s been taken captive.
Which is pretty much what we mean here too, save that, instead of money, it was the death of the son of God that secured the release of we who, bound up by our sin, had only eternal punishment to look forward to.
Now I am fully aware that any talk of hell is unlikely to be popular these days, But then I don’t suppose it was in Jesus’ either, when he spoke about it at length.
Because whilst to speak of God in terms of his infinite love is likely to offend only the most fundamental of materialists who cannot conceive of affection other than in terms of a conditioned response to a previously randomly experienced stimulus, to speak of God in terms of his righteous anger at our all too obvious wrong doing, will generally illicit an altogether more visceral reaction.
But before we get too upset at God for being the holy and righteous deity that, deep down, we know and need him to be, let’s remember that, unlike those of pagan religions, the God of the Bible is not some capricious despot with a problem with anger management, one who demands sacrifices be offered to him in order that, with his anger appeased, he might just be minded to act benevolently towards those who have offered them.
On the contrary – the God of the Bible is one who, though his holiness demands justice, lovingly provides a way of escape for those who, because of their actions, have deservedly earned his displeasure. And whilst the salvation he offers does indeed involve sacrifice, it is not a sacrifice that we have to make ourselves – rather it is one that he himself makes, at great personal cost, in the form of his own dear Son, who then willingly dies in our place to pay the price for all that we have done wrong.
He is not, therefore, a God we should despise for his righteous anger – rather he is one we should bow down before, in humble adoration of his amazing grace.
Because Jesus came that first Christmas Day in order to give his life as a ransom for many.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 7 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Some musings 