Question: Why did Jesus come to earth on that first Christmas Day?
Answer: In order to fulfil both the Law and the Prophets – Part One
God’s law is good – and when I say good, I mean perfect, in the same way that everything that God does is perfect. And so, when Jesus came to earth, there was no way he was going to abolish it. On the contrary, as he himself said during his sermon on the mount, Jesus came to fulfill the law. [Matthew 5:17]
Which in part at least means that Jesus came to keep God’s law.
And it’s a good job he did. Because I don’t.
I make mistakes – as anyone who has ever had me perform a minor op on them will tell you. Quite what they thought when I not infrequently, and somewhat disconcertingly, would utter the word ‘Oops’ as I went about my business, I’ll never know!
But whilst the mistakes I make due to my ignorance or weakness are a concern to me, far more serious are the things that, on occasions, I deliberately do wrong and which thereby reveal the state of my oh so desperately sick heart.
So before considering why it was so important for Jesus to keep God’s law, let’s think about what it would have actually taken for him to do so. Because it would not only mean avoiding all those things that we might think of as obviously sinful, but also all those things that, to us at least, might not seem so bad.
And so for example, for Jesus to keep God’s law, it would mean that he never harboured a jealous thought, never uttered an unkind word and never allowed himself to wallow, even for a moment, in sullen ungratefulness.
I on the other hand am somebody who can’t go two minutes without doing something wrong. Whilst, perhaps, less obviously than some, I nonetheless remain someone who commits all of the above sins, and many more besides. Because the truth is that I still sin – in thought, word and deed, through ignorance, through weakness, and most depressingly of all, through my own deliberate fault.
That’s why I need a saviour who can be a perfect sacrifice for me – one who, having never sinned himself, can die for mine instead.
And that’s why it’s so important to me that Jesus fulfilled God’s law. For had he failed to do so, had he sinned even just the once, he could no more have died in my place than he could have died in yours.
But having lived a sinless life, that’s exactly what he was able to do.
And so it was that Jesus came to earth on that first Christmas Day to keep the law in order that he might then be the perfect sacrifice necessary to atone for our sin.
To reveal the secrets concealed behind door 16 of last year’s Christmas Countdown, click here
Some musings 