Advent: Day 20:
“Christmas and The Exchanged Life”
Scripture: “Little children, make sure no one deceives you;
the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the
one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the
beginning. The Son of GOD appeared for
this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:7-8).
This scripture passage presents a terrible dilemma and then
presents GOD’s solution to the dilemma: “the
one who practices sin is of the devil!”
Whoa, who among us do not “practice” sin? If this statement is true, and it is, then we
are without hope.
But praise the LORD, GOD resolves the problem by establishing
Christmas . . . “The Son of GOD appeared (Christmas Day, whatever the actual date)
for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”
Here is the purpose of Christmas, “My little children, I am
writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins (Is there any doubt that we
will?), we have an Advocate with the Father, JESUS CHRIST the righteous; and He
Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for
those of the whole world” (1 John
2:1-2).
So, we celebrate Christmas wildly and with abandon because JESUS
has exchanged His life for our life . . . JESUS became our sin (put on our sin
nature) in order that we might become His righteousness . . . this is the
purpose of Christmas . . . this is the redemptive work of GOD (2 Corinthians 5:21).
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Richard
No comments:
Post a Comment