The Gift of a Savior

The Gift of a Savior

By: Dr. Jeff Fuller

            Rockford, Goodwater, and Weogulka are getting ready for Christmas Parades, as other prepare floats and clean up the antique cars.  Decorations are being put up in homes and businesses around the county.  The air is filled with Christmas cheer.

            Children are excitedly waiting for the big day when the Big Man will bring surprises and goodies in the cold night, placing presents quietly under the trees found in house after house.  Not only the children, but the parents are anticipating the day when they too will tear unto pretty wrapping paper to find all sorts of special gifts from children and loved ones.

            ‘Tis the season.  We have celebrated Black Friday and Cyber Monday, looking high and low for the right gift at the right price for the right person.  Others have cased in the Christmas Account at the local bank and been for a shopping spree, while still others have used Lay-a-way Plans at Wal-Mart and K-Mart to pay for that special something or other that someone can not live without.

            Then there are the parties.  Oh my, the parties.  I believe I put on more weight at Christmas than at any other time of the year.  While I enjoy each one, the host is planning the menu, stocking on up on the necessary ingredients, and working themselves into a nervous breakdown as they pull at their hair and have sleepless nights contemplating the various things needing to be accomplished.

            All of this aforementioned commercialism is good for the economy, but there is so much more to this Christmas reveling than just presents, Santa Clause and feasting on food.  Yes, we enjoy the gifts and the food, the fellowship and time with friends and family, but there is more. 

            Yes, there is more, more than we admit sometimes.  Christmas is the time we celebrate and remember the birth of the Child in a manger.  While the shepherds were out on the hillside the angels came to tell them the Good News in Bethlehem’s stable:

“Lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.” (Luke 2:9-15 KJV)

            The angels announced the marvelous birth of Jesus.  Mary and Joseph has found shelter in a stable, making a manger a bassinet, and there the Savior was when the shepherds came to see what the angels had told them.

“She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7 KJV)

            Amazingly, God’s love was shed for us, even when we were yet in rebellion to Him and His laws.  In the book of Romans, Paul writes these sobering words, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 KJV)  Take a minute and focus on the first part of that one verse, where we are told that God showed His love for us; a love that was undeserved.

            God’s love is seen in the manger in Bethlehem, because at the appointed time God came to us and for us in the form of a baby.  See how John writes about this wonderful birth:

“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:11-14 KJV)

            Later Jesus would say of this wonderful, beautiful gift:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18 KJV)

            What a wonderful, beautiful present God gave to us; He gave Himself.  The first Christmas present was God in the form of man, coming to earth, to give Himself as the sacrifice required under Old Testament law.  He did so for you and me.

            This Christmas season, as you rush and hurry along the way from one house to the next, from one Super Sale to another, be mindful of the fact that we are celebrating Christ, born in a manger.  We are thankful for the gift of life found in that manger. 

            I am; are you?

            (Dr. Jeff Fuller is pastor of the Rockford Baptist Church in Rockford, Alabama.  You may reach him through the church office at 256-377-4900 or by email at fuller0717@gmail.com.)