Why do we do Christmas again?

I have been considering the reason for Christmas again. It seems I do it every year. Of course I discover something new and wonderful every time. This year has been kind to me and I am feeling grateful for what Jesus accomplished for us. You may wonder what this has to do with the birth of Jesus.

The amazing confluence of events surrounding His birth is a picture of how He treats us. When we glibly quote “all things work together for good to them who love God...” we are making a huge understatement. In order for things to work to our good, evil had to be put in his place.

The angels announced the new covenant with the phrase “goodwill towards men..” Under the old covenant, it was mostly wrath towards men. The arrival of baby Jesus signalled complete change and the fulfilment of a very old promise:

Genesis 3:14: the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the wild beasts and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life. 15 And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your descendants and her descendants; her descendant will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.” For the evil one, the warning is on the label!

In Matthew chapter 1 Jesus is descended through 42 generations to Joseph giving him claim to the throne of David as King. He was not actually born of Joseph’s lineage and if so would have been subject to some very fallible ancestors not to mention a curse pronounced against the lineage in Jeremiah 22:30.

Jesus was descended through the lineage of Mary. The actual royal seed line is described in Luke 3:23 on: Note he was supposedly of the lineage of Joseph but he came from a line not obvious to the eyes of Satan for 77 generations. God did give him the big clue in Genesis 3:15... The woman’s descendant... but he focussed on the line of Kings to Joseph, polluting it as often as he could. The devil got it wrong.

Hebrews 2:5-18: Now we are treated to an Exposition of Psalm 8: Jesus and the Destiny of Humanity:  For he did not put the world to come, about which we are speaking, under the control of angels. Instead someone testified somewhere:

“What is man that you think of him or the son of man that you care for him? You made him lower than the angels for a little while. You crowned him with glory and honour; you put all things under his control. For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control.”

 At present we do not yet see all things under his control, but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by God’s grace he would experience death on behalf of everyone. It was fitting for God, (for whom and through whom all things exist), in bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, and so he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.” Again he says, “I will be confident in him,” and again, “Here I am, with the children God has given me.”

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death. Surely his concern is not for angels, but he is concerned for Abraham’s descendants. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since He himself suffered when he was tormented he is able to help those who are tormented by life.

Jesus was not born to die!! He came to live as a man and He chose to die as an act of his human will. He became man AND died for our sins, not TO die for our sins.  He came to fulfil the promise to destroy the Devil. To make Goodwill toward men possible.