Recapturing the Wonder of Christmas

Excerpt from “Recapturing The Wonder of Christmas” by Scott and Kathie Taylor

“Christmas teaches us two truths about our standing before God. The first is that we are much worse off than we can imagine. The second is that we are loved much more than we could ever dream. It is both bad news and good news and understanding it will change your life forever.

The bad news is that we are so messed up, so broken, that the only solution is God Himself. Romans 6:23 states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The reason Christmas is such good news is that God offers His solution to a problem we cannot solve. Acknowledging and embracing our brokenness is essential to us fully celebrating the birth of our Messiah, Jesus. Our brokenness is called sin in the Bible. The wages for our sin are both spiritual and physical death. Sin is our greatest problem as a human race. No amount of personal effort can rid us of its deadly consequences.

The beautiful news about Christmas is that God loved us so much He wasn’t willing to leave us in our tragic and desperate state. He chose to rescue us with the gift of His Son, Jesus. The incarnation means that God the Son took on flesh so He could rescue us. At Christmas we celebrate a God who chose to give us mercy, forgiveness, and grace when He would have been perfectly just to pour out His wrath on us. Accepting both the bad and good news makes the birth of Jesus, our Savior, even more glorious.”