A real Christmas

The reality of celebrating the life of Christ is in having the Word of God hidden within and having it flow it in praise and adoration.

As I sit awaiting the beginning of a Christmas eve service I am thinking of Scripture.

Isaiah 9
"The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them."

In this time when the world exults in their sin. Where there is a love of sin, and evil men boast in their evil. Where we take in iniquity and it in turn poisons our tongues causing it to become a venomous weapon, spewing out the dark contents of our blackened hearts.... Yet to those living in that darkness Christ has shone. Showing the reality of our state without the work of Christ. We in and of ourselves cannot make ourselves righteous before God. We need the work of another on our behalf.

Isaiah 9 again
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

He came with the purpose to save us from the just penalty of our sin.

Isaiah 53
But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

In His suffering on our behalf, for our sin, and His perfect life given to us, we the guilty can be declared innocent upon God's work of salvation. Once we repent and believe, this begins a lifetime of growing in sanctification.

Ephesians 2
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.