This time of year I see a lot of stuff flying back and forth
on the social media about Santa versus Jesus, Xmas versus Christmas and what
Christmas really means. I think I can answer that honestly for the first time
in my life this year.
All of my life I have enjoyed the Santa Claus side of
Christmas with the lights and trees and family and food. But I was also aware
that there was another side to Christmas - the celebration of the birth of a
baby in Bethlehem. Wise men, camels, sheep, shepherds, Mary and Joseph - all
made of molded plastic with 25-watt light bulbs inside in a crèche crafted from
the remnants of a shipping crate on the front lawn. An angel wired to the top
with a perpetually ominous glare and golden locks holds a banner that says ‘Noel’.
You see, that side of Christmas was always as artificial to me as the other. In
some ways, the birth of the savior was no more real to me than the legend of
Santa Claus.
This year is different. This year I recognize the great
oppression that existed on earth prior to the coming of the baby in swaddling
clothes. The debate of Christmas is not between Jesus and Santa Claus, but
between law and grace. On Christmas Eve 2,000 plus years ago (whatever date
that may have been) the world was held utterly captive to the law. The living
Word of God had not yet donned flesh and blood.
The story of Christmas is gospel. We find it in the gospels
because the incarnation, the virgin birth, the coming of the Christ as flesh
into a world dominated by law is a critical part of God’s radical call of
freedom to captives. He was born under the oppression of the law so that he
might live in keeping with the law, so fulfilling it on our behalf. He had to
suffer under the law to free us from it.
To me the most glorious glimpse of what we celebrate when we
celebrate the coming of Christ is found in Galatians 4:4 & 5 –
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV)
There is no mention whatever of sin, yet even in our
Christmas Carols we sing of sin being our oppressor; “long lay the world in sin
and error pining, ‘til He appeared and the soul felt it’s worth!” Here Paul
tells us what God truly accomplished when he stepped into time and space. He
redeemed the world from law. Here is Paul’s description of the world on that
Christmas Eve:
But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. (Galatians 3:22-23 ESV)
The gift that God gave us that first Christmas morning was
freedom. Yes, freedom from sin; but only as a consequence of freedom from
law. The terrible reign of slavish adherence
to law as an attempted means of justification ended. God’s love for mankind was
revealed in the first cry of an infant in Bethlehem. That newborn cry was the proclamation of the
gospel!
Paul tells us what had come into the world that morning:
So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:24-26 ESV)
The son of God, nursing at Mary’s breast, would allow us all
to become sons of God by faith, if we would believe. “And because you are sons,
God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So
you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians
4:6-7 ESV)
So this year Christmas means something wholly different to
me. I still enjoy the tree and the lights and the joy of being with family, but
the birth of Christ is no longer a plastic nativity set. It is the living
breathing son of God who lived and died that I might become the heir of His
righteousness. Santa Claus is no threat to that truth. That is something to
celebrate!
God Bless
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