When Did We Forget The Truth of Christmas?
“ … she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
Over the years I have heard and laughed at hundreds of jokes about people forgetting things.
I heard about a man standing in front of his refrigerator with a bottle of ketchup in his hand trying to remember if he was putting it away or starting to make a sandwich; and I laughed.
These jokes are not funny any more. I have too many friends who have reached the age where these events are a reality, not a joke.
Christians today are having a “forgetting spell” regarding Christmas. We have set aside a day in December to celebrate the event, but we have forgotten what it is all about.
- When Did We Forget that Christmas is About Sin
The music will tell you that Christmas is about roasting chestnuts and decorating trees, but the music is wrong. Christmas is about sin and God’s remedy for sin.
In the beginning God set Adam and Eve in a beautiful world which was free from sin and death. To this first couple, God gave one law and commanded them to keep it. If They disobeyed God’s law they were told that sin and death would become a part of human existence forever.
God had made Adam the head of the entire human race. When Adam ate the forbidden fruit he did not do it as a single man, but as the head of all mankind. Adam’s act of disobedience began a reign of tyranny which will continue till the end of time.
“ … sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— “ Romans 5:12
The “Christmas story” began in the garden of Eden with our first parents sinning. That, however, is not what we are celebrating each December.
What we are celebrating each December 25th
is the fact that God did not let us go.
- When Did We Forget That Christmas is About Salvation
Sometimes we remember that Christmas is about Jesus coming into this world, but we have forgotten that He came here because we needed a Savior.
“ … through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Romans 5:18-19
Christmas is all about mankind being in such a mess that it required “Divine Intervention” to get us out. This is the Christmas message which we have forgotten. We have forgotten that Christmas is about our need to be saved.
- When Did We Forget that Christmas is About Substitution
Christmas is about Jesus Christ coming to this world to take the sinner’s place.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21
Some have the idea that God the Father merely forgives sin as if it never happened, but that is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God does not merely forgive sin, He punishes it to the fullest. This is what The Cross is all about. On the cross Jesus took the sinner’s place before the Holy Judge of the universe. On the Cross, Jesus, who did not have any sins of His own, suffered to pay the debt for our sins.
Let’s remember what Christmas is really all about. It is about a Baby in a manger who was destined for the cross in order to take the sinners place.
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