As the Christmas season is officially upon us, many of us will spend a lot of time over the next several weeks thinking about gifts. Unfortunately, we can spend so much time thinking about Christmas gifts for others, or maybe even ourselves, and end up forgetting the greatest of all possible gifts. The gift I’m talking about of course, is that gift that God gave the world over 2,000 years ago.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
So, why is Jesus the greatest of all possible gifts?
Jesus is the greatest gift because in giving us Jesus, God shows us how much he loves us. Sometimes we talk so much about God’s love and about how God IS love – which of course is absolutely true – but sometimes we talk about it so much that we start to take it for granted. We often forget what an amazing thing it is that God WOULD love us, that God DOES love us, and in giving us Jesus He is showing us that he always WILL love us.
To be loved by a holy and perfectly righteous God is no small thing. Do any of us deserve this love of God? Absolutely not. The Bible is clear time and time again that all of us are sinners. Romans 3:23 says, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Isaiah 64:6, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment…” Some translations there refer to all of our good deeds and “filthy rags”…
So even our best deeds, even at our BEST, we have nothing to offer up to God. God is so far above us, there is such a large chasm or gap between us and God that I don’t even have a word or adjective to describe it. If God didn’t lower himself and come down to our level, then we would all be in big trouble. But in Christ that is precisely what we see God doing.
We have all sinned against a Holy and righteous God. Sadly, we continue to do so. Even our best deeds are polluted by our sin. But God says in Isaiah 1:18, “…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool…”
Here is the good news of the Gospel. Jesus is the means by which we become white as snow. Through the shed blood of Jesus we have been cleansed. God in His great love for us, sent His Son Jesus Christ to the earth to take our sins upon Himself and to save us, to cleanse us, to give us His righteousness, and to save us.
Because “God so loved…” He didn’t allow us to perish in our sins, but instead God offers us eternal life through Jesus Christ. Romans 5:8 says, “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
So, as we kick off this Christmas season, remember that Jesus is the greatest gift of all possible gifts, because in giving us Christ, God shows us just how much He truly loves us…
Chris Canuel – Author, Pastor
Treasuring Christ 