For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45
For those grieving the loss of a loved one, Christmas can be painful.
One of the great joys of life with family is the traditions we build. Christmas is one of those special times of the year when this is especially true. We have a tradition of setting up the Christmas tree in the early part of December, while playing Christmas music and enjoying finger foods like wings and shrimp and "cold pizza" and veggies and dip. Each member of the family has a box of their own special ornaments with which they decorate the tree. This year, each of us chose an ornament from David's box that was meaningful to us and placed it on the tree.
These traditions are important; they bind families together. But they are also powerful reminders of the absence of a member of the family who used to be part of the tradition. And I never truly understood, until I became a member of the "club" that no one wants to be a member of.
But I don't want to scrap Christmas as a result. While I mourn the loss of my son, I am grateful for the presence and love of my wife, and my daughter, and my extended family, not to mention my friends and my neighbours. Grief and loss are a reality in our life experience; we cannot avoid them, and through them we often discover things, like who our true friends are, or things about our own character of which we were unaware. There is always something to be learned.
Recently, my dear friend Ashley sent me a link to a video. In it, Craig Aven was singing The Sweetest Gift, a song he had written expressly for those grieving a loss at Christmas time. Take time to listen to it; it's beautiful and worthwhile. (Have the tissues close by!)
It struck me, as I listened to this song, that others who might listen as I share it on Facebook might think, "Well it's a nice sentiment at Christmas, and a comfort to someone grieving, like Mike and Judy, but David? Really? In the arms of Jesus? How can you just ignore all the stuff he was doing, all the mess he was into? The innocence of a small child, or self-sacrificial kindness and generosity, THAT would be deserving of 'the arms of Jesus', but David's sin? His brokenness? His mess? How can we just pretend that wasn't the reality? How does he deserve the arms of Jesus?"
A totally fair and honest question, and it brings to light the total injustice of Christmas.
You see, David doesn't deserve heaven, or the arms of Jesus. Neither do I and neither do you. If God is really perfectly holy and perfectly righteous and perfectly just, then He must make His standard of acceptability absolute perfection. Only a perfect person deserves His heaven, and we all know that nobody's perfect ... well, nobody except Jesus. So according to the standard that God requires, in order to be true to His character, the only one who deserves heaven is Jesus.
And what does Jesus do? The only One qualified to enjoy heaven leaves heaven, and comes to earth to be born as a baby. Why? To die on the cross.
You see, a holy God must punish sin, or He isn't holy. If He allows a little bit of sin, then He contradicts His very nature. The word "holy" means "set apart" or "completely other than". So God is completely set apart from sin; sin cannot abide in God's presence. And yet, His nature also includes perfect love. 1 John 4:8 says "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God IS love." (emphasis mine). It's not just that He loves, He is the definition of love! His perfect love desires unhindered relationship with us, but His perfect holiness demands punishment of our sin. What a conundrum! How does God resolve it? His perfect love sends His perfect Son, Jesus, from heaven to come to earth as a baby, live a perfectly obedient life before God and us as witnesses, and then go to the cross and suffer the punishment that a perfectly holy God pours out in full, with no discount, on Him. Then, and here's the real injustice, if we are willing to accept the offer, God takes Jesus' perfect righteousness and attributes it to us, as if we had been the perfectly obedient ones! You want to talk about unfair? THAT's unfair!
And because Jesus was perfectly willing to take that position, to be found innocent by Pilate but condemned to death anyway, to be perfectly obedient to God but be punished for all of OUR sin anyway, to suffer that punishment because He willingly took our place ... because He did that, we have the opportunity to have our debt before God wiped clean. The price for our crimes has been paid. We need only tell God that we agree with Him that WE deserved the cross, that we accept the price that Jesus paid on our behalf and that we authorize Him to take over the throne of our life ... and in Christ, we are now seen by God as deserving of heaven. 1 Peter 3:18 says "For Christ also died for sins, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh ..." (emphasis mine). The rebellious one gets treated by God as perfectly righteous because the Perfectly Obedient One was treated as if He had committed every sin.
David is in heaven, enjoying the presence of Jesus. Judy and I will join him there some day. Not because of anything we have done or not done; on our own, we are perfectly deserving of eternal hellfire. No, we'll be there solely because we have accepted the Gift that God offers: salvation through the perfect work that Jesus did when He took our place before the Holy Judge of the universe.
I hope you'll join us. Let this be the Christmas you receive the Greatest Gift Ever.
A totally fair and honest question, and it brings to light the total injustice of Christmas.
You see, David doesn't deserve heaven, or the arms of Jesus. Neither do I and neither do you. If God is really perfectly holy and perfectly righteous and perfectly just, then He must make His standard of acceptability absolute perfection. Only a perfect person deserves His heaven, and we all know that nobody's perfect ... well, nobody except Jesus. So according to the standard that God requires, in order to be true to His character, the only one who deserves heaven is Jesus.
And what does Jesus do? The only One qualified to enjoy heaven leaves heaven, and comes to earth to be born as a baby. Why? To die on the cross.
You see, a holy God must punish sin, or He isn't holy. If He allows a little bit of sin, then He contradicts His very nature. The word "holy" means "set apart" or "completely other than". So God is completely set apart from sin; sin cannot abide in God's presence. And yet, His nature also includes perfect love. 1 John 4:8 says "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God IS love." (emphasis mine). It's not just that He loves, He is the definition of love! His perfect love desires unhindered relationship with us, but His perfect holiness demands punishment of our sin. What a conundrum! How does God resolve it? His perfect love sends His perfect Son, Jesus, from heaven to come to earth as a baby, live a perfectly obedient life before God and us as witnesses, and then go to the cross and suffer the punishment that a perfectly holy God pours out in full, with no discount, on Him. Then, and here's the real injustice, if we are willing to accept the offer, God takes Jesus' perfect righteousness and attributes it to us, as if we had been the perfectly obedient ones! You want to talk about unfair? THAT's unfair!
And because Jesus was perfectly willing to take that position, to be found innocent by Pilate but condemned to death anyway, to be perfectly obedient to God but be punished for all of OUR sin anyway, to suffer that punishment because He willingly took our place ... because He did that, we have the opportunity to have our debt before God wiped clean. The price for our crimes has been paid. We need only tell God that we agree with Him that WE deserved the cross, that we accept the price that Jesus paid on our behalf and that we authorize Him to take over the throne of our life ... and in Christ, we are now seen by God as deserving of heaven. 1 Peter 3:18 says "For Christ also died for sins, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh ..." (emphasis mine). The rebellious one gets treated by God as perfectly righteous because the Perfectly Obedient One was treated as if He had committed every sin.
David is in heaven, enjoying the presence of Jesus. Judy and I will join him there some day. Not because of anything we have done or not done; on our own, we are perfectly deserving of eternal hellfire. No, we'll be there solely because we have accepted the Gift that God offers: salvation through the perfect work that Jesus did when He took our place before the Holy Judge of the universe.
I hope you'll join us. Let this be the Christmas you receive the Greatest Gift Ever.
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