Advent (Pt. 2): I am Sinful.
Christmas exists because sin exists. It exists because people are messy. Don't let the nostalgia fool you. From the first announcements of Jesus' birth, it was clear that sinful man is the reason for the season. When Joseph was told that Mary would have a baby, the angel said, "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21)." Jesus is God's answer to man's brokenness.
Many people think that brokenness is healed by morality. They believe the way to have a relationship with God is by doing good deeds. They think, "If I can just live a good enough life, then one day God will accept me into heaven." This is why many people spend their whole life trying to keep God's laws — trying to be good enough. But God is holy. He is completely perfect and "Only perfect people can stand in the presence of a perfect God.” [1] Therefore, if we're going to be made holy before God by keeping His law, we must keep it perfectly. We must be sinless. God tells us that to be accepted by him, we must keep all of the law perfectly — every one of the Ten Commandments. We can't pick our favorite four and then choose to ignore the rest. We are required to obey the entire law. James writes," Whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all (James 2:10)." If you and I disobey just one commandment, it's as if we've violated them all. We are no longer perfect; therefore, God cannot accept us into his holy presence.
The tragic reality of our lives is that every person who has ever lived falls short of this perfect standard. We've fallen short of God's glory. Paul says it this way." For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)." Sin is not just the violation of a rule; it's the vandalism of a relationship. We have sinned against a holy God. The heinousness of sin lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed but in the greatness of the person sinned against. When you and I sin, we willfully exchange the glory and perfection of God for our own broken and twisted desires. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, "My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves— cracked cisterns that cannot hold water (Jeremiah 2:13)." In other words, sin isn't simply "missing the mark" as if we were aiming for the right thing but failed. It's intentionally aiming for all the wrong things. As someone once said, "We are not just in rebellion against the authority of God. We are blind to the beauty of God." This is the depth of the brokenness that our sin has caused. Simon Blocker once said, "Man is not as he was when God created him. A vast devastation has struck him." This is our story — this is the reality of our broadness. It is important to admit that the greatest danger in your life doesn't exist outside of you but inside of you, in the thoughts and desires of your heart. That's why you need a Savior. That's why I need a savior.
We need Jesus not because we have fallen short of man's goodness but because we have fallen short of God's glory. We have failed to glorify God.
This is why Jesus came; because you and I are sinful. John wrote in his letter, "The one who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work” (1 John 3:8). Christmas teaches us that salvation comes from above, not from within. After all, how could we save ourselves when we are broken and rebellious in our very nature (Ephesians 2:3).
The miracle of the incarnation isn't just that a virgin could get pregnant, but that a holy God would choose to suffer with sinful humans. Implicit in the Christmas story is the doctrine of utter human depravity. We rejected, dismissed, and denied the Author of Life and Savior of the world. Yet he willingly moved towards us in our brokenness.
As one person said, "Don't let the nostalgia fool you. Christmas exists because people are messy. But Jesus came, lived, died, and rose." Christmas is when God shared in our humanity without sharing in our depravity. What a beautiful and unspeakable gift.
[1] John Cross, The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, pg. 46.
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