Advent (Pt. 3): Jesus Saves.
Have you ever noticed that the Christmas season is often filled with mixed emotions? You love having your home filled with family and friends but feel tired from all the extra dishes that require washing. You love giving and receiving gifts but wonder how you will afford all the additional expenses. Maybe you're a kid, and you love the time you get to spend with your grandparents or cousins, but you really don't like the long car ride to get there. It's interesting that a time of year meant to be joyful and fun often brings sadness and heaviness too. After all, families are complex, relationships are complicated, and even the most joyous times are marked by brokenness in a world east of Eden. Not everything is the way it should be. If you're anything like me, it can be easy to forget that both joy and brokenness marked the coming of Jesus. We read in Matthew's gospel that the wise men came and worshipped Jesus. Only a few verses later, however, we also read that there was weeping in Bethlehem when King Herod, out of jealousy, killed many innocent people in search of Jesus. When Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple, they met a man named Simeon. We read in the book of Luke, "Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary, 'Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed — and a sword will pierce your own soul — that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:34-35).'" In other words, Jesus' entire life would be both the fulfillment of God's promise to his people and one that causes sadness. The story of Christmas is Good News of great joy marked by moments of intense grief, deep sorrow, and profound brokenness. Jesus the Messiah had come, yet things were not as they should be. The world was not as it should be — you and I are not what we should be.
The reality is that this is precisely the reason why Jesus came. The Apostle Paul wrote about the reason Jesus came. He said, "But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:4)." The angel told Joseph, "Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21)." The reason Jesus came was to save people from sin. Imagine with me for a moment that you were able to compile a list of every sinful thing you've ever done. Even if you only sinned once a day, you'd sin over 3,000 times by age ten. That's a lot of sin. We see from the verses in Galatians that Jesus — unlike you and me — came to fulfill the law. He is the only one who ever kept the law perfectly. He lived a life of complete righteousness. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus offers us his righteousness. Paul Tripp once said, "The worst thing that ever happened was the best thing that could ever happen!" Doesn't that seem odd? How could the worst thing be the best thing?
The reason is this. Through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, we can be saved. He offers us eternal life. Apart from Jesus, we are dead in our sins and separated from our Creator. Through Jesus, we're offered a restored relationship and eternal life with our Heavenly Father. You see, Satan would be quite pleased if we kept all our attention on a baby in a quaint manger scene and forgot the baby grown up bloody on a cross. The reason Jesus came wasn't simply so that we could have a fun holiday in December. He came to save you from your sins. C.S. Lewis once wrote, "Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage." That is why Jesus came. He came to save. Jesus came as a baby to wage war on sin, Satan, death, and hell. He accomplished his mission by taking the punishment for your sins and offering you his righteousness in exchange.
Think of it like this. Say there are two baskets. One basket represents all the things you and I have done wrong — every time we were disobedient to our parents, every time we've lied or cheated at work to get ahead, every time we've gossiped or slandered another person. The second basket is filled with the perfect, sinless life of Jesus. It represents his unwavering obedience to his Father and the law. If you and I had to spend before God and offer him our basket of sinful deeds, we would be guilty — we deserve punishment. But what Jesus did when he came is he paid the punishment for our sins and offered to give us his basket instead. That way, when God looks at you, he doesn't see your basket filled with sin. Instead, he sees you holding a basket filled with the perfect righteousness and obedience of Jesus. This is the greatest news you will ever hear. Jesus saves — through his death, burial, and resurrection, he offers you his righteousness. Like a gift, all you need to do is receive it.
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