A friend told a story about her grandchildren’s reaction to a new gift from God born into the family. She was transporting her five-year-old grandson and three-year-old granddaughter to the hospital to meet the new arrival. The grandkids were not told whether the new baby was a brother or sister. It would be a surprise.
On the way, the two began claiming the baby for themselves. Back and forth they went insisting, “My baby!” The grandmother told them they needed to share this new family member. The five-year-old boy then announced they would share a brother. Then he replied to his sister, “If it is a girl, she is all yours.”
It was a boy, but her grandson wasn’t interested in the gift of another sister. Many people are not receptive to God’s greatest of all Christmas presents, His Son. They feel no need for Him.
A Filipino sent me the following on Facebook Messenger: “Good evening, SIR...you know already the problem of All mankind in this World is...FINANCIAL...” I responded that the problem of all mankind is spiritual. However, most of the earth’s eight billion people are blind to that reality.
They don’t understand that God’s Son made that ultimate Christmas gift possible by stooping to unimaginable depths of humility to become a human. Prince William would not lower himself as much if he became a slug.
Jesus further humbled Himself more than thirty years later to die on the cross as God’s sacrificial Lamb to pay mankind’s sin debt (Philippians 2:6–8). Apart from that sacrifice, every person would have to pay the price of eternal separation from God. Only Jesus provides a way of escape (John 14:6).
In the great exchange of grace, God credits our sins to Jesus’ account and His perfect righteousness to ours. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV). We need that perfect righteousness to become God’s adopted children.
Those who give Christmas presents hope they will be received with joy and gratitude. What have you done with God’s Christmas present?
People respond in at least three ways to the gift of Jesus. Imagine Jesus is a coat God has given us. The majority of the human race feels no need for it.
They ignore it. They never wear it. They fear it will cramp and confine what they want to do. They have no interest in Christ or His church. Imagine how God feels when His unimaginably expensive gift is rejected.
A second group of people fold that coat over one arm for a couple of hours a week. Then they hang it up in a closet and don’t think about it for the other 166 hours of the week.
These are churched people whose “Christian” faith doesn’t greatly affect how they live. They profess to be Christians but relate to God’s gift like those who reject it most of the time. Jesus wants followers, not fans.
A third group receives God’s gift with joy and gratitude. They put the coat on and wear it 24/7. They clothe themselves “with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh” (Romans 13:14 NIV). God’s agenda trumps theirs.
They live for Jesus who died for them (2 Corinthians 5:15). They remain in Him (John 15:5) and bear much spiritual fruit, demonstrating that what matters most to them is wearing that coat and representing Jesus to the world. Receiving God’s gift requires putting on Jesus Christ. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.
God has empowered me to write “His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength.” It’s a free evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship eBook. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead more than 2,550 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 7,805 people. I invite you to check it out.
Comments