Posted On: December 07th, 2006 at 8:34 am
Greetings to you all!
It's that time of year again. The stores have mass-mailed their Christmas fliers with care. Retailers are hoping against hope that people will buy more stuff this year than they did last year. The Salvation Army bell ringers are out in full force. And somewhere in with all of that, we have the reason for all of this madness. No, it's not a conspiracy by a big Eastern Syndicate, as Lucy from Peanuts would have you believe. It's a countdown to the anniversary of one of the most important events in history: The birth of God's Son, Jesus Christ. The Word becoming flesh. The Son of God becoming the Son of man.
Perhaps it is not so much the birth of Christ that we celebrate (although God becoming man is a momentous event). It is the reason that God became man. We celebrate because of why Christ came. After all, if Christ had come, but had lived as a Galilean carpenter all His life, Christmas probably wouldn't be nearly the celebration it is today. Indeed, the reason why we celebrate the lives of most famous people is not because they were born, but because of what they did. We celebrate George Washington's life not because he was George Washington, but because he was instrumental is helping America to become the country that it is today. So it is with Christ. We celebrate his birth in large part not simply because he was born, but because of why He was born: to earn salvation for all mankind.
And not just because He came to earn salvation for all mankind, but because He came to earn salvation that would freely distributed. After all, that salvation is worthless to us unless we have it. And that is the beauty of the salvation that Christ won for us: this salvation is freely given to us. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to buy it. We don't have to perform great feats to demonstrate our belief in God. We simply sit back and receive the salvation. And God wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, He doesn't have it any other way. We can't earn our salvation. We can't buy salvation. We can't win salvation by performing great feats to demonstrate our devotion to God. God simply gives it to us. In some ways, it's like a college scholarship. But not any ordinary scholarship. Salvation is like this: Suppose that you are terrible in school. Really terrible. So terrible that despite the fact that you are 18 years old, you haven't been able to pass preschool. Now suppose that Harvard College (THE Harvard College) calls you up on the phone and says “We've been reviewing your academic records. We see that you've spent the past 14 years flunking preschool, and that you got the lowest scores possible on the SAT and ACT. But, despite all of this, we're going to give you a full scholarship to attend our school. Books, room and board, tuition, everything will be paid for. You don't have to pay a penny. We'll even pay for your move up here.”
Salvation is kind of like that: Completely unearned and undeserved, yet freely and fully given without a moment's hesitation. And that's why we celebrate Christmas, and that's why we have Advent, the countdown to Christmas: Because on Christmas, God became man, and took the first step towards earning that marvelous salvation for us.
One final thought: I would say that counting down to Christmas is not the only reason we have Advent. I think another reason we have Advent is because this momentous occasion is too big to celebrate on just one day. We need several weeks to celebrate and fully absorb the impact of Christmas. What do y'all think? Does that sound like a reasonable proposition?
I wish you all a blessed celebration of Christ's birth, both during Advent, and on Christmas.
Comments:
Re: Advent
Posted On: December 07th, 2006 at 12:14 pm by Goosey
Awesome blog post, KK! And I LOVE the fact that we get a whole month to celebrate it instead of just one day... it's great! Or I guess I should say.. Jesus is great! Awesome even! But yah.. great post, and Merry Christmas! But don't have happy holidays. It's just wrong to have happy holidays :P
~Goosey :D
w00t!! First blog comment!!!!!!
Re: Advent
Posted On: December 08th, 2006 at 9:42 am by Rachel Engebretson
Powerful words - wonderful post, Kennedy! I especially liked the comparision of undeserved salvation to an undeserved scholarship.
