From the very beginning of the Bible, God had a plan to bring redemption into the world through Jesus. We celebrate Christmas, because we are joyful that the Lord sent us a Savior to rescue us from ourselves. It is truly the best gift we could get, and it is available to everyone who wants to receive it. I had thought for a long time that it was easy to receive such a gift, but as I grew older, I found it hard to get past the fact that I didn’t have to earn it. What hit even harder was that it was impossible for me to earn it.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one- to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23.
It can be hard for people to realize that they can be saved without them having to be perfect or earn it. I struggle with this a lot, and I am probably overly harsh with myself when I mess up because of that. But only Jesus was perfect. But sadly, what also prevents people from receiving the free gift of eternal life, is they think they have to clean up their lives before they can go to Jesus.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10.
Jesus said those words above. He didn’t come to save those who were already perfect. Those people don’t exist, and the Bible clearly said so in Romans 3: 23. And the Bible also said that they can’t ever achieve perfection. Jesus came to save sinners, and unfortunately, that’s what we all are. No matter what we do, we won’t ever be able to clean up are lives without accepting Jesus’s gift first.
He doesn’t even care about materialistic things. God is all about using the people you’d least expect to help Him achieve His greatest works. Just think of Moses, who couldn’t be a speaker, or Ester, a girl from nowhere. I love how Rahab, the woman who hid the spies in Jericho, was in the lineage of Jesus. And what about the shepherds, who were considered the lowest of the low? Or Mary, a woman who was betrothed to a poor carpenter, Joseph? God used all of them, people who others would overlook, to fulfill His mission to save the world.
People convince themselves that they aren’t important enough, aren’t popular enough, and aren’t good enough to receive the gift of Christ. This hurts the Lord because He wants nothing more than for us to live with Him, but if people don’t receive the gift of Jesus, that can never happen. We need to be trying to do all we can to lead people to accept Christ’s gift. There is no better time to do so than around Christmas time, when the gift was first given to us.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. The photo was taken from Ben White on Unsplashed.
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