When many of our kids (and us too perhaps) think of Christmas, they think of trees, lights, decorations, presents, special meals, and family gatherings. There is nothing at all wrong with these aspects of the Christmas season, but we know that there is more, much more, to Christmas.
In John’s prologue to his Gospel, he provides a fantastic summary of what Christmas is all about.
Christmas is about Jesus becoming human
14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. — John 1:14 (CSB)
When we think of Christmas through a biblical lens, this is what we often think of, and rightly so. Christmas is about the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, adding humanity to His deity. Jesus has been, and always will be, fully divine. That did not change on that silent night 2,000 years ago.
What did change was that full humanity was added to that full divinity, without compromise or mixture of the two natures. Jesus’ divinity did not make his superhuman. Neither did Jesus’ humanity make him subdivine. And neither did Jesus’ divinity and humanity mix to create a divine/human hybrid.
This can be a challenging concept and there is really no good way to illustrate it. Like the doctrine of the Trinity, it is best to explain it as best as we can and stop there. Any illustration you might try to use will break down and lead to teaching error.
Jesus is fully God. Jesus is fully human. That’s what we need kids to know.
Christmas is about God being glorified
We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’”) — John 1:14-14 (CSB)
Thinking that Christmas is about us is a common and easy mistake to make. We know that Jesus is the focus of Christmas, but we lapse into seeing humanity as the central character of Christmas. God sent Jesus because He loves us so much. Which is true, but not because of the greatness of our lovability, but rather the greatness of God’s love.
We always need to be sure to balance God’s love for us and His love of His own glory. That might sound off to you—it makes God seem arrogant and self-serving. But it is quite biblical. God is the greatest good, the author of all that is good, and as such it is only right and fitting that He seek to make His glory known. It is for our good. If God were to draw attention to any other good—any part of the creation He spoke into existence—He would not be pointing us to the greatest good. He would then not be as loving and as good as He is. Feel free to read this paragraph again if you need to process it more.
Notice what John draws our attention to after talking about Jesus becoming flesh. It is not how deserving we were of this. It is about how glorious God is. Jesus enabled us to see how amazing our God is. To think that Creator would condescend and step into His creation… To think that infinite God would enrobe Himself in finite flesh… To think that holy God would walk amongst sinners… All while knowing that it would lead to the cross… This is amazing. The only reasonable response is “How glorious You are, God!”
Christmas is about people receiving grace
16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. — John 1:16-17 (CSB)
But we cannot go too far the other direction and neglect our place in Christmas. We aren’t the star, the star is the one who was born under a star. But we aren’t unimportant either.
When Jesus came to earth and took on the flesh, He brought grace, or as John emphasizes grace upon grace, with Him. John has the New Covenant in mind here, in contrast to the Old Covenant given to Moses. Being right with God is no longer based on our obedience, rather it is rooted in Christ’s perfect obedience credited to us when we trust in Him. This obedience is extended to us by God’s grace, just as His forgiveness of our sin is.
At Christmas when we think about what the Father did in sending Jesus and what Jesus did during His time on earth, we are drawn to recognize God’s good grace to us. It is not about what we have done or what we might do; it is about the work God has done. That’s grace upon grace.
Christmas is about people knowing God
18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side —he has revealed him. — John 1:18 (CSB)
Salvation is not fire insurance. You may have heard that expression before. We are saved just as a way to escape spending eternity in hell apart. That’s fire insurance.
It’s certainly true that our salvation ensures we will not spend eternity in hell, but that is, perhaps, the least great benefit of our salvation. Salvation is positive, not negative. It’s not a matter of what we avoid, but what we are given. And we are given God Himself.
Yes, the Bible speaks of rewards for faithfulness. Yes, the Bible speaks of all believers being united in the new heaven and earth forever. Those are important. Those are fantastic. But they are not paramount. God’s presence is. Because of Jesus—because what He accomplished beginning with being born in a manger—we can know God as He in turn knows us. We can fulfill the purpose for which we were created—to enjoy God without end.
The eternal Word was conceived by the mortal Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Word’s ‘dwelling among us’ summarizes his entire earthly life, from his conception till his ascension. It was a temporary dwelling with a purpose, namely, to reveal God (1:18) and to die in the place of humankind (11:50-53).” — Samuel Ngewa
Samuel Ngewa, “John,” in Africa Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Tokunboh Adeyemo (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 1279.
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