God’s
Indescribable Gift
15 Thanks be to God for his
indescribable gift! 2 Cor. 9.15
Christmas is
a time of remember God’s greatest gift to us.
In many cultures families and friends send cards or buy gifts for each
other as an expression of love and gratitude for each other. It is a time of
celebration for followers of Christ as we remember God’s indescribable gift to
the world.
As I thought
about this wonderful gift we have received in Christ I thought about using the
word GIFT as an acronym to express what this gift means to us.
G-Goodness
of God-God’s nature is goodness.
Psalms
119:68 “68 You are good, and what you do is good…“ .
Some
theologians believe that the primary characteristic of God is that he is good
and out of his goodness flows his other attributes.
God’s goodness
consists of righteousness, holiness, justice, kindness, grace, mercy, and love.[1]
He always
does what is best and it is always good.
We are all recipients of God’s goodness in our lives. All that we have comes from his desire to
express his goodness to us. Because he
is good, he brought us into existence and sustains our lives. He knew from before the foundation of the
world that man whom he created in his image and likeness would not stay
faithful to him in spite of the punishment of death. In his goodness he carried out his plan to
make possible our reconciliation and restoration of our relationship with him
through giving his Son, Jesus to be the substitute and sacrifice for our sins
that separated us from him. He could
have left man in his hopeless condition but because of his intense and immense
love for him, he devised a plan to bring salvation. In the fullness of time Jesus came into the
world to reveal the goodness of God and fulfill the desire of God’s heart to
save us from our penalty of sin. Through Jesus man could once again have a
clear understanding of the goodness of God.
Everything Jesus did revealed the goodness of God to a people who had
lost contact with him and had received distorted imagines of him through the
religious leaders. Christmas is the time
of year when we can share with others the goodness of God and represent him as
he truly is to a world that has a warped or distorted image of Him.
I-Incarnation
of God in the flesh through the physical birth of Jesus.
Luke 2:10 -12
And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news
of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for
you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a
manger."
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
Mat_20:28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
God became man to become the sacrifice that
would appease his justice. The blood of
bulls and goats used in the Old Testament sacrifices were never sufficient to
take away the sins of man. They were a
shadow and type of sacrifice that only Christ could fulfill. The blood of an imperfect man could not meet
the just demands of a righteous God. God poured out his wrath upon Jesus so
that we could be set free from the penalty we deserved.
Heb_10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a
single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God
Jesus had to
become a man to fulfill this need but he also became a man to identify with
us. He was tempted in every way as we
are yet never sinned. He understands our
weaknesses and struggles. He understands
abuse, rejection, abandonment, fleeing for your life, insults, physical punishment,
false accusations, injustice and being misunderstood. He became a man so that he could carry our
infirmities on the cross. Without his
incarnation there would not have been the shedding of blood that was required
for the forgiveness of our sins. For
many people they do not understand the necessity of the sacrifice Jesus was for
us. They view God as a savage God who
demands blood.
“This is the 21st century. Must Iron Age customs
persist so that we need a human sacrifice? If God loves us deeply and he wants
to forgive us, couldn’t he just … forgive us? “http://www.patheos.com/blogs/crossexamined/2013/03/10-reasons-the-crucifixion-story-makes-no-sense-2/
The problem with this thinking is that it does not consider the weight
of sin and how much God hates it. To
simply forgive without having paid a penalty for it diminishes the degree of
offense sin is to a holy God. The penalty
for sin was clearly established by God and without punishment the justice of
God could not be satisfied. Allowing sin
to go unpunished would defy the character of God’s holiness. Who wants to serve a God that does not care
about evil nor does anything about it? God in his love sent Jesus in the flesh
to satisfy his justice.
F-Freedom
Christ brings to those who believe in him.
Galatians
5.1 For
freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again
to a yoke of slavery.
We of all
people are the most free.
We have received freedom from eternal
separation from God
through the forgiveness of our sins. Romans 6.22 22 But
now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you
get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.
We have freedom to live as God originally
intended for us to live.
1 john 5.12 Whoever
has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
John_8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free
indeed.
We
experience freedom to become all that we were created to be and become. When I was in Nepal on our outreach I asked
the Ywamers who worked with us what happened that caused them to convert from
Hinduism and Buddhism to Christianity.
The common response was that they had no hope, life was really
meaningless and empty for them. When
they found Christ they found true freedom from all the worthless rituals and
beliefs that held them captive. As I
walked around Calcutta and Kathmandu and saw the Hindu and Buddhist temples
there was such darkness and oppression in them.
The Hindus and Buddhist were very solemn people, rarely did I see anyone
smile. They lived in fear of what could
happen to them if they failed to appease their god.
We are free to love.
Those
without Christ and without the power of the Holy Spirit are never free from
living a self-centered life. When our lives are controlled by God’s love we are
able to love others with unselfish motives. Jealousy, envy and strife are
rooted out of our lives.
Freedom in the future from physical
limitations.
When we die
we will experience another freedom from the limitations of our physical
bodies. We will be changed and set free
from all the physical ailments we experience in this life. Our bodies will become glorified bodies and
we will be able to do things that are not possible in this fleshly body. Those who find him find true freedom!
T-Transformation
of our minds and our character.
Romans 12.2 Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and
acceptable and perfect
1 Corinthians 2.16
“For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we
have the mind of Christ.
Through the
gift of Christ we now have the capacity to have the mind of Christ. Are minds are renewed to think as Christ
thinks. The Word of God has inherent
power to change the way we think to conform our thoughts to God’s ways and not
the ways of the world. Through Christ we
become a new creation.
2Co
5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We are not a
modified or improved being but we are a completely new creation. Our lives are not simply changed but they are
exchanged for the life of Christ living in us through the power and the
presence of the Holy Spirit. One of my
Bible school teachers said, “I am so glad I was born so that I could be born
again!” Paul the Apostle understood the power of
transformation.
Gal
2:20 I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me.
He was a
great example of one who was transformed by the power of Christ. This transformation is an ongoing
process. We never arrive at perfection
but we press on to become more like him through the godly choices we make to allow
the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives. I am so thankful for the transformation
Christ has done in my life. All of us
have testimonies of how he has worked in us to make us more like him. Those who do not know him will never
experience this wonderful transformation only Christ can do.
We have so
much to be thankful for as we reflect on the indescribable gift God has given
to us in Christ. Many will celebrate
Christmas as a traditional holiday but not understand its true meaning and the
wonderful gift Christ is to us. A
commercialized Christmas has become a Christ less Christmas for many
people. We of all people have the reason
to celebrate and we need to share this message with the world that they too may
experience the fullness of God’s gift to them in Christ.
[1]
Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., & Harrison, R. K., Thomas Nelson
Publishers (Eds.). (1995). In Nelson’s
new illustrated Bible dictionary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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