Advent trail
Day 22
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3 verse 16
Christmas with Love
Chapter from “The Greatest Gift”
(permission given by 10ofthose)
In the lead-up to Christmas, I find myself writing two words over and over. As I wrap presents and then stick on a label, I write, ‘with love’. And I mean it. I’m saying, ‘This gift comes with my love.’
The first Christmas was also an expression of love: God’s love. We see this in John’s Gospel with, arguably, the most famous words in the whole Bible. Jesus says:
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son (John 3:16, emphasis mine).
Jesus’ birth was the beginning of the greatest demonstration of the love of God that the world has ever seen. As we look at Jesus and what he accomplished through his earthly life and death, we are looking at the very heart of what Christmas means. Christmas is God saying, ‘I love you.’
To express his immense love for us, God couldn’t have given a more precious or valuable gift. God’s gift to us was not chosen from a department store or ordered online. He gave us a unique gift; he gave His Son. And this gift is a gift we all need, whether we know it or not.
From the beginning of December, Caroline, my wife, repeatedly asks me what I want for Christmas. I am hopeless at giving her ideas. But on Christmas Day, as, one by one, I open my presents from Caroline, I think to myself, ‘That’s just what I wanted,’ even though I didn’t know I wanted some of those gifts.
Caroline knows me and she loves me. The gifts she gives me shows me that she knows me and that she loves me. That’s how it is with God’s gift to the world. Jesus continues:
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)
As we considered in the last chapter (See Christmas Ruined), we have a problem. A really serious problem. Not only do we sometimes manage to ruin Christmas because of our selfishness but, and far more alarmingly, we have ruined our relationship with God. So the prospect of standing before God one day should terrify us. By rights we should we be thrown out of God’s presence forever – never enjoying eternal life with him for which we were made; never experiencing the complete satisfaction for which we long; but rather being cut off from God forever.
John calls this perishing. That may sound like a word from a bygone era. We could imagine it being the word a news editor would select to describe the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic over 100 years ago: ‘1517 souls perish as the Titanic sinks.’
But ‘perish’ is not written here in John’s Gospel because it’s an old-fashioned word. It is quite deliberately chosen as a word which describes a fate worse than death; being separated from God for all eternity. That’s what we deserve because of our rejection of God. But it’s not what God wants fo us – because he loves us. And so he sent his Son, Jesus, in order that we might not perish but rather have eternal life.
Eternal life is brilliant. It’s not just life that goes on forever and ever, but it is a quality of life. It is to experience and enjoy the life that we want deep down – a life that is deeply and fully satisfying and fulfilling all the time. It is a life of perfect paradise, when individuals will never want for anything.
God loves you so much that he wants you to have that life – life in a new creation with him. It’s amazing love. God loves us so much, even though we are far from lovely.
It’s easy to love people who are lovely. At Christmas, it’s a delight to spend time with people we like. But God’s love is different. He so loved the world – you and me – in all our ugliness. Though we often ignore him and shun him, and are thoroughly unlovely in our dealings with him, God so loves us that he gave his one and only Son – the most precious thing he has – to save us from perishing.
In fact, God sending his Son points us not only to the beginning of Jesus’ life and the little baby in the manger, but also to the end of Jesus’ life and the man dying on a cross – a cruel, painful, place of execution.
It is at the cross of Jesus that we see the full extent of God’s love. It is at the cross of Jesus that we see exactly how we can be saved from perishing. On the cross, Jesus – who was perfect – took our place. Though he was without sin, he died for all our mistakes in life – especially for our rebellion against God. Wonderfully, the Bible also tells us that, as promised, Jesus rose back to life after three days, opening up the way for us to enjoy the same eternal life.
In the lead-up to Christmas last year, I heard on the radio a man talking about his gambling addiction. He’d taken out more and more loans to pay off his gambling debts, leaving himself with other huge debts he couldn’t repay. He borrowed money from unscrupulous loan sharks – with ridiculous interest rates. They threatened that if he didn’t pay up, he’d be beaten up. The radio interviewer asked him what he did. He replied, ‘Thankfully, my family stepped in’. He explained how a member of his family went to meet the guys who had threatened him. But this family member took a beating for his troubles.
So, fearful of these brutes, the family member then remortgaged his house and paid off the load.
It’s not perfect as an example but that is a picture of something of what Jesus did as he died on a cross. He stood in our place. He took the beating – dying in our place. And in doing so he paid the price – clearing the debt of our sins. We should be rejected by God and perish for all the things we’ve said, thought and done that hurt others, not to mention the times we’ve pushed God out of our lives. But Jesus took our punishment. That’s how much he loves us. Jesus’ death means we can be forgiven and acceptable to God.
At Christmas, God gave us a wonderful gift – with love.