The Good News of Christmas

Christmas is just around the corner, and I’m not ready.  I haven’t done any shopping yet, but that’s nothing new.  I still have just over a week to get it done.  Christmas decorations are everywhere, and we’re bombarded with Christmas advertising, and numerous renditions of Christmas songs, just as we are every year.  We attempt to keep in mind “the real meaning” of Christmas, but it’s easy to get distracted by everything that is Christmas.  It’s a wonderful time of year!

I heard a great message last week by Andy Stanley on the good news of Christmas, and came away with a somewhat different perspective on a familiar passage, John 3:16-17.  In the TNIV, the passage reads “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.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

In Luke 2, we have the account of the angel telling the shepherds the “good news of great joy that will be for all people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”  That was, and is still good news!  But for those who may be threatened by the birth of Jesus, there is more good news.  Jesus didn’t come to condemn anyone.  He doesn’t look at anyone and say, “I would never accept that person into my kingdom.”  Instead, Jesus says to trust in His power, as the Son of God, to forgive you of sin, and he will give you eternal life.

No matter who you are or what you’ve done, if you will place your trust in Jesus, the Son of God, to be your Savior, he will accept you unconditionally.  That’s the good news of Christmas!