The Best Gift Possible

Christmas is a season of gift giving.  We give Christmas gifts to our family, friends, business acquaintances, and neighbors.  If you are like me, this inevitably happens every year: I receive a gift on my doorstep or at my office from someone whom I forgot to give a gift, and I am immediately filled with angst—I received a gift without first giving a gift or having a gift to give in return.  Or even worse, is the realization that my gift completely fails to compare to the gift I received.  

What was the first Christmas gift given? It was the gift of Jesus Christ from God to us.  “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”  John 3:16-17. 

In giving us Jesus Christ, God gave us the best gift possible—He gave us everything.  He gave Himself.  He gave His son—the Christ child born to give His life as a ransom for the sins of the world.  We did not even have to give a gift to receive God’s gift to us!  Indeed, whatever gift (i.e., works that we do) we give to God cannot merit what God has done for us.  We are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God.  Yet there is no need for us to be filled with angst as to our inability to deserve God’s gift for us because He died for us while we were still sinners.  Romans 5:8.

To receive God’s gift, all we have to do is repent, believe, and have faith.  And here is the best thing ever, God gives us a gift within a gift!  God freely gives us faith by His Grace through the work of the Holy Spirit.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And it is not of your own doing; it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9. 

The greatest gift of all—the birth of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross, which makes salvation, now and forever, possible—is a gift that remains unclaimed and unopened by many.  How incredibly sad it is to realize that many of our family, friends, and acquaintances will give and receive presents around the Christmas tree this year but never receive Christ, the greatest gift of all.  Let’s be mindful this Christmas of the greatest gift of all that we have already received, and let’s share it with our friends and family so that they too may sing with real meaning, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king, let every heart prepare Him room!”

See you this Sunday evening for our special Christmas Eve service.  Invite your friends, neighbors, and family—especially those who have not claimed and opened up the greatest gift of all. 

Merry Christmas! 

Carter