THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

"T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..." so the poem Clement Clarke Moore wrote goes, speaking of the visit of Santa Claus.

The night before Christmas is reserved for merry-making and family dinners. We go to bed with a great sense of anticipation for Christmas morning- looking forward to finding gifts, goodies and stuff under the Christmas tree. For the fun of it, my parents used to hang red stocking for my older brother and me each Christmas eve telling us that Santa might pass by and drop an angpao (red envelope) on his way to North America! We would wake up Christmas morning and find angpaos with one-hundred peso bills in our stockings! It was a tradition that remained even through high school--but no longer with the childish notion that Santa comes and drops money into my stocking! I always looked forward to the angpaos on Christmas morning.

But what was Jesus Christ doing on the night of the first Christmas- before His birth in human form?

What was He doing? Well, He was quoting Scripture on the night before Christmas! I love this passage in the book of Hebrews (Chapter 10) that goes:

5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.' "

Jesus was stepping out of eternity and timelessness into time and space quoting Scripture. derived from another passage His human forefather, David spoke in Psalm 40.

8First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). 9Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

When Jesus was coming into the world He was saying, "I have come to do Your will, O God."

To be the final sacrifice for the sin of everyone because we cannot be forgiven unless a perfect sacrifice is offered in our stead- once for all- for the forgiveness of sin and the salvation of humanity.

It's hard to talk about the Christ's cradle and not talk about the cross. It's hard to talk about His birth and not mention His death because He came for that specific purpose- to die on the cross.

When Christ came as a baby in the manger he fulfilled the prophet Isaiah's declaration 700 years before. Matthew 1:23 is a direct quote from Isaiah 7:14, ”Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).” God with us. That little phrase is loaded with meaning as it points us to the ultimate reason why Christ came. It shows us that the incarnation of Christ was intended to bring us into community with God.

This truth becomes more clear in Christ’s death on the cross. Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” That’s amazing. We were brought near (to God!) by the blood of Christ. The cross brought into community with God. Perhaps the clearest statement in the Bible regarding this truth is found in 1 Peter 3:18 which says, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”

So, what is the ultimate reason why Christ came? John Piper says,

This is the greatest thing Christ died for. This is the greatest good in the good news. Why is that? Because the gospel is the good news that at the cost of his Son’s life, God has done everything necessary to enthrall us with what will make us eternally and ever-increasingly happy–namely, himself.