I have a confession to make. It’s been seven years since I’ve written a Christmas letter. I know, I know. I have no excuses. Everyone else is busy at this time of year and yet manages to get a Christmas letter written, edited, addressed, and posted to a million family and friends. If I were to write a Christmas letter, it would be like most Christmas letters – a run down of the year’s events with wishes of good cheer and God’s blessings for the year to come. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of letter. It’s what you’d expect to receive at Christmas. Yet if the Apostle Paul were to write you a Christmas letter, it would be a lot different. He wouldn’t talk about himself much. Instead he would talk about…YOU. Imagine that - a Christmas letter from a friend that was all about you. What would Paul have to say about you? What he has to say about you depends on what he has to say about Christ. Let’s find out what that is.
Although not a Christmas letter, Paul did write the Christians in Rome and calls them those “who are loved by God and called to be saints” (Romans 1:7a). That was an amazing thing to say of the Romans really, for Paul also wrote: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men” (Romans 1:18). What counts as godlessness and wickedness? Paul lists sins like sexual impurity, shameful lusts, and depravity but he also counts envy, gossip, and disobeying parents as sins that make us wicked in God’s eyes (Romans 1:29, 30). Were the Christians in Rome not guilty of these sins that Paul would call them “loved by God”? No, the Roman Christians were not only guilty of these sins they were hypocrites for pointing out these sins in others but failing to acknowledge these sins in their own lives nor did they have any plans of stopping them (Romans 2:3). They didn’t see a need to quit these sins because God didn’t seem to care.
Don’t we think that way too? Let me illustrate what I mean. The sign at the doors of lodges, schools, and gyms at this time of year asks us to take off our muddy footwear before walking on the polished floors. The first time we’re confronted with the sign we hesitate. Do I take off my shoes or not? Then we look around and see that no one else has taken off their shoes and figure that if we wipe our shoes a bit we won’t make too much of a mess. The mud streaks on the floor testify otherwise of course. And yet we continue to ignore the sign because if no one is actually standing at the door asking us to take off our shoes, we figure the cleaning staff must not mind the mud too much.
Is that the way we think God deals with sin? He’s put up the sign asking, actually demanding that we bring no mud into our life and yet we ignore Mom’s instructions. We continue to be jealous of a classmate’s good looks. We gossip about the new office manager. We know it’s wrong but we keep doing these things because God doesn’t seem to mind. If he cared, he’d set us straight with a lightning bolt from heaven, wouldn’t he? No, says the Apostle Paul. “…do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:4, 5).
Just because the cleaning staff hasn’t said anything about your muddy shoes doesn’t mean that they don’t care. They care because they are the ones who have to clean up after you. And so just because God hasn’t struck us down for our pet sins doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care about them. He cares about them but he also cares about us. That’s why he’s postponing judgment so that we will repent before he drops the hammer.
Does all this talk about sin get tiresome? I mean it’s Christmas, aren’t we suppose to be talking about cheerful things? That’s what the people of Isaiah’s day thought yet God said of them: “They say to…the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. 11 Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” 12 Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message…13 this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. 14 It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for...scooping water out of a cistern.” 15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it” (Isaiah 30:10-15).
God talks about sin, our sin because he loves us. That’s why Paul could call the Roman Christians those “loved by God” and then go on to speak about their sin. Like the doctor who subjects you to every medical test and then tells you everything that’s wrong with your body, not because he enjoys putting in extra hours in the lab or because he gets a kick out of seeing you squirm. He does this so you will take action before the bacteria and viruses lurking in your body can do permanent, even fatal damage. So God today, everyday points out our problem of sin so that we take action before it does permanent, eternal damage.
But God is better than a thorough doctor. Such a doctor may be able to diagnose leukemia but not have the ability to cure it. God not only diagnoses sin, he “cures” us from it. How did he do that? Jesus. Remember how I said that if Paul were writing you a Christmas letter he would write about you, and what he would have to say about you depends on what he had to say about Jesus? Well let’s hear what Paul has to say about Jesus. “who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3, 4).
Jesus is like no one else in this universe. He has human ancestry, yet he is God from eternity. Ponder this mystery with me for a minute. When Jesus was brought to the temple eight days after his birth, he was at the same time eight days old…and without beginning. As he became a toddler, his legs grew just strong enough to support the weight of his still tiny body…while all along he was powerful enough to keep Jupiter from smashing into Saturn. In his stepfather’s wood shop he learned for the first time how to nail two boards together…while at the same time was the one who had put hydrogen and oxygen together to make water on Day 1 of Creation.
We ponder this mystery because it shows how much God loved us. He loved us so much that he came down to us. He took on a shoe size and a sleeve size – not just to hang out with us but to save us (John C. Jeske). He did that by diving into this manure pit of sin, wrapping his arms around us, and then pulling us out by climbing the ladder of the cross. The result is that Paul could write to the Romans and now to us: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7b). Grace! Not grapes of God’s wrath. Peace! Not punishment. This is good news indeed. News that we dare not keep to ourselves for God has not just saved us from something (sin); he’s saved us for something (service). Paul put it this way: “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5).
One way we serve God is by telling others about Jesus. And boy, do we have something to say to the many people looking for a spiritual encounter this Christmas. They pour over the latest New Age literature; they go to the mall-psychic; they immerse themselves in Christmas medleys hoping to be touched by an angel…when God himself has already touched them in the person of Jesus. For in Jesus, God has sunk himself deep into the flesh, our flesh (Bernard Ramm). Tell them that this Christmas. Tell them what you like best about Christmas - the presence…the presence of God in the man Jesus. This present has changed us forever. God no longer considers us “wicked” but because of Christ calls us “loved.”
No, the Apostle Paul hasn’t written you a Christmas letter, but God has. He’s written that letter on flesh. I suppose that makes this more of a Christmas card than a letter; you can read it and see it. So don’t be so quick to glance at the cover of the Christmas cards you get this season. Study the face of the Christ child you find there for when you look at the face of Jesus you’ll see the heart of God – a heart that beats for you. Amen.
