Ephesians 2: 1-3, 11-12
It’s a Wonderful Life
Movie Plot: Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, a local good guy with a beautiful family, lots of friends and a good job at the family bank. One day, his Uncle Billy loses an $8,000 deposit and George fears the worst. He gets drunk in a bar, crashes his car into a bridge and decides the only way out of the situation is to commit suicide by jumping off the bridge. In answer to many prayers, God sends a guardian angel in the form of an old man named Clarence. He doesn’t look much like much of an angel, and in fact he is only an angel second class who has not yet earned his wings (by helping someone on earth)
Watch this clip
The premise of the movie was for George to find out what would have happened… how life would be different, if he had never lived.
What if Jesus Had Never Been Born?
Slavery
Although many committed Christians owned slaves in history, it was Christians who historians credit with being the primary force behind ending international slave trade. Two-thirds of the members of the American abolition society in 1835 were Christian ministers.
Children
In the ancient world, for example in classical Rome or Greece, infanticide was not only legal, it was applauded. Killing a Roman was murder, but it was commonly held in Rome that killing one’s own children could be an act of beauty. Through a higher view of life, it was the early Christian church that ultimately brought an end to infanticide.
The modern pro-life movement is largely Christian. This pro-life view has been true from the very beginning of Christianity.
Education
The Puritans were highly educated people (the literacy rate for men in Massachusetts and Connecticut was between 89 and 95 percent) who founded colleges, taught their children to read and write before the age of six, studied art, philosophy, and other fields as well.
Universities
All but one of the first 123 colleges in colonial America were Christian institutions. While these universities have lost their Christian identities, it is interesting to read the founding statements of these schools. Harvard, for example, was founded on this statement: “Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, John 17:3.”
Science
There is a group of scientists who believe there is an infinite, personal God who created it, sustains it and can act within it in a natural and non-natural way. Here are some of the scientists (although some were deistic) who believed that God was the primary Cause of the universe and the one who created the laws of nature. These men gave birth to modern science:
Johann Kepler (1571–1630), celestial mechanics, physical astronomy
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), hydrostatics
Robert Boyle (1627–1691), chemistry, gas dynamics
Nicholas Steno (1638–1687), stratigraphy
Isaac Newton (1642–1727), calculus, dynamics
Michael Faraday (1791–1867), field theory
Charles Babbage (1792–1871), computer science
Louis Agassiz (1807–1873), glacial geology, ichthyology
James Simpson (1811–1870), gynecology
Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), genetics
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), bacteriology
William Kelvin (1824–1907), energetics, thermodynamics
Joseph Lister (1827–1912), antiseptic surgery
William Ramsay (1852–1916), isotopic chemistry
With few exceptions, scientists before 1860 were followers of Jesus.
Compassion and Mercy
Both historically and statistically, Christianity has led the way to alleviate suffering in the world. Just to name a few of these organizations that continue to alleviate suffering in the world are Samaritans Purse, The Salvation Army, The Red Cross, World Vision, Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, United Methodist Committee on Relief, ChildFund International, Catholic Relief Services, Operation Blessing, Lutheran World Relief, Prison Fellowship Ministry, and Habitat for Humanity. Not to mention the countless of efforts by local churches and the hospitals that have been built all around the world.
Literature
The Christian faith has influenced literature in such Christian writers such as Dante, Chaucer, Donne, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Dickens, Milton, and scores more.
Music
Had Jesus never been born, music would likely sound very different from what we’re used to. There may never have developed the cantata, the concerto, or the symphony. Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach were Christians who worked to honor God with their work.
Bach, for example, signed all his works with Soli Deo Gloria (“Solely to the glory of God”).
Art
Art has likewise been magnificently impacted by Jesus. Classical Christian art tries to bring out the best of mankind–pointing us to a higher plane. Artists like Michelangelo used his paintings to honor Jesus. Incredible architecture in the beautiful cathedrals in Europe were built to honor Christ.
So, had Jesus not been born the world would be poorer in almost every area of life.
Some of these points are adapted from the book What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcomb.
However my point is to show the significance of the birth of Jesus in spiritual terms.
I believe the best way to answer “What IF Jesus had not been born?”… is to look at what the world was like before He was born and after… and which of those differences did He cause.
Where do we get a picture of the world BEFORE and AFTER?
From God’s word, specifically Ephesians and 1 Corinthians.
Ephesians 2 is the main text I would use. It has a powerful BEFORE and AFTER.
Let’s read:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Dead in sin
Following the world
Following Satan
Ruled by the flesh
Deserving punishment
Separated from Christ
Thus without hope because we were without God
So… that is the world BEFORE Jesus… what if He had not been born?
That is how things would still be
Listen to 1 Cor. 15: 16-19 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
This is talking about the reality of the resurrection, but
He could not have been resurrected if he had not died
And he could not have died if he had not lived
And He could not have lived if He had not been born.
So… without doing injury to these verses…you can read them to say…
17 And if Christ had not been born, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
If Jesus had not been born… then not only are we lost… all those who have died before us are lost and in hell.
NOW, let’s look at the AFTER… or BECAUSE Jesus was born
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
BEFORE AFTER
Dead in sin ALIVE in Christ
Following the world Died to sin (Romans 6)
Following Satan Members of His household
Ruled by the flesh indwelt by His Spirit
Deserving punishment Saved
Separated from Christ Reconciled to Christ
Far off from Christ Brought near
Without hope Living hope (1 Peter 1:3)
Without God Seated with Him
If Jesus had not been born…
The world would be darker rape, hatred,
Our thinking would be dark
Selfishness and lust for pleasure would rule
We would be groping in darkness and sin
But God pierced the darkness with a ray of light
A light shown in the darkness
God stepped into the darkness and brought hope, joy, peace, love
It is a wonderful life
BECAUSE A BABY WAS BORN…
And lived
And died
AND ROSE TO LIFE
Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
