“All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.” [1]
Christmas without Christ is meaningless! If Christ, the Lord of Glory, is not the focus of our celebration, what are we celebrating? Snow? Cold? Darkness? Really? Is this the best we can do? Perhaps our celebrations are expressing a hope, not unlike our pagan forebears hoped, that we can somehow ensure spring will again come through our wild celebration in the midst of the dark winter! We’ll light candles, hang festive banners, bring greenery into our homes, burn a yule log, exchange gifts—all this we’ll do, calling it a celebration of the birth of the Son of God. But all our celebration is meaningless if we do not recognize Him! If Christ is not actually honoured, all we have left is a noisy hope that spring will come again as it has for multiplied centuries before. Again, I ask the essential question that demands an answer, “What are we celebrating if Christ the Lord is not the focus of what we are doing?”
But of course Christians do celebrate Christ’s coming to earth! And the reason we celebrate His first Advent is precisely because Jesus conquered death and brought life and immortality to light. We celebrate the First Advent of the Christ because He has provided redemption for lost people. The only people who have reason to celebrate Christmas are those who are redeemed by faith in the Risen Son of God. Because we are redeemed, we celebrate the birth of the Son of God, rejoicing in our understanding of what His advent means for lost people and in the promise of His Second Advent.
MANKIND’S CONDITION —
“All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way”
The condition of the race today is no worse than in the day Isaiah wrote the words of our text. Our situation is no better, but it is no worse. The people of Isaiah’s day were condemned because they had gone astray. People, without exception, had pursued their own way. Nothing much has changed; people still pursue their own way.
We have great technologies today, but we don’t necessarily live lives that are better than the people who lived during the days Isaiah wrote. We have physical advantages that would have been the envy of the people to whom Isaiah first wrote. Today, we have greater opportunities for healthy lives; and yet, the statistics on dying continue at a dismal rate revealing that one out of every one dies. We may appear more handsome in our tailored suits and patent leather shoes, but these aids to beauty won’t make our trip to the grave any more comfortable.
It seems to disturb some people when I do point out the dismal condition that characterises our present existence, but our condition is terminal. We are born dying. We may be briefly lulled into thinking that we have defied the odds—we are born, we grow, we mature, and then we reveal the true condition of our existence as we age. For years, we imagined that we were invincible, that we would never face the last enemy. Then, as the inevitable became increasingly evident, we were forced to concede that despite all the energy we could muster was insufficient to overcome the downward pull of death. We are dying, and at last, despite our protests and despite our efforts, we are forced to confess that death reigns. This is the reason the Word speaks of death as the “last enemy” [see 1 CORINTHIANS 15:26].
Scripture is forthright in reminding each of us, “The wages of sin is death” [ROMANS 6:23a]. Those words summarized what was written previously in this letter. “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” [ROMANS 5:12]. If there is good news to be declared, it always begins with the bad news of our condition. We must realize our helpless condition if we will appreciate what the Saviour has provided.
We are helpless, we are without hope in the world [see EPHESIANS 2:12]. We are compelled to cry out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death” [see ROMANS 7:24b]? It is at this point that the Word of God presents Good News. “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” [ROMANS 5:6-11]. We have no strength to change the sentence we each received by virtue of being born into the race. And yet, the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me!
“One will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” [ROMANS 5:7-8]. God’s own Son presented His life as a sacrifice for me. It was not when I had straightened out my life or when I had somehow made myself presentable that Christ died for me; Christ took my place while I was a sinner. I could not make myself presentable, I could never make myself acceptable, I could never make myself clean—I needed One who would rescue me when I was dead in my trespasses and sins. I needed One to save me when I was unlovely and unlovable.
Today, because of the sacrifice provided by the Son of God, my condition is defined by the transformation of my life, a transformation that He not only provided but which He has applied to my life. The Apostle testifies to this grace when he writes, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” [ROMANS 5:9-11].
My situation was defined by the condition described in the Apostle’s Ephesian Letter, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” [EPHESIANS 2:12].
Christ changed all that and my present situation is accurately described by the Apostle, “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” [EPHESIANS 2:13-17].
The new reality for me is this: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” [ROMANS 8:1-7].
We are compelled to remember the reality that holds true for each individual: “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” [EPHESIANS 2:1-3].
Do not attempt to argue that you are a good person, because Scripture assures us,
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
[ROMANS 3:10-18]
You are not a good person. You are either a saved person or you are a lost person—but you are not a good person. Never forget that all the world is divided into “saints” and “ain’ts.” You are either a redeemed person, or you are lost—there is no in-between.
However, even redeemed people struggle with sin. Paul wrote, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death” [ROMANS 7:14-24]?
Life as we know it is a terminal condition. However, to make the case more desperate still, the Apostle has exposed us as morally weak. Paul says we are “sinners” [see ROMANS 5:8]. Though we may want to do the right thing, our condition disposes us to consistently make the wrong choices.
Well, that is quite the Advent message, Pastor Mike! Can’t you tell us something positive about who we are? I cannot speak positively because even we who are followers of the Christ are in rebellion against Holy God more often than we care to admit. Attempting to promote our own interests rather than seeking what would honour Him comes naturally to us. Because we are morally weak, we will consistently make wrong choices and violate the will of God our Creator. It is only as we yield to His Good Spirit that we have the power to resist surrender to the flesh.
GOD’S INTERVENTION —
“The LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.”
Because of the helpless condition of fallen mankind, the Living God was compelled to intervene. He could not dismiss man’s rebellion without compromising His own holy character. Somehow, the debt of sin would have to be paid. Since the sin of any individual, to say nothing of the sin of the race, was against the infinite God, the atonement required must, of necessity, be infinite. However the debt might be cancelled, it would mean that the price demanded must be infinite.
Here is the thing we must remember: without God’s intervention, there would be no possibility of freedom, no possibility of forgiveness of sin, no possibility of redemption. However, the Father did intervene, sending His Son who would present His life as a sacrifice because of our sin. Jesus, the Son of God, would take upon Himself the sin of each of us.
I still recall the first time I translated the words of this portion of the prophecy. Reviewing what I had translated, I was stunned. I knew what the English translation said, but I didn’t realise the impact of what God had spoken through the Prophet Isaiah. Quite literally, the message is that the LORD caused every sin— every wicked thought and every wicked action, to be funneled onto the head of His Son. The LORD presented His Son as a sacrifice in our place. Jesus took all the perversity, all the evil, all the brokenness that contaminated our lives and presented His life as a covering for all that. There is no sin for which God has not provided salvation. And that provision is in the Person of Jesus, Who is God’s own Son.
The Son of God became a man. Born of a virgin, the Saviour lived a sinless life. He presented His life as a sacrifice because of our broken, sinful condition. He was buried. And the Good News is that Jesus conquered death, breaking the bonds of death and rising from the dead, after which He ascended into Heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for His own dear people.
THE MESSAGE OF THE SEASON — This, then, is the message of the season, the message that God has sent a Saviour. No one need be condemned since Jesus has provided for the forgiveness of sin. Because of His sacrifice, you may be accepted into the Family of God. There is freedom for each one who receives the free gift of life in Christ the Lord.
If you are attempting to celebrate Christmas though neglecting the dark note of divine sacrifice, you are missing the very heart of the seasonal celebration. Costly love lies at the heart of Christmas when Christmas is celebrated properly.. God sent His own Son to give His life as a sacrifice for the sinful, broken condition of mankind. Christ the Lord has come to bring life and light to all who will receive Him as Master over life. I confess that the message does not figure prominently since the purpose of Christmas is obscured by society’s raucous celebration. Nevertheless, the message of Christmas is the redemption of mankind from his fallen condition. The message was announced by multiple people at the birth of the Son of God, the One whom we claim to celebrate during these festive days.
Joseph questioned whether he should marry Mary when he was informed that she was pregnant. However, the Lord intervened, sending an angel to address his fears. Thus, we read, “The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel’
(which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus” [MATTHEW 1:18-25].
When Simeon had taken the child up in his arms after Joseph and Mary had brought the child to the Temple to offer the sacrifice that was required by the Law, the old man exclaimed,
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
[LUKE 2:29-32]
Indeed, there is ample reason for those of us who follow the Son of God to rejoice in this holy season. Joy is characteristic of those who are set free from guilt and condemnation, and that freedom is now offered to each person who hears our message. Freedom is offered to each one through the sacrifice of Jesus the Son of God. The message of God is to call upon Jesus as Lord, today. Will you call on Him? Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
