Merry Christmas from my family to yours!
It’s at Christmastime that we give gifts, and we receive gifts. This is why retailers are so happy with Christmas in a way they’re not happy with the Fourth of July, for example or Easter. At the other holidays, we don’t give gifts like we do at Christmas. In fact, even at birthdays and weddings and anniversaries, we all give gifts to one special person, but at Christmas, we all give gifts to EVERYONE.
Find Romans 8 with me and look up here when you find it.
This morning I want to speak on “God’s Gift to Us.” When I pause and think of some of our family’s most memorable Christmas gifts down through the years, I have a lot of good memories. There was the year our daughter received a huge dollhouse back when she was a preschooler (maybe 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide). There was the year our kids received power motor scooters. I can still see them moving up and down the street in front of our house. I began to scan through some of our pics from previous Christmas gifts. This is one of my favorite memories from a couple of years ago (show on screen). My oldest received a Texas-sized Kit Kat bar! But here’s the funniest thing of all - that thing was gone in 24 hours! There have been bikes and clothes and shoes down through the years. And who doesn’t like to receive some money – even some cash at Christmas time? Last year, my most fun gift was something my daughter gave me (show video on screen). An animated rear wiper decal on the back of my car of the Elf!
In the next few minutes, I want to explore the absolute best gift you can receive, no matter the time you receive it. But none of these gifts compare to God’s gift to us at Christmas. Whatever you really require, child of God, God will not deny you. The central gift at Christmas is the gift of Jesus, the Son. God’s Word says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…” (Isaiah 9:6a).
If the first eight chapters of Romans were a song, then the last nine verses would be the highest note! And among the crescendo of Paul’s last nine verses, we read this rhetorical question.
Today’s Scripture
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32)?
If you’ve ever been tempted to wonder, “Perhaps God is too busy to care about me.” If you’ve ever been depressed and considered, “Maybe I am too insignificant for God to give me a second thought.” And if you’ve ever been dejected and said, “My sins are so many that He regrets even creating me in the first place.”
1. Consider the Value of this Gift
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32)?
In verse 32, Paul is using a time-honored argument known as moving from the greater to the lesser. We will look into how Paul argues in a few minutes. But first, mark the words “his own Son” in verse 32 if you will.
1.1 Three Qualities to God’s Gift
You can easily miss Christmas if you don’t have this one gift, God’s Christmas gift, to you.
God’s gift to you has three qualities that make it a “must-have.” First, it is the most expensive gift you’ll ever receive. It’s priceless. Jesus paid for your gift with His life: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son…” (John 3:16a). Second, it’s the only gift you’ll ever receive that will last forever. Finally, it is an extremely practical gift. It’s a gift you’ll use every day for the rest of your life.
Again, He is the most expensive gift you’ll ever receive. Jesus Christ is immensely valuable. Some of the best gifts are the gifts you look at and say, “I never, ever would have bought this for myself.” To estimate the greatest of God’s gift to you, you need to understand the worth of the gift. Remember, God offers you His Son.
1.2 What If?
What if you had a wayward, rebellious son who has cost you an “arm and a leg” through the years. He’s wasted thousands in school by partying it away. He’s lied and cheated you out of thousands of dollars. But if you saw him in a coffin tomorrow, would you not weep over his grave? Would you not say to anyone close to you, “I would have given even more to keep him alive for just one more day!” He may have disgraced your family’s name, but you still love him.
But God’s Son wasn’t wayward. God’s Son wasn’t a disgrace. God’s Son was perfect in every way!
1.3 The Son’s Worth to the Father
Just how much did the Son mean to the Father? For starters, Jesus said that He and the Father were one (John 10:30). Jesus Christ was not a man whom God found and adopted to be his Son on earth. Nothing could be further from the truth! Jesus Christ is the pre-existent One; indeed, He has always existed. Jesus is as eternal as the Father. Every inch and ounce of deity dwells in Jesus just as it does in God, the Father (Colossians 2:9). The only time we ever heard the voice of the Father during Jesus’ three-plus years on the earth, the Father repeated nearly the same thing: ““This is my one dear Son; in him, I take great delight” (Matthew 3:17b).
1.4 Could God Really Do This?
Could God overcome His cherishing, admiring, treasuring, white-hot, affectionate bond with his Son? And would God deliver Him over so He would be lied about? So He would be betrayed and abandoned? So He would be mocked and flogged? So He would be beaten and spit on? So He would be nailed to a cross and pierced with a sword-like an animal being butchered?
No wonder Paul would say, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15)!
One son is all the Father had. And He was deeply loved. And still, the Father sent Him. Eternity alone will reveal the value of this gift! Jesus is the most expensive gift offered to you. Consider all the glory and honor He relinquished by stepping into Bethlehem. Yes, the Son of God is the greatest gift offered to any of us. The only way you can receive it is to admit it’s an undeserved grace.
1. Consider the Value of this Gift
2. Consider the Spirit of the Giver
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32)?
The Bible says Christ was given up for us believers everywhere. And since Christ was given up for us, God will graciously give us all things. The words “graciously give” tell us God is freely giving us something so valuable.
2.1 Christmas Gifts Over Time
Consider all the gifts we’ve given one another over the years. Consider all the most popular Christmas gifts we have given family through the years. In the early 1950s, you were excited to open Mr. Potato Head on Christmas morning. A decade later, no little girl could go without an Easy-Bake Oven. When I was a child of the 1980s, we obsessed over solving the Rubik’s Cube while my children were delighted to receive a PlayStation for Christmas years later. Today, I am not able to locate most of these gifts because they were discarded years ago.
Again, Jesus is the only gift you’ll ever receive that will last forever. He is never upgraded, nor is He ever replaced!
2.2 Abraham and Isaac
Many of you who know your Bible will well remember how Abraham nearly sacrificed his son, Isaac (Genesis 22:16). Romans 8:32 is where Paul remembers this Old Testament story. The story is famous for it was one of the most severe tests God has put any human through. Abraham took fire, wood, and his son, Isaac, up the mountain. And in obedience to God Almighty, Abraham had the knife raised above his prone son. In a matter of seconds, the promised son, Isaac, would be dead. Thankfully, God provided a ram to sacrifice, and it was all a test. It was a test for Abraham to see if he loved God more than he loved his son, Isaac. Abraham, without a whimper, without a cry, without a gripe, and without a complaint, quietly submitted to the command of God. I am sure it was painful, but Abraham freely offered his son unto the Lord. But Abraham only thought of this because God, the Father, commanded Him to do so. Abraham would have never started down this path had God not tested him. Abraham would have never offered his son Isaac had God not commanded him to do so. Abraham’s almost sacrifice of Isaac was at God’s prompting.
2.3 Whose Idea Was It?
Now, pause and think a moment with me. Search all of Scripture from the front to the back. Scour every word of Genesis to Revelation and ask yourself this, “Who asked the Father to give us His Son, Jesus?” Did an angel beg God to sacrifice His Son for us? Did a prophet plead with God to spare not His Son for us? Did a patriarch such as Abraham say to God, “You know if you were to offer your Son, this whole problem would be alleviated?” NO! No prophet, no angel, and no patriarch had to suggest the ultimate solution to God, the Father.
The Bible tells us that God, the Father, willingly offered up His son freely and without anyone asking: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief…” (Isaiah 53:10a). God did not have fun seeing His own beloved Son crucified on the cross for you. It was the blackest moment in Heaven’s history. God hated every moment His Son was beaten, nailed, spit-up, and lied to. Still, God offered up His own Son. Still, God’s sacrifice of His Son was God’s idea! No one asked God to slay His Son. I cannot conceive of anyone proposing to the Most High to make such tremendous a sacrifice.
No one lobbied Him as you would a senator. No one petitioned Him, as might your boss or your teacher. And no one solicited Him to do this as you might barter with someone in the marketplace. None of that was necessary for God, for the Father willingly offered up His one and only Son as a gift. Yes, He did so by His own initiative—Marvel with me at this. Pause and consider this as this is as great a miracle as walking on water or raising from the dead! No one pulled at His shirttail and pestered Him time and time again to make such a generous gift. Christ was offered to you, and no one even had to ask for such a marvelous, breathtaking gift! Surely the Bible is right when it says God is the author and finisher of our salvation (Hebrews 12:2).
2.4 What Were You Looking For?
Let me get personal with you at this moment. Why did you start coming back to church? Many of you who are now Christians are people who either never went to church or else spent a lot of time away from the church. Why did you ever start coming? Why did you ever start seeking in the first place? Because you were looking for something, right? You may have said, “My career has stalled, and I haven’t got promoted.” Or, “I am kind of lonely, and I need a relationship.” Still, another person said, “I have problems, and I need someone who will come in and do something for me. There are problems in my life. There are people who have abused me.” “I need a God who will come into my life and deal with those things.”
The Bible says Jesus came to His own, and His own received Him not (John 1:11). The Bible is speaking of the Hebrew people, but you are you and me all that different than them? He came to us, and we didn’t receive Him at first either. Here’s the truth: Christ was offered to you when you were was dead in your sin. The Bible says you were an enemy of God when Christ was offered to you. You hated God and searched for nearly everything else to fulfill you. You didn’t clean yourself up, and God met you halfway. Nothing could be further from the truth. God graciously gave His Son to you when you were His enemy. Still, God spontaneously volunteered His Son to you without charge! Marvel at this.
2.5 You Need This Gift
Again, Christmas is about receiving presents. Have you ever received a gift you didn’t ask for? Have you received a gift that sort of perturbed you and maybe, ruined your entire Christmas? Imagine opening a present on Christmas morning from a friend—and it’s a dieting book. Then you take off another ribbon and wrapper, and you find it is another book from another friend, Overcoming Selfishness. What do you do if you receive gifts like this? Punch the giver in the face? No, but after the hurt has faded a little, you might consider what prompted your friends or family to give this gift in the first place. You might swallow your pride and circle back and even thank them for the gift. There has never been a gift offered that makes you swallow your pride to the depths that the gift of Jesus Christ requires us to do.
Christmas means that we are so lost, so unable to save ourselves, that nothing less than the death of the Son of God himself could save us. That means you are not somebody who can pull yourself together and live a moral and good life. At Christmas, God is basically saying, “You’re never going to get up to me. I have to come down to you. You’re just never going to make it.” At Christmas, God says, “I must come to you.”
To accept the true Christmas gift, you have to admit you’re a sinner. You need to be saved by grace. You need to give up control of your life.
1. Consider the Value of this Gift
2. Consider the Spirit of the Giver
3. Consider What Else He’ll Give
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32)?
Again, verse 32 is a time-honored argument known as moving from the greater to the lesser.
3.1 The Greater to the Lesser
He repeats himself from earlier in the book of Romans: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:8-9).
God has already given us what was absurd and ridiculous. Now that He’s done absurd and ridiculous, you think He’s going to stop now?
3.2 Would You Pay for My Dinner Too?
Imagine if you told your child, “I am going to pay for your college, give you your first house, and put your choice of whatever kind of car you want in the garage of your first house.” Surely your child would be thunderstruck at such a gift. Even the Son of God asked the Father at that moment, “Why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46)? Think of the logic of Heaven with me for a moment. But then imagine your child circles back and asks you, “Would you pay for my dinner tonight?” Of course, you’ll buy dinner. Dinner is nothing when compared to all that you have given your child.
3.3 You’’ Have Everything You Need
If God even delivered His own Son over, then He will surely and freely give us all things! He will not withhold from you one thing you need. Now that you are His adopted son and adopted daughter, how much more will He give you everything you need! Now that the Spirit is embedded inside you, how much more will He not give you anything you need for life? If God gave His son up while we were still sinners in rebellion against Him, how will He not give us anything else we need now that we are his sons and daughters who love Him? “Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas for money; Not Pilate, for fear, not the Jews, for envy; -- but the Father, for love!”
God’s faithfulness will never fail you, my friend.
1. Consider the Value of this Gift
2. Consider the Spirit of the Giver
3. Consider the Spirit of the Giver
4. Consider the Value of the Gift to You
We have to consider what you mean to God, but can I ask you what does God mean to you? Can you say, “He is the sun of my day and the star of my night?” Will you right now say, “He is heaven on earth to me, and He is Heaven’s sweetest gift in eternity?” Someone has said that Christ can make a desert a garden and a wilderness a paradise. When God gave you your life, He didn’t offer a promise of how long your life would last. But when God gives you Jesus Christ, He does offer you this promise: you will be His forever and ever. Christ will be yours forever and ever!
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
Conclusion
Heads are bowed, and eyes are closed. I wonder how many in this congregation would say, “Pastor, I have received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I am born again”? I’m not just asking are you a baptized member of this church, but you could say, ‘I know that I am saved.’ Lift your hand up and hold it there for just a minute. If you could give me that testimony, would you slip up your hand and hold it up? All right, take it down – thank you.
Now, if you couldn’t lift your hand, I want to pray for you right now, and I want to help you to pray to receive Jesus Christ as your gift. I invite you to receive Him today as your Savior and your Lord.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for Christmas. Thank you for giving us what we needed when we didn’t even know we needed Your Son. You have contemplated and designed Your rescue of us from before the beginning of time. You are the Great Architect, designing Christmas for your people.
Open ears, hearts, and minds right now to the power of your gospel. Make our hearts passionate about the message of grace and mercy. Your Son is the only One qualified to do what we need. Awake us now to Your Son’s worth. Amen.
