It’s a Wonderful Life Because It’s a Wonderful Christmas!
In 1946, the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life came out and quickly became an American Christmas film classic. The movie was based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1843, called The Greatest Gift. In the movie, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) has given up his own personal dreams in order to help others in his community attain their dreams. After many years, through no fault of his own, a packet of money which was supposed to be deposited into a larger bank was lost. Because of the loss of that money, his small Savings and Loan was on the brink of bankruptcy, and he personally was facing financial ruin and possible imprisonment. On Christmas Eve, while entertaining thoughts of suicide, his guardian angel appeared, and in a fashion similar to Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, George Bailey was shown just how vastly different everyone’s lives would be had he never been born.
The theme of this movie isn’t new, and it’s been copied many times over down through the years. So, it got me to wondering, what if Satan had been successful in preventing the birth of Jesus Christ? All through history, Satan has tried to throw a monkey wrench into God’s plan for the redemption of mankind by killing off the Jews in one way or another, being the driving force behind their idolatries and captivities. He did everything he could from trying to muddy the waters and dilute the bloodlines, to killing a whole village of innocent children, and even tempting the Lord to worship him in the wilderness. He failed every time, but what if he hadn’t. What if at some point the generation of David’s offspring had come to an end? What if Jesus hadn’t been born, or maybe was killed in his infancy by Herod’s men? What if Christmas wasn’t Christmas? Never was, or never had been?
Well, to my thinking, if there never was a Christmas, then we’d be singing…
I. The Winter Blues
Now, there are a lot of theories as to the origins of this period of celebration we call Christmas today. It’s believed that the early church didn’t celebrate the birth of Christ. Now, I don’t know if that’s because they didn’t believe it was something they should do, or maybe birthdays just weren’t that big of a deal back then. I don’t know, but it is supposed that the celebration itself came about through the Christianizing of some seasonal pagan celebrations such as winter solstice or the Roman season of Saturnalia.
But what started as a simple recognition of the birth of the Messiah, has developed over the years into a huge, commercialized season of gift giving, colorful lights, beautifully decorated trees, Santa Claus, elves, reindeer, and eggnog. All of which have very little to practically nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ. But we celebrate it. We look forward to this time of year. We gripe about how commercialized it’s become, and we try to bring it back to its original intent by calling it a time for family and making happy memories, giving to others, visiting with friends, helping the needy, singing happy Christmas songs, and love.
Christmas as we know it today has grown into a worldwide celebration. No other religion puts on a party that equals Christmas. No other faith system has a holiday that comes anywhere near the scope or scale of Christmas. Hanukah and Ramadan might try to keep up, but they fail miserably in their efforts to equal the festivities of Christmas.
But if there were no Christmas, all of that would be gone. We wouldn’t have to worry over arguments debating religion verses secular. There wouldn’t be any Christmas parades or school breaks. No parties after work and no dirty Santa gift giving. We wouldn’t have to worry about shopping for the perfect gift and I doubt we’d even have the buying frenzy of Black Friday anymore. I mean, why rush to get a gift if the party doesn’t exist?
We wouldn’t need to make a decision between a fake or real tree. There wouldn’t be any reason behind decorating the house or tree. No more Christmas movie specials, no school holiday performances for parents to watch their kids sing and dance. There’d be no more It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, or All I Want for Christmas, is You!
Do you see the picture I’m trying to paint? Without Christmas, life would be pretty boring this time of year. It’d be dull and drab, dark and cold. Even without Christmas it’s still winter. Without this holiday, all we’d have to look forward to would be birthdays, anniversaries, April Fool’s Day, and maybe Halloween. I seriously doubt there would be any Thanksgiving because folks, if there is no Jesus, then there’s no Redeemer. Without a Redeemer then we really don’t have much to be thankful for do we? I suppose we might be happy to be born, to labor all our lives, and then to die, but that’s about it.
But folks, even with all the stress that goes along with this time of year, I am truly glad we have it, because without the Reason for this season we would still be lost in our trespasses and sins. If Jesus Christ had never been, we would still be…
II. Without Hope
Let me just read some verses from the Bible to illustrate my point.
Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death,
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT CONTINUE IN ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO DO THEM."
Jas 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
Friends, I hope you noticed with Jesus removed from the Scriptures, we are still under the penalty of death. In Romans 6:23, our bibles tell us that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But without Jesus, we’re stuck with “For the wages of sin is death!” There is no gift of eternal life because we’re still under condemnation from breaking the law of God and without Jesus, there is no hope.
We need help in order to have hope because man is sinful and fallen. Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; When man sinned, everything was affected. Not only did man fall away from God and die, but creation itself became subject to death and decay as well. Both the Bible and the 2nd law of thermodynamics proves this. The Bible says, Rom 8:20-21 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; (21) because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And the 2nd law of thermodynamics tells us that the universe is constantly getting more disorderly! All we have to do is nothing, and everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, wears out, all by itself. In other words, it has been made subject to death and decay by man’s fall.
We desperately need help in order to have any hope at all! We are lost, separated from God, hopeless and hell bound. We’re facing an eternity of doom and we need mercy. We need grace. We need the second part of Rom 6:23 …but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Folks, Christmas was the beginning of that help. Christmas was the moment in time when God’s mercy and grace was poured out on mankind so that we could have peace on earth and good will toward men! Jesus was God’s gift, God’s help to mankind, and it began in Bethlehem.
God’s gift of eternal life did not come through religion or Santa Claus. It’s not given to us through any government benefits package, higher education, or financial security. God’s gift of eternal life came to us through a Savior who was heralded by angels and worshipped by shepherds and wise men. God’s gift was a Redeemer who paid our debt. We couldn’t pay it because all our righteousness are as filthy rags to God, so He paid it when He sent His Son.
Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone should boast.
If Jesus had never been, we would have no Christmas. There would be no gift. Our Good News would only be bad news. We would have no salvation, and so, we would have no…
III. Reason to Rejoice
Psa 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion.
Oh friends, without Christmas all we have to look forward to is weeping. The captives of Israel sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept over all they had lost, and without Christmas we would be weeping over both what we had lost and what could have been. We were living in harmony with God at one time, but when sin entered everything changed. Now, born into sin, we do not have the ability to make things right. We can’t get back to where we’ve fallen from on our own.
But God is good! And His grace and mercy toward man knows no boundaries. In Jesus Christ, His grace reached down to us and now, instead of weeping over all we’ve lost we can sing and rejoice about all we’ve gained! We can sing from the heart; Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. Twas blind, but now I see!
How many countless people have taken that old ex-slaver’s song as their own? The testimony of John Newton is the testimony of us all! And it’s because of that very same grace he wrote of, we can rejoice today not because another baby was born, but that through that baby, we all can have life born anew in each and every one of us.
We rejoice because our Savior was born, and now, God no longer demands that we die because Jesus died in our place. Oh friends, we have a God who gives us life and eternity—eternal life by His grace and through our faith in His Son! Our God loves us in spite of us. And get this, He doesn’t need us at all, but He desires us—He wants us, and so, He saved us through sending His Son to us.
The joy we have now—our reason to rejoice is bound up in that little package He sent to us on that first Christmas morning long ago. His mother wrapped Him up in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a feeding trough, and that child grew into the redemption of our souls and our hope of eternal life.
And you know, when Jesus comes into your life as Lord and Savior, He makes a change in you. Something happens inside and by the power of the Holy Spirit and the New Birth, you become something that is completely new. Your old man has gone and your new man has taken over, and you can rejoice in a whole new way and tell everyone about the transforming power of Christ in your life. Psa 96:2-3 Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. (3) Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.
Oh, we do serve a wonderful God! The devil lost. He did not succeed in his mission to ruin the plan of God, and now, this life we live is truly a Wonderful Life because It’s a Wonderful Christmas!
