What If
Psalm 14:1-7 John 3:16-21
What if there was only one God at Christmas instead of two, would it change the way that we view Christmas. Would it change the way that we view God? Would it change the way that we view ourselves. Throughout time, God has had a very difficult time convincing us that that there is but one God, and He is that one God. But we are forever attempting create more gods. Gods who serve our purposes and desires. Gods who are created to make us feel good about ourselves.
At Christmas, the world has given to us a god who is a happy, loving, generous and jolly old fellow. He keeps watch over everyone with the single task of keeping a record of who does good and who does bad, whose being naughty and whose been nice. He wants to make people happy, especially the good people.
This God is everywhere at the same time for one single day of the year, then after that he retires into the heavens until next year. People around the world pray to him. With this god, you can believe what you want to believe and do what you want to do, until the month of December. Only then must your mind and your life must focus in on being good. Calvin in the Calvin and Hobbs cartoon has not thrown a snowball at anyone for two weeks in anticipation of Christmas morning, but after Christmas, you better not turn your back on him.
You only have to do it long enough until you’ve fooled him long enough to get what you want on the big day. After the presents have arrived, you can do as you please and before the week is over you can go back to your own old selfish ways once again.
Many think about this god the season has given to us and say, what a wonderful god who is just and fair. The good get the gifts and the bad don’t. You can earn the size gift you want by making sure your good outweighs your bad. What if we took a closer look at this god. We would see the pain he inflicts on the poor, who not matter how good they are, they don’t manage to get close the kinds of gifts that are given to the bad of the rich. We would see a god that leaves behind a mountain of debt for people who can’t afford it. We would see a god that does not speak, does not hear, and does not move, but gets the credit for the hard work that others have done.
We would see a god that has given people a false sense of hope, in that if you believe hard enough something is going to happen. Truth is not determined by hard we believe something, but rather in the truth of what we believe. We would see a god that has shaped people thinking about the true God, in that they believe, if they do more good things than bad things, they will be accepted and eventually given the gift of heaven. We would see a god whose only interests was in giving us things, not changing our character, removing our sin, our providing us with strength in the times of difficulty. What if we got rid of this god? How would it change us and the way we view Christmas. We just might come to realize that we need more than a once a year God. We need a greater power than someone we can demand send us gifts because we’ve been good. We might see that a god who can give presents, but no direction, no wisdom, no power to change the lives we live, isn’t that much of a god after all. All gods that we create full short of the one true God.
What if the bible is true in what it has to say about the other God. What if there truly is another God involved at Christmas. A God that is not motivated by the desire to simply give us gifts and make us happy at Christmas time. In fact, this God sees that because of the danger we were in, all the gifts in the world will fail us, and none of us can be good enough to do anything about it. This God looks at us and loves us, because this God has created us. He knows who we truly are inside.
This God created us to be in fellowship with Him, not just one day of the year, but every day of our lives. There is a problem though. This God is holy and pure. God cannot stand evil. Each time we disobey the laws of God, we do evil or we sin. God is forever going to be holy, and no evil will ever be able to stand in the presence of God. Unlike that other god that sees some people as good people and others as bad people, God says no. All people have done wrong which makes them all bad in need of some help.
Unlike the other god which says, if you’re bad you won’t get anything this year, this God says because you have sinned or done wrong, the penalty is to spend forever in hell. God says, "I looked at everybody, and I saw that everyone was doing wrong from the youngest to the oldest, from the poorest to the wealthiest, from the darkest to the lightest, from the east to the west and from the north to the south." I didn’t find anyone that was good, and that was bad, because I loved them all.
My holiness and justice will not allow me to simply look over your sin, and bring you into my presence. Justice demands that the price for your sin be paid or you will enter into the fires of hell. What if we realized that Christmas is not about gifts and presents, or even about coming together as family but in reality it as about whether or not all humankind will end up in hell. Without a savior, there’s no hope for anyone, because we’re all in this thing together. When a ship is going down in the middle of the ocean, if you’re on the ship with me, there’s very little you can do to help me. I need someone to come with another ship in order for me to be saved.
Jesus Christ was sent into the world for one purpose and one purpose alone and that purpose was so that people might be saved. He wasn’t on the ship that was going down. He came from another place with the ability to rescue all who were going down.
Listen to what the word of God says in John 3:16-18 John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. My friend, if you do not get off the condemned ship, then there is no hope of you being saved.
What if this Christmas should come and go and you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life and you die before the next Christmas comes around. God is keeping a record of the good and the bad you do because He’s recording everything that you do. The good news about the gift that God gives to us in Jesus Christ is that we can never be so good to earn it and never be so bad that we can’t receive it. God gives his life for free in terms of our ability to deserve it.
None of us deserved God saying, I will do what it takes to save him or her. I will send a savior. The good news of the angels was not peace on earth, but that a savior was born that was available to everybody who would receive him.. If you look closely at what the heavenly host said to the shepherds, it was not simply glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all people, but rather they went on to say and on earth peace to all on whom God’s favor rest.
If God’s favor is not upon you today, there is no promise of peace in your life. You still must face the wrath of God for your sins. There are no gray areas in Christmas. You either know Jesus Christ as your Savior or you don’t. God knew perfectly well that many would not receive Him. For the Bible says, He came to his own and His own did not receive him. But God also knew that many would for the scriptures further state. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. God wants you to be saved, but He leaves the decision entirely up to you.
God does not discriminate against any of us regardless of our race, sex, economic position, social status, education, popularity, or celebrity status. He sent Jesus Christ into the world to pay the penalty for our sins. If we confess that we have done wrong and are willing to turn from that wrong, put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ we will be saved. If we do not, we will continue to be lost because we have not accepted the only method God has given whereby we may escape the penalty for sin.
What if each of us accepted the gift God has for us today. We would find freedom from the guilt associated with the wrong we have done. We would find forgiveness not only from God, but a new found ability to forgive the hurts that others have heaped upon us. We would find hope that even though today may be a struggle, we are not struggling alone for the loving eyes of God are upon us. We would find deliverance from those things in our lives that are destroying us, and destroying those that we love, for we would find that Jesus has the power to set us free from everything.
You see the babe that was in the manger, is now back in heaven as the king of kings and the lord of lords. He has defeated the power of sin, of death, of hell and everything else which opposes the will of God. Christmas is about us coming back home to God. God the Father sent Jesus Christ into the world to open the door for us to come back home to Him. In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." What if you’re not on your way home this Christmas. Well, the door is open, and the way is clear. Simply tell God, "I want to be home in time for Christmas this year."
