A couple weeks ago I posted a fun Christmas trivia quiz to test your knowledge of the Christmas Nativity Story, the Biblical account of Jesus’ birth. If you haven’t taken it yet, give it a shot and see how you do! Knowing the details of the Bible is important and useful for a number of reasons, but head knowledge of Bible stories mean nothing if what you know in your noggin doesn’t creep its way into your heart. If you aced the Christmas trivia quiz, but don’t know Jesus Himself, you are no better off when you arrive at the Judgement Seat one day than the person who didn’t answer any questions correctly. Facts and stories don’t save: Jesus does. Consider this quote from the Christmas story, of when the angel announces to Joseph that Mary would bear a child: “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Jesus will save His people from their sins. A person, will save us, not knowledge about the person. That’s an important distinction to understand. That’s amazing news! Salvation is so much simpler than many people try to make it. There is no checklist of rules to keep, no tests to pass, no hoops to climb through. All we need is to personally know the Savior, Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate on Christmas day.
How do you do that? You just need to come to Him with a heart of humility. You need to acknowledge to Him that you can’t keep all the rules, pass all the tests, or climb through all the hoops. None of us are that perfect. Only Jesus is. In our humility we then put our trust and faith in Him for the forgiveness of our sins, and we will be welcomed into heaven one day with open arms because we come in the name of Jesus, and not by our own accomplishments. In some respects the simplicity of trusting the Savior is harder than trying to keep a checklist because it requires us to let go - it means we’re no longer in control (not that we ever were!) But it’s also quite liberating. When we know Jesus and have Him by our side, God looks at our sins as already paid for by the blood of the Savior and pardons our many flaws. We are invited into His kingdom based on what Jesus has done, not on what we have done, and not on the many things we know. Jesus modeled the heart of humility for us, that we need when we come to Him. He was God Almighty, and He came to us on earth as a little baby. He wasn’t laid in a silk-lined golden crib, but a manger, probably filled with straw, where the animals fed. As He grew, He allowed Himself to be misspoken of, mistreated, tortured, and ultimately killed, for our sakes. He had the power of God to stop it, but He chose to lay down His perfect life (and three days later raise it back up) so that us sinners could live. That’s humility. That’s love. That little baby in the Christmas story is pretty special. He's Someone worth getting to know!
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AuthorFull time office worker, full time wife, and full time lover of Jesus. I'm kind of a Bible nerd, and I have a passion for finding ways to introduce Jesus in a practical way to everyday people doing everyday things. Archives
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