What is Christmas?

Think about that question.  What might your answer be?  For some people, Christmas is giving and receiving gifts.  For others, it is the bright colored lights, beautifully decorated trees, and the joyful sounds of the season.  Still others would explain Christmas as family get-togethers, laughter, and lots of great food.  Some might even say that Christmas is church programs and Jesus in a manger.  All of these are part of Christmas; however, Christmas is much more than that.

Christmas is explained in God’s Word when it says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11).  Do you see it?  Christmas is the gift of salvation that comes to us through the person of Jesus Christ, all because of God’s wonderful grace.  The angels announced the coming of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem.  However, the announcement recorded in John 3:16 reminds us that Jesus was God’s love-gift to us.  It says, “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.”

Aren’t you glad that God, by His mercy and grace, is a giving God?  Aren’t you glad that He gave His only Son as a love-gift so that you and I might receive salvation by personal faith in Christ? “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  God’s love gift is significant, but we need to make it ours.  How?  Simple.  Look at the instruction to us, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

The gift of Jesus is ours by believing in Him.  Don’t let Christmas pass and enter the New Year without experiencing God’s wonderful grace—Jesus Christ.  To know Him is life eternal.

Christmas is explained in God’s Word when it says, “For the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11).  Do you see it?  Christmas is the gift of salvation that comes to us through the person of Jesus Christ, all because of God’s wonderful grace.  The angels announced the coming of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem.  However, the announcement recorded in John 3:16 reminds us that Jesus was God’s love-gift to us.  It says, “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.”

Aren’t you glad that God, by His mercy and grace, is a giving God?  Aren’t you glad that He gave His only Son as a love-gift so that you and I might receive salvation by personal faith in Christ? “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).  God’s love gift is significant, but we need to make it ours.  How?  Simple.  Look at the instruction to us, “Yet to all who receved him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

The gift of Jesus is ours by believing in Him.  Don’t let Christmas pass and enter the New Year without experiencing God’s wonderful grace—Jesus Christ.  To know Him is life eternal.