The Old *CHRIST*-mas Story

The Holy Bible is a book entirely about The Lord Jesus Christ - in the Old Testament He is predicted from Genesis 3 to Malachi 4,  in the Gospels He is revealed, in the Acts He is preached, in the Epistles He is explained, and in the book of Revelation He is expected.  The Gospel is simply this - God Incarnate, Christ Jesus, offered Himself up as an Atoning Bloody Sacrifice for human sin, so that sinners could be saved from divine justice freely by the grace of God. 

Christ Jesus created, owned and ruled the entire universe, but He was born in a cattle-shed in Bethlehem-Judah 2,000 years ago.  The Bread of Life was born in the House of Bread.  

In the stable that night, it was cold, dark, and damp, they were surrounded by the stench of animals and manure. The inn was overcrowded that night; there was no room for Jesus. The hearts of men are overcrowded today; there is still no room for Jesus. Jesus’ first crib was a borrowed feed trough. The animals there in the stable that night loaned their home to their Creator. Jesus stooped very low to die for despicable sinners like us. Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. He humbled Himself and put on the rags of humanity. He lived a life of abject poverty, submission, subjection, perfect obedience, and selfless love. He was born to be the final sacrificial Lamb for the sins of the whole world.

Christ Jesus, the King of Heaven, left glory and His royal throne on purpose. He was born to die so that sinners could be saved from God’s wrath and have eternal life. He came from Heaven to earth, so we could go from earth to Heaven. He was born of a Jewish peasant, a virgin named Mary; He was born so low and destitute. He went from riches to rags, so we could go from rags to riches. He borrowed everything He had through life. The holy child Jesus was nursed by Mary, and baby Jesus learned to walk and talk just like we did. God Himself became a poor man. The Infinite became an infant, The Holy One of Israel became a human, the Most High God became a man, and the Creator became a creature. Immanuel, God with us, came to this sin-cursed earth to die so we could be with God in Heaven. Jesus carried the rugged Cross from Pilate’s judgment hall through the streets of Jerusalem as the cruel mob hooted at Him. He was brutally nailed to the Cross; the soldiers nailed Him there in your place, so you could be saved by God’s redeeming grace.

There on the dark hill called Calvary, Jesus willingly bled and died for dying sinners. No greater love for mortal man has ever been known. The heart of the Atonement is that the pure, spotless, sinless Savior bore our sins (John 1:29) and became Sin for us (II Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13). He suffered the wrath of God that was poured out on human sin when He was nailed to the Cross for hours and hours and then at the last, He cried, “It is finished.” Christ on the Cross was the bleeding God dying in the place of sinful man. Jesus satisfied the justice of God and paid your sin-debt in full. Then they took down His broken body from the tree and carried Him away and placed Him in a lonely, stone-cold tomb. The Jewish and Roman authorities thought they done away with Jesus once and for all. But three days later, on the most glorious Sunday morning ever, the stone was rolled away and the Lord Jesus Christ arose victoriously over death and hell. Then forty days later, Jesus ascended into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

The Word was God and He was made flesh; the eternal God condescended to earth. (John 1:14) Christ was more than just a baby in a manger that people think about at Christmas and Easter, He was fully God and fully man. Christ is both God and man, and He is the only One able to reconcile your soul to God. Christ represents us as a man and redeems us as God. (See Matthew 1:18,23; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:31-35; I Timothy 3:16). Christ’s sinless obedience to the law of God and His atoning blood sacrifice as a man was required to redeem sinful, fallen man. Jesus Christ was born sinless and lived a sinless life, and then He suffered the death penalty for the whole world through His bloody death, and then He came back to life and gloriously resurrected. Jesus bore the wrath of God for your human sin. Your sins are infinite because they were committed against an infinite God and it would take an infinite amount of time to pay the penalty, so God became a man to bear the weight of your sin against an infinite God. Only God could pay this infinite penalty - Christ was fully God and fully man.

Christ Jesus came to earth to bear the sins of the whole world, it pleased the Father to bruise Christ, God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all, you sins were placed upon Him, Christ bore in His human body on the Cross your weight of sin. He was wounded for your transgressions; He was bruised for your iniquities. Eternal Death was the wages due for your sin, and He paid the death penalty that your sins deserved, He bled and died for you personally. Because Christ is God, He was able to pay the penalty for all your guilt, and then He rose from the dead, and now He offers to you to full and free forgiveness of sins and eternal life freely. Jesus offers salvation freely only to ungodly sinners, to all hopeless wretches that stop trusting themselves and what they are doing, and trust completely in His penalty-paying sinless, blood sacrifice to save their soul.

Christ came to bleed for your sins and die the death you deserved for sinning against a holy God. The Lawgiver came to die for the lawbreakers. For God so loved the world of sinful men that He gave His only Son on Calvary’s Cross. He came to bring God’s bleeding love and the new birth to fallen man. Jesus was born to die on Calvary’s Cross for us vile and rebellious sinners, He was born to set sinners free, Jesus was God Himself in human form with God’s blood flowing through His veins. The death of Christ the Lord was for your immortal soul. It took God’s divine love to save helpless and ungodly sinners like us.

Now, Jesus will save all sinners to the uttermost that come unto God through Him. We deserve to be damned; we have willfully and wickedly offended and sinned against God. We cannot help save ourselves. We can only ruin and imprison our souls, but we could never rescue and redeem our souls. Your sins cannot escape unpunished, so let Christ answer for your sins. Christ Jesus is living right now and is seeking you. Most sinners today either hate Christ or ignore Him, but few trust Him. The very wisest thing you can do is seek mercy from Jesus Christ in prayer. “Great God, save me, I'm a self-ruined sinner! Save me, forgive me, have mercy upon me! I renounce all my merits for I have none; I deserve to be lost and damned; but Lord, please save me now, for Christ’s sake.”