Christmas is Coming

Matt 1:21 "'And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.'"

(Written on 12-13)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The snow hasn't fallen yet, but the lights are on the houses, the trees and wreaths are up in the living rooms, and last night at our house the stockings got hung. You turn on the radio and on a great number of stations all you hear is Christmas music. And then of course, the stores. All decorated and stocked for what looks like a good shopping year.

Christmas is in the air. Very unlike what happened when the first Christmas occurred. The first Christmas? A pregnant girl, a fearful and wondering fiancé, and angels in dreams. The focus? Not lights, or snow, or music, or buying stuff. The focus was on: How? What? Why? The how? A virgin having a baby. Conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. Strange. Unlike anything that ever happened in history and has ever happened since.

The What? A Son. A little boy who would one day grow up to be a man. And His name? Jesus. This was not a family name. This was not a name that had been used in the genealogy of this child. Just look at all the names that came before Him. No Jesus in those names. What gives?

The why: "For He will save His people from their sins." The name "Jesus" actually means: "Jehovah is salvation". Built into the name of Jesus was an identifier: Jehovah. And who is Jehovah? The first time the word "Jehovah" is used in the Bible is Gen 2:4 "This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens," The word "LORD" is the word Jehovah. It means: the existing One. In this little baby boy was the infleshment of creator Jehovah, the eternally existing One. And this Jesus, whose name identifies Him as God also identifies Him as Savior.

Savior…why Savior? Because His people, the Jews needed a Savior. Why did they need a Savior? Because they had sin. They missed the mark. They failed to live up to the standard that God had set and screwed up. They needed to be rescued because sin really messes us up. Jesus' role was to save. Save means "to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue". (Strongs.) These people were in danger. They were in danger of destruction and they needed to be rescued. They were in danger of destruction because of their sin. They needed a Savior who could take care of this.

And frankly, we all need this. We are all on the path to destruction because we all sin. We have all violated God's standard. We all miss the mark. So God did something, He sent Jesus. He sent Jehovah is Salvation so that we all could be rescued from destruction. "For God so loved the world (all of us) that He gave His one and only Son, so whoever believes in Him would not perish (destruction) but have everlasting life." John 3:16 We are all on the path of destruction. We are all doomed to perish. We all have been condemned. Without a Savior we are done. We are gone. It is over.

But then Jesus came. Jehovah is Salvation came. We have a Rescuer. We have a way out. We have relief. We have safety. But it only comes through one Person…Jesus. "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."

People may argue: "There are other ways. There has to be other ways. I can be good enough. Or, I can believe in whoever I want to believe, it all leads to God." No. No other name. No other Savior. No other Jehovah is Salvation. No other way, truth or life. Jesus is it. To think otherwise is totally illogical, for if there are other ways, then Jesus did not have to die. It was stupid for Him to die. He should have just said: "Forget the cross…go the other way." But He didn't because Jehovah is Salvation. And then I was thinking yesterday, if there was another way, then Jesus did not even have to come. He didn't have to be born. This virgin birth stuff did not have to happen. We could have gone another route if there was another route. Forget Christmas. It isn't necessary. Yes it is, because Jehovah is Salvation.

It's all about Jesus because He said that it was all about us. Doomed to destruction and given a Savior. Praise God!