The True Meaning of Christmas: Love and Redemption

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As we come again to the Christmas season and again we celebrate the child that was born in Bethlehem, it's important for us to understand the purpose of God coming into the world. We realize that Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. According to John 10, Peter is here declaring that it was God's determinate counsel that his son should give his life for our sins. [00:06:52]

God sent him to display his love that he might give his life in order that we might have peace with God and through peace with God know what real joy is all about. And that's why joy, peace, love are all associated with Christmas. The angel said, "Peace on Earth, goodwill to men." The angel said, "I bring you good tidings of great joy." [00:09:22]

The purpose of God was that man, living in this ideal environment in this paradise, might know the joy, the blessing, the benefits of just living in fellowship with God. And so Adam and Eve there in the garden, in this paradise, knowing just the beauty and the glory of living in fellowship with God. [00:12:18]

God wanting to now restore man, having restored the Earth and placed man here, now he seeks to restore man back into the original image in which he was created. God desired to still fulfill his purposes for man, and so it was planned in the councils of Heaven that God would display his love for man by sending his son to die for man's sin. [00:14:40]

God revealed that a virgin would conceive, bear a child, a son who would be born in Bethlehem. God's son would be given to the Earth, his name would be called Emmanuel, meaning God with us, but that his hands and his feet would be pierced as they parted his garments and cast lots for his vesture. [00:22:43]

When this little child was born in Bethlehem, it was as though there was the shadow of a cross over the manger. The purpose of his coming into the world was to die. He was born with a death sentence upon him. It had been purposed by God in the Divine councils of Heaven that God's love would be manifested to man in the giving of his son. [00:25:23]

Jesus said, "I came to seek and to save those who were lost." But this salvation was to be affected through his sacrificial death. Man could not be saved by his own efforts, by his own good works. Man could not save himself by being religious. There was only one way by which man could be saved from sin and the righteous judgment of God. [00:27:03]

God began to reveal his plan to man from the very beginning. God, when he talked to Adam and Eve concerning their sin and concerning the future, he said that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. A woman doesn't have a seed, and so there is the hint of the Virgin birth of the Messiah right there in Genesis. [00:20:30]

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. The price for your redemption has been paid in full through Jesus Christ. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow. [00:29:54]

As we again approach the Christmas season, as we again become involved in all of the activities that surround this time of the year, as we look at the Babe in Bethlehem and as we join with others in worshiping, let's not forget the real purpose of his coming was to give his life for your sins, for my sins. [00:32:26]

I pray that God will bless you and make you very aware and conscious this Christmas of what it really means that God sent his son into the world to be the Savior. Father, we thank you for this time of the year in which there is so much joy and so much expression of love. [00:32:26]

Be sure to accept the Savior before Christmas. It'll mean so much more to you. You'll know what the reason is all about, what we are really celebrating. It's life, the gift of eternal life that is ours through Jesus, the son of God. [00:32:26]

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