There is a lot of
emphasis at Christmas time on "Peace on Earth", and "Joy to the
World". These are wonderful
sentiments and deserve to be thought of whenever we think of what God wants for
us. He sent His Son Jesus to bring the
"joy of the Lord" into our hearts.
God is love and wants us to have His love filling our lives.
What we need to keep in
mind is the reason for Jesus coming to earth - it is that because of sin we
are evil by nature. Peace and Love are
completely foreign to our nature unless we receive God's Spirit into our
hearts. Jesus says: "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a
liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)
As sinners we are by nature just like the first sinner - Satan, the
devil, "that old dragon". (Revelation 12:9) Satan wants to kill and destroy, and without
a living daily connection to Jesus humans will also kill and destroy. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the Wise
Men came to see him, we often forget the other side of the story. When they didn't go back and tell him where
to find Jesus, Herod sent soldiers to kill all the children 2 years of age and
younger. That evil still lives and works
through anyone who is not living for God.
Jesus came to this earth not just to show us how much God loves us, but
to make it possible for us to be transformed into His likeness. Jesus Christ came to this earth and lived a
perfect life, a life of perfect obedience to God. Then He died to pay the penalty for our
sins. Now He can take our sins away, He
can get rid of them completely. But He
also will give us a new heart. New
desires and the power to live as He did - in complete obedience to God. The death of Jesus means nothing unless we
accept the new life He offers us. If we
do not chose to live the life of Jesus, then we will live the life of the
devil. We are either children of God or
children of Satan. There is no middle
ground.
The next time some horrible tragedy
happens ask yourself how sin looks now.
Looking at the end result of sin vow to give yourself to Jesus without
reserve. God hates sin and wants to
destroy it, but He wants to save people more.
So He waits a little longer, enduring the agony sin brings, hoping He
can get us to see the
horribleness of sin and come to Him for cleansing. With His transforming power working in us we
can be separated from sin. Then sin can
be destroyed without destroying us. As
it is written: "Call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins." (Matthew 1:21)
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