Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Glad Tidings Not for Good People

Bob Kauflin excerpts from Mark Dever's book Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament today:
Christmas isn't about who's been "naughty or nice."

"The news we have to declare as Christians is not fundamentally about our law-keeping or our obedience. The glad tidings we bear are not for good people.' It is 'for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly, and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers, and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers' (1 Tim. 1:9b-10a NIV). I doubt you have received many Christmas cards like that. Yet have you realized this is who the Christmas message is for? The Christmas message is not for a bunch of well-dressed, respectable people who attend church to celebrate a cultural holiday. The Christmas message is a message that brings joy to people like father-killers and slave-traders!" (p. 345-346 [of Promises Kept])

To truly find joy in Christmas, I have to acknowledge that Jesus didn't become a baby because I'm so good. He came because I'm so evil and needed a Savior. He didn't come to reward us for what we've done, but to save us from what we've done.

More here.

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