“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Romans 15:4
Another Christmas is upon us when we as Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Christmas is also often portrayed as when the Light of Christ entered our darkened world and when Jesus came to bring love and peace to the world. The emphasis seems to be about Jesus’ coming down to earth to bring us a better earthly life.
While that is true, I also think it sometimes masks the most important reason why Jesus came and what His most important purpose was for becoming a man and entering our world. And that purpose was to resolve our sin problem!
Since the fall of Adam and Eve, every human being was created with a sinful nature. The Bible declares in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God gave mankind the 10 Commandments to show us how to live a righteous and God-pleasing life. But no matter how hard we try, we are unable to overcome our sinful nature on our own (Romans 3:20). The Bible further declares in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death”! In other words, left unresolved, our sinful nature would eventually condemn us to death and eternal separation from God our Creator.
But the truth is that God loved us so much that He was unwilling to leave us in our sinful state that could only end in our own demise. To resolve our sin problem, God sent His own son Jesus into our world as a baby to become a man, and to eventually take the punishment for our sins that we deserve. Why did Jesus come as a baby? He came the same way that all humans come into this world and to fulfill the prophecies spoken about Him. He also came to live the perfect life we humans could not live and to teach and show us how to live for Him instead of ourselves. His primary purpose all along was to save us from our sin. God made a way and Jesus Himself accomplished what we could not! The Bible tells us that “God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6).
So, why did Jesus come into our world? In a word, to give us – HOPE! Instead of facing eternal separation from God, we received forgiveness of our sins and the promise of eternal life with God! We did not deserve it nor did we earn it ourselves. Our salvation was given to us as a free gift from God (Ephesians 2:8).
Hal Lyndsey, an American evangelical writer, once said that “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air…but only for one second without hope.” He was stating the importance for human existence that we need hope to survive and thrive. Without hope, humans fall into despair and often lose the will to live, which then hastens our death. But when we have hope, we have the Holy Spirit and the ability to persevere and endure. As a result, we can live victoriously in Christ and in grateful response to His grace and mercy given to us at the cross until He calls us home to our eternal rest!
Here are several Bible passages that confirm the importance of hope in our lives and in our Christian faith:
“Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.” – Job 8:13
“But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love” – Psalm 33:18
“The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.”
– Proverbs 10:28
“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
– Romans 8:24-25
“That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” – 1 Timothy 4:10
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” – Hebrews 10:23
Can you see why hope is so important to our life and eternal destiny? With hope we can persevere amid the struggles of this world (John 16:33) and receive the promise of eternal life. Without hope, we are lost and destined to be forever separated from the God who created and loves us. Because we are sinful by nature, our only hope in this life is to put our faith in Christ!
So, this Christmas, let us look upon the Christ child in the manger as not just our light, love and peace, but also that He came to this world to save us from our sin so that we might have hope!
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:5)