The Grace of Christmas | Christmas Eve 2024
We’ve all said things like:
‘God, if YOU will….I promise I will….’
‘God, if YOU will…. I’ll NEVER…’
Bargaining with God always rests on two ASSUMPTIONS:
- God knows YOU exist.
- You have something God WANTS.
God doesn’t want something FROM you. God wants something FOR you.
The word we use to encapsulate this idea is the word: GRACE = ‘UNMERITED Favor.’
Ephesians 2:1-10. (pg. 1,818)
v.1 “As for YOU, you were DEAD in your transgressions and SINS.”
v.4 “But GOD, being RICH in MERCY, because of HIS great LOVE with which He loved US.”
v.5 “Made us ALIVE in JESUS even when we were DEAD in our TRANSGRESSIONS.”
v.8 “It is by GRACE you have been SAVED, through FAITH; and this is not from YOURSELVES, it is the GIFT of God.”
v.9 “Not by WORKS so that no one can boast.”
At Christmas what we celebrate is the GIFT of KNOWING.
LOVE must be shown to be KNOWN.
You cannot demonstrate LOVE without a SACRIFICE.
“Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name JESUS, because he will save his people from their SINS.” Matthew 1:21
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him IMMANUEL, which means God WITH us.” Matthew 1:23
God had to be WITH us so that we would know He is FOR us.
Ultimately He DIED, so that His love would be KNOWN by us.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever BELIEVES IN Him, would not perish but have ETERNAL life.” John 3:16