WHY CHRISTMAS
Luke 2:11-14 “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
By Van Yandell
Interesting is inadequate to describe the phenomenon of Christmas celebrations around the world. Over 160 of the 195 countries in the world celebrate the birth of our precious Savior. Dates and types of observances vary but consistently, the celebrations do happen.
Of all the world religions, only Christ is celebrated this extensively. He is recognized by more of the world’s population than any other central character of any religion.
A few over 29% of the world population are Christian followed by Islam at nearly 26%. Sad to say, over 24% claim no supernatural belief whatsoever. I suppose they think the perfect balance and symmetry of the human body to and including the universe just happened accidentally.
Human logic, or lack of, continues to mystify me. The science of physics tells us that something cannot be spontaneously generated from nothing and that matter and energy are constant in the universe. These absolute facts are verified by scripture (Genesis 1: 1-3 and Genesis 2: 1).
Christmas exists because of personal and collective beliefs. The compelling evidence for the existence and life of Savior Jesus is tremendous.
Literally hundreds of people saw and documented His miracles. Hundreds witnessed Him alive after the resurrection and His disciples witnessed His ascension into Heaven (Acts 1: 9). Saul/Paul experienced Jesus on The Damascus Road in a life changing event.
The Bible gives us “faith” as a belief method. By faith we exist and many of our actions are founded in faith. We could not get up from our beds each morning without faith so what could possibly be the problem with faith?
The Holy Bible also gives us the gift of “belief” as our path to eternal salvation. Belief is both an intellectual and an emotional condition. Romans 10: 10 “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
We worked a mission project at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (South Dakota) in 2008. I well remember a young man asking me after reading John 3: 16, “Just exactly what am I supposed to believe about this Jesus?”
The answer to his question was not a two second, one word answer. On the other hand, it is not complicated either.
First of all beliefs is the virgin birth of Jesus (Matthew 1: 18-19 and 23). In order for Jesus to have been the perfect blood sacrifice for the sins of mankind, He had to be supernaturally fathered by the Holy Spirit of God.
Belief in the virgin birth may or may not be necessary for salvation but it is necessary for understanding the blood sacrifice of Jesus for sin.
The shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin is both Old and New Testament (Leviticus 17: 11 and Hebrews 9: 22). Deuteronomy 17: 1 (OT) specifies the sacrificial lamb must be without blemish. In such a case, Jesus had to be sinless (1 Peter 2: 22) to fulfill that requirement and that could only be accomplished for Him to be fathered by the Holy Ghost.
Next, we must believe Jesus was crucified, shed His perfect blood for the forgiveness of sins. Little detail is given in the Bible about the process of crucifixion. Other than impaling, crucifixion is the most horrible type of capital punish ever devised.
When we consider the time frame of when Jesus was on earth we must connect a supernatural chronology. The Romans occupied Israel about 60 BC and held it until 70 AD; a period of 130 years. It was during that time Jesus walked the earth. The Romans method of human execution was crucifixion.
No other method of capital punishment causes blood loss or pain like crucifixion. This time frame had to be a God-plan. For all the events and actual sequence of those events to fulfill scriptural prophesy, the Romans were available.
God not only choreographs the order of what happens but also when it happens. As we observe conditions and situations in the world, many ask “Why?” Why would God let these things happen? I cannot answer those questions and if I did those answers would only be opinion. But in the end, we find He had a reason.
Thirdly we must believe Jesus was resurrected. He was fully dead and then He lived again. Many saw Jesus after He resurrected and documented those sightings.
A fourth belief is that He ascended alive into Heaven (Acts 1: 9). We know all the other major prophets and religious writers of the past are dead but Jesus is alive. This provides an assurance and a certainty of His authentic God connected self (John 1: 1-3).
And finally, we must accept Him as our personal Savior.
The question was and is “Why Christmas?” The answer is simple and forthright: Jesus! He split time. If anyone disputes the belief, ask them what year this is. When they say 2025, ask what happened 2025 years ago.
Jesus changed everything concerning eternal salvation. John 1: 17 “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
This one verse gives us the greatest definition of the difference in the Old and New Testament. The Old Testament person lived by the Mosaic laws (laws of Moses-Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) and Jesus changed that to salvation by grace, mercy and a faith based belief.
Why Christmas? Because He lives, Because He died! Because He resurrected! He is a personal Savior. He is the Savior of the world but also He is your personal Savior.
Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary. His email is vmy3451@gmail.com
