Daily Bible Verses for 12/24/2016
Daily Verse(s)
“For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Reading Notes
God’s gift to us came in the humblest of wrappings. Christ came to save us from our sins; He did not come to elevate Himself. He did not come to live like a king, though He is the King of kings. He did not come to take pleasure in the best the world had to offer, though the world was created by Him. Jesus came to die for us, to take our place on the Cross of Calvary, so we could spend eternity with Him. And not just eternity in Heaven, but we must remember we will return with Christ Jesus our Lord. We who have become children of God through our faith in Him, will be present with Him, when He ushers in the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus is the ultimate display of God’s love and true humility. Jesus who is the Author of creation, Jesus who is the eternal God of Heaven, stepped out of eternity and took on humanity. And though sovereign and omnipotent, He humbled Himself to the death of the cross for us! Jesus died to reconcile sinful humanity back to a Holy God. Jesus came to bear our sins in the humblest of ways and by the humblest of means, that by faith we may become children of God.
With the ultimate display of love for us, He stood before us bearing our guilt and our punishment on the Cross. A punishment we ourselves could not afford to pay, and a punishment we could not take upon ourselves. And Jesus did this so we can experience God’s love for us in our day to day lives. And not only in our day to day lives, but also God’s continuing love for us during the eternity we will spend with Him. God’s gift to humanity, the ultimate gift of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ, came in the simplest and humblest of wrappings. We have to remember the fall of mankind brought with it separation and estrangement with God. Our sin-nature, places us in disharmony with God, because it places us at enmity against God. However, through our faith in Christ, we can become children of God, adopted into the family of God by faith. And not just children, but joint-heirs with Jesus in the kingdom of God. This was God’s perfect Christmas gift, given to us His creation, those who were made in the image of God by Christ Jesus Himself. Moreover, God’s greatest gift came in the humblest of ways, as the tiny arms of an infant in Bethlehem’s manger reached out and found a cross of which to bear the sins of the world.