“Why God Created Christmas” John 3:16

When Jesus came, He revolutionized the way we understood God. Because of Jesus, we learned to see God in three aspects.

There is God the Father, Yahweh, Jehovah. God the Father is considered as the heavenly presence that rules over all and is master of all things created, seen and unseen. He is the Sustainer, the Provider, the Righteous Judge and Merciful giver of grace.

There is God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God with us, fully God, fully man. He is the direct representation and the fullness of God’s revelation. He is the Word, the Creator, the Savior, the Lord. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. God the Son points us to God the Father.

There is God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. He indwells us, revealing God’s will to us, showing us God’s direction. He binds all believers together in the Body of Christ on earth. He is the One who illuminates the Word, reminding us of what Jesus said and did, showing us the way. The Spirit convicts and saves.

Just as the Spirit points us to Son, and Jesus points us to the Father, so the Father reveals the Son to us and sends us the Holy Spirit.

Because of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, our salvation is secure and complete. There is so much we do not understand about the work of the Trinity, but we know that each of these aspects of the Godhead are necessary to give us a better awareness of God.

As we enter the Christmas season, it is right that we should consider the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the creation of what we now call Christmas—the birth of Jesus, the direct intervention of God becoming man and so relating to our world that it would never be the same again.

Today, we consider why the Father created Christmas.

Background

Our passage today comes as Jesus is approached by Nicodemus one night. The Bible tells us that Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin (3:1), the Jewish ruling council. Jesus describes Nicodemus as Israel’s teacher (3:10a). The speculation is that Nicodemus came at night because he did not want to risk the wrath of those who were in charge of the Sanhedrin. We also know, from his statement recorded in v. 2, that he had a respect for Jesus that was not present among most of the Pharisees. They considered Jesus to be a heretic, possibly a servant of the devil himself. Nicodemus, though, acknowledges Jesus as a teacher who has come from God. He bases this belief on the miracles that Jesus has done.

We don’t know why Nicodemus had come to see Jesus. It is more than likely he wanted to ask Jesus some questions. The most likely question would be, “What must I do to have eternal life?” This was the question that the rich young ruler asked, and it was the question asked by the lawyer in Luke’s Gospel account when Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.

We don’t really know what the question was that he was going to ask, because Jesus doesn’t allow him time to ask it. Probably Jesus knew what was about to be asked, because in response to Nicodemus’ words, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (v. 3).

What follows is a discussion about the work of the Holy Spirit and what it means to be born again. Toward the end of His words, Jesus says “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life” (vs. 13-15).

There is some question about whether Jesus said what is recorded in vs. 16-21, or whether the verses are a comment on v. 15. Whether or not Jesus said the words or John wrote them, they are one of the best descriptions of why God sent Jesus and the role of Jesus in our salvation. As we look at John 3:16, we need to keep in mind this truth:

Central Truth: God’s great love for us compelled Him to send Jesus.

God’s plan:

1. Driven by His great love

The popular idea is that the God of the Old Testament is an angry God who looks for ways to punish us. Many of us look at the Ten Commandments and see “Thou shalt nots” ringing down from a smoke-covered mountain with thunder crashing and lightning flashing.

This verse shows us the idea of a vindictive God is not consistent with the Bible’s true message. From the beginning to the end, the Bible is filled with a central truth: God is love (cf. 1 John 4:16), and everything He said and did was driven by His great love for us. When God sent Adam and Eve away from the garden, it wasn’t as a punishment, but as a protection (cf. Genesis 3:22), lest they spend eternity in perpetual sin. Even in the worst example of God’s judgment—the Flood—God had Noah build an ark to spare the one righteous family.

This verse begins with the statement: “For God so loved the world.” God knew He needed to intervene in our world in order to bring us to salvation. God’s great love—a love that is described as “so”—led Him to send us the most precious and the only gift that could bring us into salvation and eternal life. God sent Himself through the Son to live in our world, to die in our world, and to be raised again in our world, in order that we might enter into His world through His Son and by the work of His Spirit.

God created Christmas because God loved us so much that the only way He could express that love was by sending His Son.

2. Involved Jesus coming to earth

There are times when we are so overwhelmed with emotion that we try to find a way to express that emotion. Not unusual, oftentimes we choose to express our gratitude or our love for someone by offering them a gift. The gift is usually one we have spent time considering, selecting and preparing for the giving. That’s what God did when He chose the way to express His “so love” for the world: He gave His One and Only Son.

Paul, writing to the Ephesians, said, “In love He [God] predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves” (Ephesians 1:4b-6). Peter writes, “He [Jesus] was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1 Peter 1:20). From before the creation of the world, God the Father knew that He would need to demonstrate His great love, and in that time, He committed to demonstrate that love through the gift of His Son.

As we remember in considering a few passages in Hebrews over the previous month, Jesus has demonstrated to be greater than all that came before or since—Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God demonstrated His great love by giving a part of Himself to us, to live with us, to walk with us, to eat with us, to rejoice and weep with us—to be us in every sense of the word.

This was part of God’s plan from before creation, and that’s why God created Christmas.

3. Provides a gift of eternal life

The reason God gave His Son to die for our sins was in order to give us eternal life.

This gift of eternal life is not something we receive when we breathe our last breath, but it entry into God’s eternal kingdom through His Son. When we believe in Him, then we are born again into the family of God, and we are created a new creation. Gone are our old ways of seeing the world and instead we are given God’s Spirit to lead and inspire us, to convict us and correct us.

This eternal life that we are blessed with because of God’s “so love” is the ability to discern His will, to grow in His grace and to fellowship with Him through the Son. This eternal life is a guarantee of what awaits us when Jesus returns and God’s will is restored to all creation as it was before the Fall. This eternal life is the assurance of our security found only in the Father, sealed by His Spirit and made whole through the forgiveness of our sins and the cleansing that comes only through God’s loving gift of His One and Only Son.

And this “so love” is extended to all the world. “For God so loved the world. . . that whoever believes in Him.” The gift of Jesus is to the world, to everyone who has lived, is living or will live before He returns again. All anyone has to do to receive this gift is to believe in God’s great love and the Son He so lovingly sent.

This belief is a belief that Jesus is Who He says He is, that His message is true and that His way is the true way. It is a belief that Jesus’ commands are not too difficult, but are valid and in our best interest. These commands are not required to earn God’s “so love”—this love was given and demonstrated through His Son. Instead, we take Jesus’ commands are the way to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him and consistent with Him. These commands allow us to not only speak about Jesus but to demonstrate Him in our world. We obey His commands just as our bodies obey our brain’s commands, because Jesus is the head of the Church, His Body on earth.

And all of this is a demonstration of God’s love and why He created Christmas.

Conclusion

The celebration of Christmas is a wonderful time to reflect on all that God has done for us through Jesus. It is a time to celebrate new life and growth. It is a time to celebrate being born again and becoming what God wants us to be.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God shows us His love by giving Himself to us.

How do we demonstrate our love for God? What gift can we give Him for Christmas? We can give Him our all.