Another
new Christmas song has hit the charts this year, What Does God Want For
Christmas, by Darius Rucker. If you
haven't heard it, you should. It's a sweet, traditional sounding tune that's
bound to be a future classic of Christmas Seasons to come. Yet there is a haunting quality to it. After hearing it just once, I found myself
immersed in a thought process to try to answer the question posed by the song
lyrics. What DOES God want?
It's
not as if we haven't promised Him gifts in Christmases past; Peace on Earth, Joy to the World, Love, Praise,
Giving......it's a rather endless list of promises that we seem to callously
offer each year as we run to and fro, self-absorbed in the true madness of the
Holiday. It seems pretty fair to say,
that the ONE person most deserving to receive a gift on Christmas, is the one
most neglected or simply forgotten altogether.
What's really sad is that we know this and still do little about it.
So,
being the pragmatist that I am, I approached the question in a very logical
manner. Normally when getting a gift for
someone I know, I look closely to see if there is something particular that the
person Needs. Obviously, that doesn't
work well with God. How do you give
Peace to the One who IS Peace, or Love to the One who IS Love, or Joy, or
Charity, or anything good for that matter.
It's the age old problem of, What do you give someone who has
everything?
So
I'm forced to skip Need and go right back to Want. If God doesn't Need anything, is there
something that he Wants from me? This is
the "haunting" part of the process.
I dare anyone reading this to spend some quality time pondering and
meditating on the question; What Does God Want From Me? And at this point in the process, it's
critical that we have a clear understanding and picture of just Who we are
talking about here.
GOD.
The creator of all things. The sovereign, all powerful, all knowing, ruler of
all things in existence now and forever. The one solely responsible for your life and
the next breath that you take. The One who is supremely Holy, and
righteous. So Holy in fact, that He has
a supreme Hatred for sin and evil. He is
the Ultimate Judge, and will undoubtedly judge us all.....
Now
I know what some of you are thinking, because it tends to be a natural
reaction. Many of you are considering
making some changes to your life as a gift to God. Being a better person. Not sinning as much. Doing your best to be good. Maybe even go to Church more often. Surely He would like that as a gift, wouldn't
he? Well..........there's a problem with
that. You can't break the most basic
rule of gift giving, which is; you cannot give a gift that you cannot afford or
that is impossible for you to obtain. My
wife would love to be 30 yrs old again, but I can't give her that as a gift can
I?
You
see, the Bible, God's Word, is very clear on this type of gift. It tells us that there is "none
righteous" not even one. There is not a righteous man on earth who does what
is right and never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:20), there is no one who does
good, not even one. (Psalm 14:3), For whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles
at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10), When I
want to do good, evil is right there with me. (Romans 7:21). Try as we might, the fact of the matter is, we can't
be good enough to please God which makes this a lousy gift idea. It's not in us. It is just simply impossible to do. And that
brings to light an even bigger problem for us.
Our inability to be good or even do
good has separated us from God. Completely separated us. Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your
God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
(Isaiah 59:2) See what I mean by a big
problem. If God is so Holy that He
cannot look upon sin, look upon sinners, or even hear from sinners, I can't
imagine that He is too awfully interested in receiving a gift from sinners. In
fact, the Bible calls us enemies of God, and uses the word "enmity"
to describe our separation from Him.
What is "enmity?" That
means a severe hostility and hatred for something or someone.
I don't know about you, but the idea of that sets me back on
my heels and it makes me feel a bit foolish.
Here we are, talking about, even singing songs about, what to give God
for Christmas, and all the while He is storing up His righteous anger, which
will pour down as his Holy Wrath upon us all in judgment. "Well,
I don't want that," you say. "Maybe
that's the gift I can give Him then, to be His friend and not His enemy."
But you're missing the point.
And it's one of the great underlying Truths of the Bible. YOU
CAN'T! There is nothing we can do to
reconcile ourselves to God. We are
doomed, screwed, hopeless..........and the Word of God is very clear on this
matter. For by works of the law
no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)
Listen
to the words of the theologian, Jonathan Edwards:
The power
of the enmity of natural men against God, is so great, that it is insuperable by any finite power. It has too great and strong a possession
of the heart, to be overcome by any created power. Indeed, a natural man never
sincerely strives to root out his enmity against God. His endeavors are
hypocritical. He delights in his enmity, and chooses it. Neither can others do
it, though they sincerely, and to their utmost, endeavor to overcome this
enmity. If godly friends and neighbors labor to persuade them to cast away
their enmity, and become friends to God, they cannot persuade them to it.
Though ministers use never so many arguments and entreaties, and set forth the
loveliness of God; tell them of the goodness of God to them, hold forth God’s
own gracious invitations, and entreat them never so earnestly to cast off their
opposition, and be reconciled; yet they cannot overcome it. Still they will be
as bad enemies to God, as ever they were. — The tongue of men or of angels
cannot persuade them to relinquish their opposition to God. Miracles will not
do it. — How many miracles did the children of Israel see in the wilderness! Yet
their enmity against God remained; as appeared by their often murmuring.
"What
kind of Christmas message is this?" you're probably asking by
now. God's
hatred of sin and sinners, my separation from Him, my hopeless condition, and
NO WAY to fix it.
Oh....................but that IS the Christmas message don't you
see. You hear people all the time
saying, remember the "reason for the season" and "the true meaning
of Christmas," well it begins with the acceptance and understanding of
Mankind's hopeless predicament.
Do you really believe that the God of this Universe would
send his only Son to this earth to die a horrible death so that we could have a
"Christmas Holiday of gift giving?"
He sent Jesus Christ to this earth because mankind was hopeless, doomed
to die and forever be separated from their creator. Christmas is surely about a Gift, not one
that we can give Him, but one that He has given to us.
Christmas is a story of the Grace and Love of God. Grace, the undeserved favor of God. Think about it. Who is more undeserving than a people who
consciously choose to disobey their Creator.
Who choose to love the things of this world more than He who gives us
life and breath itself. A people
satisfied living a life at enmity to God. And Love, a love that mankind cannot
begin to comprehend. A Love that would
sacrifice His Son to provide us with the only Hope of being reconciled with
Him. Listen to the words of the Apostle
Paul in Romans Chapter Five: "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will
scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would
dare even to die-- but God
shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. Since,
therefore, we have now been justified by his blood,
much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life....... Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned-- for sin indeed was
in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is
not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more
have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus
Christ abounded for many. And
the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but
the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of
one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those
who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one
trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of
righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For
as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners,
so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Let's back up now to our original inquiry; What does God want from us
this Christmas? I think it's safe to say
it's not a gift. I learned over many
Christmases that there are certain people you just can't out-give........and
God is chief among them. So I believe
that we are focused on the wrong question altogether. The ultimate question this Christmas is not
what we should give to God, but what have we done with the Gift that he has
given to us? If you truly desire to put
a smile on God's face this Christmas, it begins and ends with HIS
gift...............not ours.
So what exactly is His Gift?
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow
due to change." (James 1:17) Remember, there are some people you'll never out give. The Bible is loaded with verses related to
the gracious gifts of God. They are too numerous
to begin to count. I am reminded of one
of my favorite movies, "The
Ultimate Gift." In it, the young man
is told that he will receive a series of gifts leading up to the Ultimate
Gift. It's similar in many ways with
God. He is constantly and forever
delivering gracious gifts to us, but there is but one Ultimate Gift of God.
Lets first clarify what this Gift is NOT and dispel some age
old, and current misconceptions. God's
Ultimate Gift is not our happiness,
or our comfort/peace, and it is certainly not our prosperity. It has become very popular in recent days,
for preachers to stand in the pulpit and tell their congregations that God is
ultimately in the business of making us happy and prosperous. It's a great sales pitch to get people to
join their church, but it is a not the Truth...........it is a lie straight
from Hell. It was even foreseen by the
Apostles writing to the early churches; "For the time is coming when people will not endure
sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves
teachers to suit their own passions."
(II Timothy 4:3)
Secondly, God's Ultimate Gift is not us going to Heaven. Somewhere down the line, churches across this
country have oversimplified the Gospel message down to an oversimplified
choice: do you want to go to Hell or
Heaven? DUH.................now that's a
real tough choice. Then, almost in a
"used car salesman like fashion" we tell people to pray a scripted
prayer, sign a card, join our church..............and you're IN. Folks listen to me clearly. Heaven is NOT God's ultimate Gift to
mankind. In fact, there is not one
passage in all the Bible that says Jesus came and died so you can go to
Heaven. Not one.
So what
are you saying? You don't believe in
Heaven? NO........I'm
not saying that at all. I cherish the
fact that God is, even now, preparing a place for me in Heaven. I think about it often and can't wait to be
there. But God's Divine Plan of
Salvation for mankind must not be simplified to a place of residence. It is so much more than that. His Ultimate Gift to us is not just a change
of residence. And I challenge you, if
your Faith is anchored on simply getting to Heaven, you need to honestly answer
the question posed here by John Piper:
“The critical question for our generation—and for every
generation—is this: If you
could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever
had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure
activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all
the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or
any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven,................
if Christ were not there? ”
If you
are even mildly tempted to say yes to this question, I urge you to run back to
the Cross of Christ, bury yourself into the scriptures, renew your
understanding of the Gospel message.............and pray. Pray for wisdom in your search for God's Truth.
Ok.................I'm
sensing an impatience to get to the bottom line. What then is God's Ultimate Gift? Well it is clearly announced several places
in the scriptures, two of which are very familiar passages; "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23, “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) The Ultimate Gift of God to mankind is Eternal
Life.
Eternal Life.....
Well isn't that Heaven? No it's
not........Eternal Life is not a place. "Then what actually is
it.............define it for me." That's
what I love so much about God's word.
When we truly search for answers, you can always, always find them in
the scriptures. In fact, it's Jesus
himself who offers us the straight-forward definition of "Eternal
Life." During his last night on
this earth, in an agonizing prayer to His Father, Christ says these words;
"Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all
flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And
this is eternal life, that
they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
you have sent." (John 17:2,3)
Eternal
Life is Knowing God. And God's Ultimate
Gift to us is granting us the right and the ability to Know Him.
Now,
before we fall into the same old trap of over-simplifying or misinterpreting God's
word, lets quickly discuss three important characteristics of this
"Knowledge of God." First, it
should go without saying, that this is NOT a head knowledge about God. I could go out and read every book ever
written about Barack Obama, learn everything there is to know about him. Yet, if I then go to the White House and
knock on the door to see my good friend Barack, I will quickly and probably
very forcefully be turned away. And I will most certainly hear the words;
"President Obama does not know you!" The Bible warns and foretells of
the exact same thing happening to many who say they believe in God, know God,
even preach about God. Listen to
Christ's words from Matthew Chapter 7:
"Not everyone
who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one
who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On
that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we
not prophesy in your name, and cast out
demons in your name, and do many mighty works in
your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."
This word
"know" is speaking of intimacy instead of mere intellectual
knowledge. Therefore, eternal life is having an intimate, personal relationship
with God the Father and Jesus the Son. The original Greek tense of the
word used here also reflects the idea that this "knowing" is an
ongoing and growing thing. It can almost
be read as "should get to know and
keep on knowing."
Secondly,
Eternal life is not
living forever. Everyone lives forever in either heaven or hell. Also, eternal
life is not living forever in the blessings of heaven as opposed to being
tormented in hell. John 3:36 and 5:24 show that eternal life is a present-tense
possession of the believer. "Whoever
believes in the Son has eternal
life; whoever does not
obey the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God remains on him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him
who sent me has eternal life. He does not
come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."
Thirdly, and most importantly, we must remember and take hold of the
fact that this "knowing God" is a gift. It is offered to us by God himself. The
logical implication to this means that it is not something we can attain for
ourselves. You can't learn it, earn it,
work for it.......remember, you are at enmity with God, separated apart from
Him. This gift is ALL His doing.
And Jesus Christ is the physical embodiment of this Gift from God. There is no other way to come to Know God, to
reconcile our relationship with God, to be at peace with God except through His
Son.
Jesus said to him, “I am
the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me. (John 14:6)
" For there is one God, and there is one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"
(I Timothy 2:5)
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever
does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." (John 3:36)
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which
you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children
of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of
the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—" (Ephesians 2)
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
(Romans 5:1)
According to John 3:16, this intimacy
with God is what salvation is all about. Forgiveness of our sins is not the
point of salvation; this intimacy with the Father is. Of course, Jesus did die
to purchase forgiveness for our sins because unforgiven sins blocked us from
intimacy with God. Sin was an obstacle that stood between God and us. It had to
be dealt with, and it was. But anyone who views salvation as only forgiveness
of sins and stops there is missing out on eternal life.
Salvation
was intended to be presented as the way to come back into harmony with God.
Instead, it has often been presented as the way to escape the problems of this
life now and the judgment of hell later. It is possible to become born again
with that kind of thinking, but more often than not, people who are saved
through that type of ministry view the Lord as someone to help them in times of
crisis but don't come to know Him.
The
church has been preaching forgiveness of sins instead of relationship with God.
Forgiveness of sins is an essential step to relationship with God that cannot
be bypassed, but it is not eternal life. Jesus didn't die for us out of pity
for our impending doom, but He died for us out of love for us --a love that
longed to have once again that intimate communion with mankind that He had
originally created us for.
I urge you to meditate on the very
words of Jesus, spoken to His Father the night before His crucifixion. The motivation of God is clear, so is the
purpose of Jesus' earthly ministry and death.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all
flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And
this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you
gave me to do. And
now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the
glory that I had with you before the world existed. "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word. Now
they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For
I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have
received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.........The
glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I
in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent
me and loved them even as you loved me. Father,
I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O
righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you,
and these know that you have sent me. I
made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the
love with which you have loved me may be in
them, and I in them."
So..............What Does God Want for
Christmas?
