What is the most important teaching of Scripture that we need to know at Christmas? The Christmas carols and cards emphasize Jesus’ birth in a stable. This time of the year churches speak about “Put Christ back in Christmas.” Jesus should be at the center of our attention. The priest Zacharias declared, “[God] has visited and redeemed His people” (Luke 1:68). Jesus’ birth is the greatest event in human history, that the Creator would become man and dwell on earth in order to redeem all people from their sins by the payment of a ransom on the cross.

As we contemplate this blessing, we also should give thanks to the One who gave us this Christmas present. St. Paul wrote, “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:3). Jesus declared that “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16) and Jesus many times referred to God as “the Father who sent Me.”

God’s Christmas gift is all the more remarkable when we consider who God is. God is holy, everything He does is perfect and right. God told the Children of Israel, “For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). God’s holiness means that God hates sin, that is, every violation of His holy law and every failure to keep His law. Again, God said, “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me” (Exodus 20:5). This means that God is also just, He must punish sin. The Bible states, “For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 25:16).

It is therefore surprising that God would care about mankind at all. Nevertheless, the one holy triune God sent His only-begotten Son to take on human flesh in order to rescue sinners from the eternal punishment of their sins. This mission is the greatest act of forebearance the world will ever see.

We can never sufficiently appreciate the precious gift that God sent to us on that first Christmas. We cannot realize how much God loves sinners to send them a Savior. We cannot fully understand God’s faithfulness as He kept His promises. We cannot appreciate what Jesus went through to rescue the world from sin—holy God living among sinners, the knowledge of how He must die, the rejection of His people, and the agony on the cross.

This Christmas, thank God for His wonderful gift of His Son; and praise Jesus for becoming flesh so that we might be forgiven of all sins and have eternal life. That is God’s true gift to us.

A 475th Anniversary: The editor wishes to thank the Rev. David Jay Webber for writing the series of articles on interpreting Scripture to commemorate the 475th anniversary of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. We observe these historical anniversaries to grow in our appreciation of the Lutheran Confessions and to use them in our homes and church. Make it a regular practice to read the Augsburg Confession and the Small Catechism in the front of the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary. For in them is a summary of the Christian faith and a reminder of why we are Lutherans: we believe, teach and confess that “men cannot be justified by their own merits or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith” (AC IV).

Other anniversaries: The year 2007 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of the hymn writer Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676). The Lutheran Sentinel will commemorate this event with a year-long series of articles about his life and his hymns. In addition, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod held its first convention ninety years ago in 1917, and in the month of November 2007 the Lutheran Sentinel marks ninety years of publishing the message of the Gospel.

Theodore Gullixson is pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Madison, Wisconsin.