When the Christmas season comes to our churches, and homes are filled with stories and history of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us look at the deep wealth of His coming and what he established forever on our behalf.
The Christmas Story, A Tale of Time
Every year the body of Christ celebrates the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ during the holiday of Christmas. It is a time many will gather together and hear the message of His birth from their pastors and church leaders. The Christmas story popularly read from Luke chapter two verses one through twenty begins a tale of a man’s life who is born to change everything.
The Christmas story is a tale that goes beyond the New Testament of our bibles. It is one that had been percolating for thousands of years and even then, extends itself outside of time. It is my prayer this season to expand our capacity for the Christmas story of Jesus.
Jesus, The Father’s Only Choice
Jesus was born as the promise of the covenants. When the Lord was conferring the curses onto the serpent in the garden he said,
“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3:15 NKJV).
Ultimately Jesus is the promised seed of the woman. From the very beginning of man’s fall from the glory of God, we see how good a father He is. Our Lord initiated His plan of redemption from the very start before dealing with anything else.
I want to emphasize the goodness of our Holy Father. When Adam and Eve made the choices they did it effectively moved us from being on the side of God to the side of Satan. Imagine it as teams. When they ate the fruit they moved humanity from God’s team to Satans. But what did God do?
He immediately intervened and said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed.” He moved us back to His team to illustrate it as simply as I can. His sovereignty administered mercy and redemption on our behalf. He did this in the context of the covenant.
Read: Developing a Faith worth Sharing
It is important to say that Satan is not God’s equal. God is not worried about Satan and his plans for evil. The Christmas story finds its beginnings in our Lord’s sovereign confidence in and of himself to fulfill all that he has set in motion.
Jesus, The Promise of Covenant
“I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:13–14 NKJV)
Daniel’s prophetic vision reveals the awesome nature of Jesus’s coming. The angel Gabriel declared this to Mary in which we see the fulfillment of the one like the Son of Man.
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:31–33 NKJV)
The Christmas story is the magnificent entrance of the one who is revealed, JESUS. Various scholars estimate 574 verses in the Old Testament that somehow point to or describe or reference the coming Messiah. It’s estimated over 300 prophecies were fulfilled down to the most intimate detail by Jesus during his birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection.
The modern-day season of Christmas is to acknowledge the greatness of our God found manifest in Jesus. More than a baby born and placed in a manger, it is the recognition of the awesome totality of what his birth signified. That Jesus had finally arrived on the scene after prophets for thousands of years declared the mysteries of the covenants of His coming.
Jesus, A Covenant Forever
As followers and believers of Christ, it is important to understand that we do not have a covenant with the Father. The “new” covenant is between Jesus and the Father by His blood (Matthew 26:28 NKJV). This is why the new covenant is perfected and will endure forever. It is not dependent on us to be fulfilled, established, or kept. It is established by His life and ministry. It is fulfilled because He gave himself up as the perfect spotless lamb. It is kept by the power of His resurrection by the Spirit of God.
We experience the revelation of Jesus as the Christ by the Holy Spirit and, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom. 10:9 NKJV). When we are filled with His Spirit by the laying on of Hands thus given the promise of the Helper, the Spirit of Christ, we are entered into the new covenant. We partake of this new covenant because we are placed in Christ by believing in the gospel through faith. This is what Christ mediated (Hebrews 8:6-8 NKJ).
The Christmas story should stir us to come together as the Body of Christ with a special set apart time to collectively give Him thanks and praise for this. That the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ signifies the beginning of Victory for every believer because we know how the story ends with His death and triumphant resurrection. To celebrate with great joy the fulfillment of the old covenants finding consummation in the new covenant with Christ Jesus.
What Does the Christmas Story Mean For Us?
What does this mean for us now that we are one with Christ and partakers of this new covenant? It means that now we have access to the Grace required to fulfill our roles in the new covenant. Each his own, man and woman, as we all have parts to play in God’s grand story of redemption and dominion. We are able to go and preach the Gospel to every living thing and make disciples of all nations.
We now have the ability to overcome and succeed where Adam and Eve failed. It is our destiny to rule and reign with Him who has all authority in Heaven and Earth. Bringing the goodness of the Lord and manifesting His glory to the world.
It is my prayer this Christmas season that every believer is given a revelation of His redemptive story and what it means that we live in a new covenant that is forever. I pray our capacity and hunger for the Lord and His word increase all the more. That we are not content to simply hear a nice sermon on Christmas Eve about baby Jesus. But that we would become awestruck at the magnitude of what he had prepared and accomplished for all time.
His only begotten son would be born as a human. Fully God, yes, but fully man as well. That Jesus was born and faithful unto His death, and then secured for us in the love of God peace forever by His resurrection. Thus making the Christmas story one that is a covenant forever as the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
God bless you all and may you have a very merry Christmas.
Keefer is thoughtful and reserved, withdrawn and observant. Upon those strengths he carry’s a measure of authority, and has a voice. He feels passionately about America and the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. His goals are to align his life for long term missionary work abroad in some of the darkest and dangerous places. He owes his life to Jesus and his hope rest only in Christ.
