Author: Nate Korpi

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10

For many people Christmas is a reminder of loss. people who will not celebrate the holidays with us. If that is you don’t block it out. Feel it. What is love for, if not to intensify our affections—both in life and in death? But do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructive to be bitter.

Jesus came at Christmas that we might have eternal life. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Do you feel restless for home? When we have family coming home for the holidays. It feels good. The bottom-line reason for why it feels good is that we are destined in the depths of our being for an ultimate homecoming. All other homecomings are foretastes. And foretastes are good. Unless they become substitutes. Don’t let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final, great, all-satisfying sweetness. Let every loss and every delight send your hearts a-homing after heaven.

Christmas. What is it but this: I came that they may have life—that we might have life, now and forever.

Make your now richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of forever. It is so near.

Good News of Great Joy: 25 Devotional Readings for Advent by Desiring God Foundation

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates
is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

Hebrews 8:6

Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his blood—the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20)—finally and decisively purchased and secured the fulfillment of God’s promises for us.

It means that God, according to the new-covenant promises, brings about our inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ.

And it means that God works this transformation in us through faith—faith in all that God is for us in Christ.

The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith in Christ.

The best place to see Christ working as the mediator of the new covenant is in Hebrews 13:20–21:

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The words “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight” describe what happens when God writes the law on our hearts in accord with the new covenant. And the words “through Jesus Christ” describe Jesus as the mediator of this glorious work of sovereign grace.

So the meaning of Christmas is not only that God replaces shadows with reality, but also that he takes the reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our hearts. He does not lay his Christmas gift of salvation and transformation under the tree, so to speak, for you to pick up in your own strength. He picks it up and puts it in your heart and in your mind and gives you the seal of assurance that you are a child of God.

Good News of Great Joy: 25 Devotional Readings for Advent by Desiring God Foundation

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent, that the Lord set up, not man. . . . They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”

Hebrews 8:1–2, 5

We’ve seen it before. But there’s more. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing.

Hebrews 8:1–2, 5 is a kind of summary statement. The point is that the one priest who goes between us and God and makes us right with God and prays for us to God is not an ordinary, weak, sinful, dying priest as in the Old Testament days. He is the Son of God—strong, sinless, with an indestructible life.

Not only that, but he is not ministering in an earthly tabernacle, with all its limitations of place and size, that gets worn out and moth-eaten and soaked and burned and torn and stolen. No, Hebrews 8:2 says that Christ is ministering for us in a “true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” This is not the shadow. It’s the real thing in heaven. This is the reality that cast a shadow on Mount Sinai for Moses to copy.

According to Hebrews 8:1, another great thing about the reality which is greater than the shadow is that our high priest is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. No Old Testament priest could ever say that.

Jesus deals directly with God the Father. He has a place of honor beside God. He is loved and respected infinitely by God. He is constantly with God. This is not shadow reality like curtains and bowls and tables and candles and robes and tassels and sheep and goats and pigeons. This is final, ultimate reality: God and his Son interacting in love and holiness for our eternal salvation.

Ultimate reality is the persons of the Godhead in relationship, dealing with each other concerning how their majesty and holiness and love and justice and goodness and truth shall be manifest in a redeemed people.

Good News of Great Joy: 25 Devotional Readings for Advent by Desiring God Foundation

Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

Hebrews 8:1–2 

The point of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, came not just to fit into the earthly system of priestly ministry as the best and final human priest but to fulfill and put an end to that system and to orient all our attention on himself, ministering for us first on Calvary as our final sacrifice and then in heaven as our final priest. The Old Testament tabernacle and priests and sacrifices were shadows. Now the reality has come, and the shadows pass away.

Here’s an Advent illustration for kids—and those of us who used to be kids and remember what it was like. Suppose you and your mom get separated in the grocery store, and you start to get scared and panic and don’t know which way to go, and you run to the end of an aisle, and just before you start to cry, you see a shadow on the floor at the end of the aisle that looks just like your mom. It makes you really hopeful. But which is better? The hopefulness of seeing the shadow, or having your mom actually step around the corner?

That’s the way it is when Jesus comes to be our high priest. That’s what Christmas is. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing: Mom stepping around the corner of the aisle and all the relief and joy that gives to a little child.

Good News of Great Joy: 25 Devotional Readings for Advent by Desiring God Foundation

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Hebrews 2:14–15

Hebrews 2:14–15, expresses so clearly the connection between the beginning and the ending of Jesus’s earthly life—between the incarnation and the crucifixion. These two verses make clear why Jesus came, namely, to die. They would be great to use with unbelieving friends or family members to walk them step-by-step through your Christian view of Christmas. It might go something like this, a phrase at a time:

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood . . .

The term “children” is taken from the previous verse (Hebrews 2:13) and refers to the spiritual offspring of Christ, the Messiah (see Isaiah 8:18; 53:10). These are also the “children of God” (John 1:12). In other words, in sending Christ, God has the salvation of his “children” especially in view.

It is true that “God so loved the world, that he gave [Jesus]” (John 3:16). But it is also true that God was especially gather- ing “the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:52). God’s design was to offer Christ to the world and to effect the salvation of his children (see 1 Timothy 4:10). You may experience adoption by receiving Christ (John 1:12).

. . . he himself likewise partook of the same things [flesh and blood] . . .

This means that Christ existed before the incarnation. He was spirit. He was the eternal Word. He was with God and was God (John 1:1; Colossians 2:9). But he took on flesh and blood, and clothed his deity with humanity. He became fully man and remained fully God. It is a great mystery in many ways. But it is at the heart of our faith—and what the Bible teaches.

. . . that through death . . .

The reason he became man was to die. As God pure and simple, he could not die for sinners. But as man he could. His aim was to die. Therefore, he had to be born human. He was born to die. Good Friday is the purpose of Christmas. This is what most people today need to hear about the meaning of Christmas.

. . . he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil . . .

In dying, Christ de-fanged the devil. How? By covering all our sin. This means that Satan has no legitimate grounds to accuse us before God. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33)—on what grounds does he justify? Through the blood of Jesus (Romans 5:9).

Satan’s ultimate weapon against us is our own sin. If the death of Jesus takes it away, the chief weapon of the devil—the one mortal weapon that he has—is taken out of his hand. He cannot make a case for our death penalty, because the judge has acquitted us by the death of his Son!

. . . and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

So we are free from the fear of death. God has justified us. Satan cannot overturn that decree. And God means for our ultimate safety to have an immediate effect on our lives. He means for the happy ending to take away the slavery and fear of the now.

If we do not need to fear our last and greatest enemy, death, then we do not need to fear anything. We can be free. Free for joy. Free for others.

What a great Christmas present from God to us! And from us to the world!

Good News of Great Joy: 25 Devotional Readings for Advent by Desiring God Foundation