Tag: advent

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

Jesus became man because what was needed was the death of a man who was more than man. The incarnation was God’s locking himself into death row.

Christ did not risk death. He chose death. He embraced it. That is precisely why he came: “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

No wonder Satan tried to turn Jesus from the cross— in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11) and in the mouth of Peter (Matthew 16:21–23)! The cross was Satan’s destruction. How did Jesus destroy him?

Hebrews 2:14 says that Satan has “the power of death.” That means Satan has the ability to make death fearful. “The power of death” is the power that holds men in bondage through fear of death. It is the power to keep men in sin so that death comes as a dreadful thing.

But Jesus stripped Satan of this power. He disarmed him. He molded a breastplate of righteousness for us that makes us immune to the devil’s condemnation. How did he do this? By his death, Jesus wiped away all our sins. And a person without sin cannot be condemned by Satan. Forgiven, we are finally indestructible. Satan’s plan was to destroy God’s rule by condemning God’s followers in God’s own courtroom. But now, in Christ, there is no condemnation. Satan’s treason is aborted. His cosmic treachery is foiled. “His rage we can endure, for, lo, his doom is sure.” The cross has run him through. And he will gasp his last before long.

Christmas is for freedom—freedom from the fear of death. Jesus took our nature in Bethlehem to die our death in Jerusalem—all that we might be fearless in our city today. Yes, fearless, because if the biggest threat to our joy is gone, then why should we fret over the little ones? How can we say (really!), “Well, I’m not afraid to die but I’m afraid to lose my job”? No. No. Think!

If death is no longer a fear, we’re free, really free. We are free to take any risk under the sun for Christ and for love. No more enslavement to anxiety.

If the Son has set you free, you shall be free, indeed!

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

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

John 17:18

Christmas is a model for missions. Missions is a mirror of Christmas.

For example, danger. Christ came to his own, and his own received him not. So you also. They plotted against him. So you. He had no permanent home. So you. They trumped up false charges against him. So you. They whipped and mocked him. So you. He died after three years of ministry. So you.

But there is a worse danger than any of these, which Jesus escaped. So you!

In the mid-sixteenth century the missionary Francis Xavier (1506–1552) wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Malaysia) about the perils of his mission to China. He said, “The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy of God.   To distrust him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers could hinder us in the slightest degree.”

The greatest danger a missionary faces is not death but to distrust the mercy of God. If that danger is avoided, then all other dangers lose their sting.

In the end God makes every dagger a scepter in our hand. As J. W. Alexander says, “Each instant of present labor is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory.”

Christ escaped this danger—the danger of distrusting God. Therefore God has highly exalted him! As he, so you. Remember this Advent that Christmas is a model for missions. As I, so you. And that mission means danger. And the greatest danger is distrusting God’s mercy. Succumb to this and all is lost. Conquer here and nothing can harm you for a million ages.

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

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Jeremiah 31:31

God is just and holy and separated from sinners like us.

This is our main problem at Christmas—and every other season. How shall we get right with a just and holy God? Nevertheless, God is merciful and has promised in Jeremiah 31 (five hundred years before Christ) that someday he would do something new. He would replace shadows with the reality of the Messiah. And he would powerfully move into our lives and write his will on our hearts so that we are not constrained from outside but are willing from inside to love him and trust him and follow him.

That would be the greatest salvation imaginable—if God should offer us the greatest reality in the universe to enjoy and then move in us to know that reality in such a way that we could enjoy it with the greatest freedom and the greatest pleasure possible. That would be a Christmas gift worth singing about.

That is, in fact, what he promised in the new covenant. But there was a huge obstacle. Our sin. Our separation from God because of our unrighteousness.

How shall a holy and just God treat us sinners with so much kindness as to give us the greatest reality in the universe (his Son) to enjoy with the greatest possible joy? The answer is that God put our sins on his Son, and judged them there, so that he could put them out of his mind and deal with us mercifully and remain just and holy at the same time. Hebrews 9:28 says Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Christ bore our sins in his own body when he died (1 Peter 2:24). He took our judgment (Romans 8:3). He canceled our guilt (Romans 8:1). And that means our sins are gone (Acts 10:43). They do not remain in God’s mind as a basis for condemnation. In that sense, he “forgets” them (see Jeremiah 31:34). They are consumed in the death of Christ. This means that God is now free, in his justice, to lavish us with all the unspeakably great new-covenant promises. He gives us Christ, the greatest reality in the universe, for our enjoyment. And he writes his own will—his own heart—on our hearts so that we can love Christ and trust Christ and follow Christ from the inside out, with freedom and joy.

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

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9–11

Christmas marked the beginning of God’s most successful setback. He has always delighted to show his power through apparent defeat. He makes tactical retreats in order to win strategic victories.

In the Old Testament, Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, was promised glory and power in his dream (Genesis 37:5–11). But to achieve that victory he had to become a slave in Egypt. And as if that were not enough, when his conditions improved because of his integrity, he was made worse than a slave: a prisoner.

But it was all planned—planned by God for his good and the good of his family, and eventually for the good of the whole world! For there in prison he met Pharaoh’s butler, who eventually brought him to Pharaoh, who put him over Egypt. And finally his dream came true. His brothers bowed before him, and he saved them from starvation. What an unlikely route to glory!

But that is God’s way—even for his Son. He emptied himself and took the form of a slave. Worse than a slave— a prisoner—and was executed. But like Joseph, he kept his integrity. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9–10).

And this is God’s way for us too. We are promised glory—if we will suffer with him as it says in Romans 8:17. The way up is down. The way forward is backward. The way to success is through divinely appointed setbacks. They will always look and feel like failure.

But if Joseph and Jesus teach us anything this Christmas, it is this: What Satan and sinful men meant for evil, “God meant for good . . .” (Genesis 50:20).

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

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