Part 6—The Fifth of the 7 C’s: Christ

And of all the Bible’s teachings, the most well-known is of course the birth of Jesus Christ—what’s commonly known as the Christmas story. And just like all of the Bible’s historical accounts, it’s not just an interesting story—it’s the inspired record of real events.

In fact, it’s the description of the beginning of the most important events that have ever occurred here on earth: events prophesied hundreds of years before they ever happened.

Why did the “babe in the manger” need to come into this world in the first place? Because we live in a broken world, not the “very good” world God created.

In the gospel accounts, the Prince of Peace is born, God takes on human flesh, and eventually (as we’ll see next in the 6^th of our 7 C’s) conquers sin and death by his death and resurrection, and reconciles sinful believers to the holy God of the Bible.

But why? Why did these events, told and retold for the last 2,000 years all over the planet, need to happen? Why did the “babe in the manger” need to come into this world in the first place? Because we live in a broken world, not the “very good” world God created.

A Broken World

Most people, if they are truly honest with themselves, know that something is dreadfully wrong with this life. We recognize that even though we live in a world full of marvelous beauty and wonder, there’s also great evil—something broken about this place, something just not right. And we know that no matter how good life may be at this moment, there is an end coming.

From the moment we begin our existence, our life’s “clock” begins a relentless countdown toward our death. We don’t know when that day may be, and for some it comes sooner than for others.

What Will Happen When You Die?

Many believe that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. So, the question then is, “Are you a good person?”

Pretend that on the day you were born, an invisible camera came into being and recorded everything you ever thought, every deed you ever did, and every word you ever said. All of the things you’ve done that you thought no one ever saw.

And on the day you died, you stood in front of God, in his courtroom, and were judged by his standards based on the evidence shown—streamed from the video captured by that camera. How would you like to sit down on a nice cozy couch with God at your side and watch a slow-motion rerun of your life in intimate detail? How would you like to do that with your mom?

As you watched that record, would you be found guilty of any of the following sins? Lying, stealing, greed, hatred, envy, violence, idolatry, gossip, blasphemy, adultery, murder, arrogance, deceit, cruelty, occult practices, drunkenness, sexual deviancy, unforgiveness, abuse, disrespect, spite, lust, viewing pornography, slander. . .?

The Bible says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Standing Before a Good Judge

Based on the evidence against you, would God judge you innocent and worthy of heaven, or guilty and deserving of eternity in hell? Be honest . . . even by man’s standards most people wouldn’t consider us good, but certainly—according to the all-knowing, perfect God—you are not a good person (none of us are).

The Bible says that all people have sinned and are guilty before God, who is a holy and righteous judge (Romans 3:23). Many have an idea of God that he is only merciful and will just pardon us if we ask for forgiveness. But an honest judge must punish the guilty people brought before him or else he would be an unfair judge. A good judge cannot simply free guilty criminals like frauds, thieves, rapists, and murderers, because it simply wouldn’t be fair!

[W]ho will by no means clear the guilty… (Exodus 34:7).

We’re helpless to pardon ourselves; no amount of religion or good works can pay for our crimes or change our sinful nature. So, is there any hope? Yes!

The Good News

The good news recorded in the Bible is that in an amazing act of undeserved grace and mercy, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ (God in the flesh, fully God and fully man, born of the virgin Mary), to live a perfect life and die on a cross, to bear the punishment sinners deserve, and to be our ransom (Mark 10:45).

God loves his people so much that he literally sacrificed himself and bore the punishment we deserved to pay but couldn’t. Jesus died, rose again after three days and conquered sin and death. And for those who put their faith and trust in him alone for their righteousness, they can be saved from the coming wrath of God against sinners.

We can be released from our judgment in God’s court of law because Jesus paid our debt in full. God promises that those who repent and believe the good news about Jesus Christ will be forgiven of their sin and have eternal life with their Creator God (John 3:18).

You see, repentance is not just saying you’re sorry to God. It means a change of heart about obeying God and his Word (the Bible). It includes a godly sorrow that comes from admitting you are a sinner, deserving of God’s punishment, leading to a desire to follow God and live a Christ-centered life.

Our Creator and Redeemer

This is why Christ was born. However, the Son of God (the second part of the holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit) “has reigned in harmony with his Father from eternity past. The Bible begins with the truth of the Creator”1:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

“The Gospel of John begins similarly and identifies the agent of Creation as the Son”2:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:1–3).

So, “at Christmastime, we celebrate the day that the eternal Creator entered his creation. The Creator who stretched out the heavens was laid beneath them in a manger.”3

“The limitless Son of God took on human limitations. As a baby, Jesus depended on Joseph and Mary for care and nourishment. Yet the humility of his incarnation didn’t detract from the glory of his deity”4:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Sinners Reject Their Creator

“Although full of glory, the Lord Jesus was not welcomed, even from birth. The baby’s cradle was a manger because no proper room could be found. Lowly shepherds visited the newborn Savior. King Herod sought to kill Jesus by ordering the slaughter of the babies in [and around] Bethlehem. Creation neither knew nor received their Creator”5:

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him (John 1:10–11).

“The same rejection happens today as ‘Merry Christmas’ is replaced with ‘Happy holidays,’ and nativities are banned from public display. These outward changes are a sign of hearts that refuse Jesus. People hang Christmas lights yet hide their eyes from the ‘true light, which gives light to everyone’ (John 1:9). Why?”6

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed (John 3:19–20).

“The reason so many reject Jesus, the ‘light of the world’ (John 8:12), is that they love the sin that Christ’s light exposes. Sinful mankind would rather cling to their [pretended] independence, immorality, idolatry, irreverence, and indulgences than turn in repentant faith to Jesus as the only Savior from sin and Lord of life.”7

“Many continue to reject the Prince of Peace, and the enemy, Satan, “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), strives to blind men from the light.”8

“The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). “But there is hope. God the Father makes rescue missions into dark enemy territory.”9

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13–14).

“Redemption means to free by paying a ransom. Christ gave his life as a ransom to the Father by dying in the sinner’s place (Matthew 20:28; 1 Peter 2:24). The Son willingly gave himself to be laid in the manger and later laid on the cross. In his book God’s Gift of Christmas, John MacArthur writes,”10

Those soft little hands, fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb, were made so that nails might be driven through them. Those baby feet, pink and unable to walk, would one day walk up a dusty hill to be nailed to a cross. . . . Jesus was born to die.11

“Yes, Jesus was born to die for sin and rise in victory. And the sinner who receives Jesus becomes a child of God.”12

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12–13).

“Because of Jesus’ birth into this world for redemption, the sinner [descendants of Adam] can be born into the family of God. That’s reason to celebrate at Christmas and throughout the year!”13 And if you have not done so before, I encourage you to stop and pray to God, thank him for his mercy and for what Jesus did, and to put him first in your life.

Creation Requires a Creator

Can you see now how detrimental the story of evolution has been to people’s belief in Jesus? Atheist Richard Bozarth couldn’t have said it more clearly in his “Meaning of Evolution” article published in the American Atheist magazine.

“[E]volution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary.

Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God. . . . If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing.”14

Creation via Evolution?

And for those believers who attempt to reconcile the story of evolution as being the mechanism God supposedly used to “create,” Bible skeptics such as Darwin Historian Peter Bowler have pointed out the fatal flaw in it as well.

If Christians accepted that humanity was the product of evolution—even assuming the process could be seen as the expression of the Creator’s will—then the whole idea of Original Sin would have to be reinterpreted. Far from falling from an original state of grace in the Garden of Eden, we had risen gradually from our animal origins. And if there was no Sin from which we needed salvation, what was the purpose of Christ’s agony on the cross?15

Indeed, if the first Adam was not a real man, who disobeyed God in a real garden and brought sin and death into the world, then why should people believe in the story about the last Adam—Jesus Christ—born in a manger whose entire life mission was to restore what was lost when Adam sinned at the fall.

In addition, if God is someday going to restore this broken world to the way it was in the beginning, but that beginning was full of death and suffering, why was Jesus born, what exactly was His purpose?

Science and Faith

Remember, just as science can’t prove that Jesus was born of a virgin, it also cannot prove that God created everything in six days or whether there was a supposed “Big Bang.” In fact, “science” can’t prove any historical event, because it’s limited in dealings about the past.

Historical events are best known to be true because of reliable eyewitness accounts, such as the testimonies that Jesus’ tomb was empty after three days and his later appearing to as many as 500 people at once as described in 1 Corinthians 15:6.

Ultimately, we know the resurrection is true because God plainly tells us in his Word.

Ultimately, we know the resurrection is true because God plainly tells us in his Word. Just as we have faith that Jesus was born of a virgin because of the plain reading of Scripture, we can also know God created the world just as described in Genesis and is confirmed in the New Testament.

Conversely, if we tell the world we don’t believe God created as Genesis states, then why should we be surprised at their lack of trust in the gospel when we then insist on believing the plain words in Scripture concerning Christ’s birth, death and bodily resurrection? After all, the Psalmist wrote,

“Thy word is true from the beginning” (Psalm 119:160 KJV).

We can also trust that Jesus did indeed fulfil his mission here on earth by his sacrifice at Golgotha. Which is the topic of our following stop on our journey through the 7 C’s of history we’ll be examining next time—the 6^th C—Cross!