God’s Gracious Gift

Christmas is a wonderful occasion to think deeply about God’s gift to us in Jesus Christ. Because of the fall, man is born spiritually dead, unable and unwilling to see his need for salvation, and utterly incapable of responding rightly to God’s truth, love, and holiness. Man chooses and acts according to the desires that flow from his nature, and his nature is utterly enslaved to the sin that he loves. In his darkened state, he doesn’t plead with God and seek His mercy, but rather sets his heart against His Creator. Yet it is such rebels that God graciously draws, causes to be born again, and gives even the necessary faith to repent and find eternal life in Christ. No one has greater need for the gift of life than the helpless and senseless dead man, and there can be no greater example of love than the God who mercifully imparts life not on the basis of our response, but solely on the basis of His great mercy and love, so that none may boast except in Christ alone.