The Radical Gift of Christmas
Christmas is more than twinkling lights, wrapped presents, and holiday cheer. At its heart lies a truth so profound that it has transformed billions of lives across two millennia: God became human. The infinite became finite. The eternal entered time. The Creator became creation.
This isn't merely a heartwarming story to tell around a fireplace. It's the foundation of everything Christians believe about salvation, hope, and connection with God. Without the birth of Jesus in human flesh, there would be no Easter resurrection. Without Christmas, there would be no Christianity.
Yet in our modern culture, we're witnessing an increasing attempt to sanitize Christmas of its central figure. "Holiday trees" replace Christmas trees. "Season's greetings" substitutes for "Merry Christmas." Public celebrations carefully avoid any mention of Christ, as if the holiday spontaneously appeared without reason or meaning.
But you cannot have Christmas without Christ any more than you can have Memorial Day without memory or Independence Day without independence. The entire celebration hinges on one staggering reality: God put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood.
This isn't merely a heartwarming story to tell around a fireplace. It's the foundation of everything Christians believe about salvation, hope, and connection with God. Without the birth of Jesus in human flesh, there would be no Easter resurrection. Without Christmas, there would be no Christianity.
Yet in our modern culture, we're witnessing an increasing attempt to sanitize Christmas of its central figure. "Holiday trees" replace Christmas trees. "Season's greetings" substitutes for "Merry Christmas." Public celebrations carefully avoid any mention of Christ, as if the holiday spontaneously appeared without reason or meaning.
But you cannot have Christmas without Christ any more than you can have Memorial Day without memory or Independence Day without independence. The entire celebration hinges on one staggering reality: God put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood.
The Unthinkable Descent
The book of Hebrews offers us theological depth to understand what happened at Christmas. The writer explains that Jesus, though superior to angels and all created beings, willingly became "a little lower than the angels" for a specific purpose. He became like us—fully human—to accomplish what we could never accomplish for ourselves.
The Gospel of John frames it beautifully: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:1,14)
Think about what Jesus gave up to make this journey.
He gave up His home in heaven. Jesus didn't begin His existence in Mary's womb. He existed for all eternity in the indescribable glory of heaven—a place so magnificent that human language fails to capture its wonder. He left all of that to be born in a dark, cold, smelly barn in Bethlehem, laid in a feeding trough meant for animals.
He gave up certain divine privileges. As God, Jesus is omnipresent—everywhere at once. But contained in human flesh, He could only be in one place at a time. God never gets hungry, thirsty, or tired. God cannot be tempted and will never die. Yet as the God-man, Jesus experienced hunger, thirst, exhaustion, temptation, pain, and eventually death itself.
He gave up continual worship. In heaven, angels ceaselessly worship the Lord. But when Jesus entered our world—the world He created—He wasn't greeted with worship but with contempt. The Creator came to His own creation, and His creation rejected Him. They mocked Him, ridiculed Him, and eventually spit in His face.
Isaiah prophesied it centuries before: He would be "despised and rejected by men, like one from whom men hide their faces." (Isaiah 53:3)
The rejection continues today. Despite centuries of waiting and longing, much of our world still tells Jesus to stay out. We've marginalized Him, privatized Him, and tried to erase Him from the very holiday celebrating His birth.
Yet knowing full well how He would be treated, Jesus came anyway. Motivated by love, compelled by mercy, and fortified with grace, He "did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being." (Philippians 2:6-7)
The Gospel of John frames it beautifully: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:1,14)
Think about what Jesus gave up to make this journey.
He gave up His home in heaven. Jesus didn't begin His existence in Mary's womb. He existed for all eternity in the indescribable glory of heaven—a place so magnificent that human language fails to capture its wonder. He left all of that to be born in a dark, cold, smelly barn in Bethlehem, laid in a feeding trough meant for animals.
He gave up certain divine privileges. As God, Jesus is omnipresent—everywhere at once. But contained in human flesh, He could only be in one place at a time. God never gets hungry, thirsty, or tired. God cannot be tempted and will never die. Yet as the God-man, Jesus experienced hunger, thirst, exhaustion, temptation, pain, and eventually death itself.
He gave up continual worship. In heaven, angels ceaselessly worship the Lord. But when Jesus entered our world—the world He created—He wasn't greeted with worship but with contempt. The Creator came to His own creation, and His creation rejected Him. They mocked Him, ridiculed Him, and eventually spit in His face.
Isaiah prophesied it centuries before: He would be "despised and rejected by men, like one from whom men hide their faces." (Isaiah 53:3)
The rejection continues today. Despite centuries of waiting and longing, much of our world still tells Jesus to stay out. We've marginalized Him, privatized Him, and tried to erase Him from the very holiday celebrating His birth.
Yet knowing full well how He would be treated, Jesus came anyway. Motivated by love, compelled by mercy, and fortified with grace, He "did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being." (Philippians 2:6-7)
Why Did He Do It?
The writer of Hebrews reveals two critical advantages to God coming in human flesh.
Someone Who Became Like Us
The whole point of Christmas is identification. Unlike the distant, aloof gods of other religions, the God of Christianity came close. He didn't remain detached. He entered fully into the human experience.
This matters more than we might initially realize. There are sorrows you can't Google. There are griefs no one teaches you in school. You only truly understand them when they live in your body.
You can't fully understand chemotherapy until poison becomes your medicine. You don't understand panic attacks until fear hijacks your body for no reason. You don't understand poverty until you've had to choose between rent and groceries.
And that's precisely why Jesus didn't stay distant. He came close. Because only a Savior who suffers can truly save sufferers.
Hebrews 4:15-16 drives this home: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
When you're struggling with temptation, Jesus isn't standing at a distance saying, "What a loser! How could you?" No—He's saying, "I get it. I understand the struggle. I know how tempting that is. Don't give in. Come to me. I know what you need. I can help you gain victory."
Most of us probably cave to temptation long before the enemy gives us his best shot. But Jesus never caved. He saw Satan's full arsenal and emerged victorious. He knows exactly how to enable us to overcome.
This matters more than we might initially realize. There are sorrows you can't Google. There are griefs no one teaches you in school. You only truly understand them when they live in your body.
You can't fully understand chemotherapy until poison becomes your medicine. You don't understand panic attacks until fear hijacks your body for no reason. You don't understand poverty until you've had to choose between rent and groceries.
And that's precisely why Jesus didn't stay distant. He came close. Because only a Savior who suffers can truly save sufferers.
Hebrews 4:15-16 drives this home: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
When you're struggling with temptation, Jesus isn't standing at a distance saying, "What a loser! How could you?" No—He's saying, "I get it. I understand the struggle. I know how tempting that is. Don't give in. Come to me. I know what you need. I can help you gain victory."
Most of us probably cave to temptation long before the enemy gives us his best shot. But Jesus never caved. He saw Satan's full arsenal and emerged victorious. He knows exactly how to enable us to overcome.
Someone Who Overcame What We Cannot
The second advantage is this: Jesus overcame what we could never overcome on our own.
Hebrews 2:14-15 explains: "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery."
Notice those crucial words: "by his death."
Christmas is special primarily because it's a prelude to Easter. Jesus was born for the purpose of dying. He knew He would become the sacrifice for our sins. He told His disciples repeatedly that He would die and rise again to defeat death once and for all.
Here's the beautiful logic: Jesus had to be fully human to represent us on the cross. And He had to be fully God to pay for all the sins of all humankind, once for all, for eternity.
Jesus didn't just take on part of us at Christmas. He took on a fully human body to save our bodies. He took a human mind to save our minds. He embraced human emotions to rescue our hearts. He took a human will to save our broken and wandering wills.
As the ancient church father Gregory of Nazianzus wisely observed, "That which he has not assumed he has not healed." Jesus became man in full so that He might save us in full.
Hebrews 2:14-15 explains: "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery."
Notice those crucial words: "by his death."
Christmas is special primarily because it's a prelude to Easter. Jesus was born for the purpose of dying. He knew He would become the sacrifice for our sins. He told His disciples repeatedly that He would die and rise again to defeat death once and for all.
Here's the beautiful logic: Jesus had to be fully human to represent us on the cross. And He had to be fully God to pay for all the sins of all humankind, once for all, for eternity.
Jesus didn't just take on part of us at Christmas. He took on a fully human body to save our bodies. He took a human mind to save our minds. He embraced human emotions to rescue our hearts. He took a human will to save our broken and wandering wills.
As the ancient church father Gregory of Nazianzus wisely observed, "That which he has not assumed he has not healed." Jesus became man in full so that He might save us in full.
The Invitation Still Stands
This is why Christmas is non-negotiable for Christians. This is why "God with us" through His Son born in the flesh matters eternally.
No other spiritual leader has done what Jesus did. Not one. Buddha didn't rise from the dead. Muhammad didn't conquer death. Only Jesus was born at Christmas to be like us and to overcome what we could not.
For these reasons, Jesus is absolutely unique and uniquely qualified to connect us with the Father. He opened wide the way for us to experience all the amazing gifts of connection to God—hope, peace, joy, love, and finding our home in Him.
The question isn't whether Jesus came. History confirms that. The question is whether you've opened your heart to Him. Do you sense He's pulling you close?
The invitation still stands, just as it did on that first Christmas night: Come home to God through Jesus. Trust that He came in the flesh to die on the cross to pay for your sin. Believe that through His resurrection He proved victorious over sin and death once and for all.
Christmas without Christ is meaningless. But Christ at Christmas changes everything.
No other spiritual leader has done what Jesus did. Not one. Buddha didn't rise from the dead. Muhammad didn't conquer death. Only Jesus was born at Christmas to be like us and to overcome what we could not.
For these reasons, Jesus is absolutely unique and uniquely qualified to connect us with the Father. He opened wide the way for us to experience all the amazing gifts of connection to God—hope, peace, joy, love, and finding our home in Him.
The question isn't whether Jesus came. History confirms that. The question is whether you've opened your heart to Him. Do you sense He's pulling you close?
The invitation still stands, just as it did on that first Christmas night: Come home to God through Jesus. Trust that He came in the flesh to die on the cross to pay for your sin. Believe that through His resurrection He proved victorious over sin and death once and for all.
Christmas without Christ is meaningless. But Christ at Christmas changes everything.
This blog was generated with the help of AI, and is based off of Pastor Brian's sermon on December 7, 2025: The Son's Solidarity.
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