THE PHILANTROPISTS @ TIM CHALLIES: CECIL B. DAY WHO STARTED DAYS INN
THE CENTRAL EVENT of Christmas is that Jesus Christ was not just born. Jesus is the one great personage who wasn’t simply born.
The teaching of the Bible, of course, is that he had an existence before he was born, and therefore, Jesus was not just born; he was given to us. He’s the gift Christmas is about. You see what Paul says. ‘He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?’
This is the one gift that, if you have it, you have all the other gifts That’s what Paul is saying. This is the one gift that, if you reject it, you lose all other gifts. That’s what Paul is saying. This is a theme of the Bible. There are some other Christmas passages that talk about this. For example, Isaiah 9. It’s one of the texts on which the Messiah is based.
For unto us a Child is born
Unto us a Son is given
It’s a gift. John 3:16: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son …’ Here we have Paul saying God ‘… did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all …’ Therefore, as Paul says elsewhere, Jesus Christ is the inexpressible gift. Inexpressible he says. ‘Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!’
---Tim Keller, Pastor Redeemer Presbytrian Church, NYC
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