For some, Christmas is a time of year to see friends and family, share gifts, relax and eat a lot of food. For others, the core of the Christmas season is the baby Christ in a manger. 

  We enjoy babies; we love babies; we adore babies. Babies are loveable and cute. They are also neither confrontational nor intimidating. Babies will not rebuke those in error; they will not condemn sin nor challenge the status quo. It is only natural then, that a sinful society that tolerates all kinds of deviant behavior: abortion, adultery, homosexuality, covetousness, divorce, etc. would seek peace with God through a helpless nonconfrontational baby.  Yet if anyone wants salvation, they must come to the adult Jesus and step away from the manger.  Jesus grew up into a man and spoke,

“If you love me, keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15).

Salvation does not belong to those who gaze into the manager, but to those who earnestly look unto the cross humbly bearing their own as Christ did His. 

“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. . .having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:19,20).

 

“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). 

 

“Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Heb. 5:8, 9).

   We must therefore, go to the adult Jesus for the remission of sins. We must go to the adult Jesus to learn of God. We must go to the adult Jesus to learn of His one church. We must go to the adult Jesus to learn what true worship is and what God expects of us.

Beware of Christmas Fiction!

1) Three Wise Men at a Manger?

The wise men who came to see Jesus did not find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothing in a manger. Rather they came to His “house” and found a “child” (Matt. 2:11). Nor does the scripture identify there being three wise men. It is silent on the number of men present. Herod, who lived during the time of Christ, understood that Jesus could have been up to two years old (Matt. 2:7, 16).

2) Jesus Born on December 25?

The Bible nowhere identifies the date of Jesus’ birth.  Since it is silent, we should be also. We ought to speak as the oracles of God and not from speculation (1 Pet. 4:11).

3) Observing Jesus’ Birth?

The Bible nowhere tells us to observe Jesus’ birthday. Rather we are to observe His death on the first day of the week (1 Cor. 11:23ff; Acts 20:7). “A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth” (Eccl. 7:1).

4)  Keep Christ in Christmas? 

How can we keep Christ in Christmas, when He was never there to begin with? The first century did not know of Christmas. It was invented hundreds of years later. If one can keep Christ in Christmas, we suppose that he can also keep Jesus in the fourth of July. The place where Christ needs to be kept is in man’s life, in the family’s function and in the church’s work rather than in some lonely fictitious external observance one day a year!

    For some, Christmas is a time of the year to see family and friends. For others, Christmas is a time of the year to find Jesus in a manger. Yet, Jesus’ religion is not a “time of the year” thing, but rather a daily vocation (Heb. 3:13). Likewise, it doesn't abide in a manger, but in truth (Jn. 8:32; 14:6)