BY DR. RICHARD D. DOBBINS

With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it is easy to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas. To help you keep focused on the Christian’s reasons for celebrating Christmas, I want to tell you about four things God wants every Christian to know about Christmas:

Christmas Teaches Us That Cod Keeps His Promises

Back in the Garden of Eden when God cursed Satan for deceiving Eve, He made Eve a promise. It is found in Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between thee Satan, and the woman, and between thy seed
(Satan* seed) and her seed (the woman* seed); it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ”

What this Scripture is saying is that, since the Fall, the human race would be divided into those who disobey and those who obey God. The disobedient are seen as the offspring of Satan; those who obey, as
the offspring of the woman. And that plays out to be the Antichrist and the Christ.

The “seed of the woman” is the first biblical reference to the Messiah and the promise is that, even though Satan’s offspring would “bruise” the heel of the woman’s offspring–that is, crucify Christ–in the end time Christ would bruise the head of the serpent’s seed.

Hundreds of years later, Isaiah reminded Israel that God had not forgotten this promise: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). God kept that promise made in the Garden of Eden in mind all through the ages, finally culminating in the Christmas story. Hundreds of years after Isaiah, an angel explained the
conception of Jesus and Matthew said Mary’s pregnancy was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (Matthew 1:18-25).

When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, God promises to forgive all of your sins (1 John 1:9). And Christmas teaches us that He keeps His promises He will forgive your sins and keep you saved as long
as you want to be saved.

Christmas Teaches Us That Family Is Important to Cod

No civilization has ever been able to survive the destruction of marriage and family. Jesus himself was born into a family, with Mary His mother, God His father and Joseph as His stepfather. The family is
necessary to protect the child. Remember that the family protected Jesus, and had it not been for His family, Jesus would have fallen victim to Herod’s sword (Matthew 2:13-23).

Every child needs two parents. One of the tragedies of our day is that one out of every three children born in our country is born to a single mother. A child without the benefit of two parents is handicapped.

Very clearly, children need the physical protection of the family. One of the ways families can protect their children physically is to see that guns are kept out of the reach of children. Alert parents could prevent the many tragedies every year of children and guns.

Families also need to protect their children spiritually. Pornography is a trap that children fall into, often through pornography in their homes or on computers. Parents also need to be aware of the revival in Satanism, witchcraft and evil in our society. And parents need to be alert about their children’s friends.

Christmas Teaches Us That Wise Men Seek God First

In Matthew 2:1-12, we learn about wise men who saw the star that announced Christ’s birth and journeyed from the east to find Him. Wise men put their spiritual search before material pursuits.

=God does not usually require us to take 2 1/2 years out of our lives as these men probably did for spiritual pursuits. But the priority is as applicable today as then–spiritual things in life take precedence
over the material things in life.

Many Christians serve God for what they can get out of Him; if they pray for something today and do not get it tomorrow, their faith wanes and their spiritual interest dies off. But these men had a deep hunger to discover God.

God does not want us to live in spiritual uncertainty. When these men found Christ, they were so certain of it that they lavished gifts upon Him. When you know that you have found Him, there is no uncertainty. The joy and peace of His presence dominates your life.

If you know that you have found Him, where is He in the priorities of your life? Wise men put Christ first.

Christmas Teaches Us That a New Race People Was Born On that first Christmas Day, not only was Jesus born, but a new race was born. Paul calls Christ the Second Adam (Romans 5) and makes it very clear that Christ came to begin a new race of human beings. He says that God sees all humans either as in Adam or in Christ. By nature, we are born into Adam’s race and are spiritual rebels against God. The only way to become a member of the new race is to be born again, to be born in Christ.

Paul says that as in the natural birth we come to bear the image of Adam, so when we are born again, we begin to bear the image of Christ (Romans 5:12-19). The first race was Adam’s race; the second race, a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Life before natural birth provides a good analogy to spiritual birth. Inside the womb we had very little awareness of the outside world, but there was an awareness of life. We could hear our mother’s
heart beat from about the seventh month on; we were capable of feeling a few hours before birth. There is that sense in which the natural man has spiritual awareness before the new birth in Christ. There are
spiritual senses, but they go astray.

But when you are truly born spiritually, when you come to know God through Jesus Christ, a brand new world of excitement and celebration opens up in your life.

If you have never been born again, you can be, right where you are. Paul says in Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord, ‘ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved. ” At that moment of faith, you are born again–and given a joy that will not end with Christmas!

THIS MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED BY GUIDELINES FOR GOOD LIVING, A PUBLICATION OF THE MEDIA MINISTRIES OF THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD, VOL. IV, NO. 51. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.