A Christmas Meditation that Will Encourage You and Inspire Worship

 

When was Jesus really born? When did He die?

Before I address those questions, I’ll provide a context for considering the when.

 

Why The First Christmas?

At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of a baby over 2000 years ago.

Yet as Christ-followers, we realize that the significance of His birth is tied to events about 33 years later: His death on the cross and resurrection. Without the cross and empty tomb, Jesus’ birth would have been no more significant than the delivery of other male infants born in ancient Judah.

What’s of ultimate importance is why His birth occurred. Why did God put on human flesh?

A holy, just God couldn’t sweep sin under the rug. Sin demanded a payment. But God devised a plan to satisfy His holy and just character as well as demonstrate His steadfast love for creatures made in His image. A perfect Christ died in in our place, paving the way for a relationship with God for those who would acknowledge their sin and put their faith in Jesus’ substitutionary death. His resurrection proved Jesus’ divinity beyond all doubt.

But today, I want to shift from the vital question of “Why was Jesus born?” to “When was Jesus born?” When we as Christ-followers grasp the perspective I’ll share on when, our praise and worship rooted in the why escalate!

 

Before Time Began

Scholars differ in citing the precise year of Jesus’ physical birth. I’ve read educated guesses anywhere from 1 B. C. to 6 B.C. Yet in one sense, Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection occurred a whole lot earlier than that.

The following insight concerning when boggles my mind and defies human logic, yet it exhibits God’s majesty and infinite wisdom.

• In Ephesians 1:4, referring to God’s initiative in our salvation, here’s how Paul cited the when of God’s saving grace: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”
• In 2 Timothy 1:9, Paul referred to salvation “which He gave us in Christ before the ages began” (emphasis mine). The italicized phrase means “since before time began.”
• Revelation 13:8 refers to people whose names are written in the book of life and who will worship Christ in heaven. The NASB translation of the verse calls Jesus the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” which refers to a time before the created order existed.

 

Extraordinary Provision

Imagine: in the inexplicable, mysterious mind of God, He knew before He created man that we would sin and need a Savior, someone who would fulfill His divine law perfectly and whose righteousness would be applied to us when we put our faith in His sacrificial death. That’s how God resolved the enmity between us and Him.

He did it when?

Before He created the universe and populated it with people.

He provided for our deepest need long before we would need it.

God’s plan of salvation, culminating in Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection, originated long before Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. Long before Mary cuddled Him in her arms for the first time. Even before the beginning of the Old Testament era, when the fetal stages of God’s plan of redemption began to materialize.

Here’s how the late pastor Ron Dunn put it: “Before there was a garden in Eden, there was a cross on Calvary’s hill!”

 

A Timely Truth

Meditating not only on why the first Christmas, but when it began in the mind of God, helps to counter the inevitable increase in despondency I feel every Christmas season. When I review this perspective, more gratitude erupts because whereas my feelings are subjective, the meaning of Christmas, its why as well as its when, are objective realities.

 

Poetic Expression

I wrote the following poem years ago in an attempt to capture the truth I’ve explained. Notice how each three-line stanza goes backward in time as a way to depict how God’s plan of redemption really commenced before time as we know it began.

BEFORE

Before Christ flailed tiny arms and cried;
before His virgin birth was prophesied,
on a dreaded Roman cross, He died.

Before the star-gazing caravan
took gifts to this infant God-man,
a crown of thorns was the Father’s plan.

Before Herod’s soldiers would contend;
before the first man and woman sinned,
the Son had decided to condescend.

Before He labeled himself “I AM.”
Before God spared Isaac with a ram,
Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb.

Before Jesus fought the devil and won;
before Mary conceived the Holy One,
the Father sacrificed His only Son.

Before bread and wine in the upper room;
before His body formed in Mary’s womb,
Jesus lay lifeless in a borrowed tomb.

Before Gethsemane’s heart-wrenching prayer;
before innkeepers had no room to spare,
Calvary existed. A cross was there!

Some men live without ever knowing why.
Meaning is elusive. They search and they sigh.
Not Jesus Christ: He was born to die.

__________

In a more extensive manner, I explain this devotional thought in a chapter of my new book, Can You See the Cross from There? Grace and Grit for Sufferers and Sinners.

All 31 chapters open with an original faith poem, then offer biblical teaching, application questions, a prayer and a pertinent quote from another Christian author. It’s available at Amazon Books. In addition to your own copy, the readings make a meaningful gift for someone this Christmas season.

Try the link below, or google my name and the book title at Amazon Books.

Please let me know if you order it.

May you experience a Christmas chock-full of meaning!