December 10
The Cross of Christ in this Season of Christmas.
Christmas is part of the big three (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter) for many people. Christmas (the birth of Jesus) is inseparable from Good Friday and Easter (his death and resurrection). We can view the nativity as the start of the salvation story fulfilled in the cross and resurrection, which are the center of Christian hope.
The eternal Son of God became a human being (John 1:14). He is fully God and Man, a full human being. The virginal conception is necessary to obtain both a true human nature and a completely divine nature. Therefore, His death is superior and sufficient to forgive anyone who believes specifically in Christ and his death and resurrection for sin. Why? Because he died as a substitute for our sins and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
Jesus was a human being. He was made like us in every way except for one: Jesus is perfectly Holy. This means he is like us in every way excerpt for sin. Hebrews 4:15 helps us understand: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 7:26-27 also clarifies: “such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
Since the fall of man in Genesis 3, every human father produces a son or daughter with his sin nature. However, the Lord Jesus Christ does not have a sin nature. Because of the virginal conception, he did not inherit the curse of depravity of Adam’s race. The virginal conception is essential!
In the person of Jesus Christ, Christians have a mediator, AND because Jesus is righteous and Holy, his righteousness is imputed to the believer when they believe in Jesus Christ. The simple but profound truth is that believers in Jesus have salvation: the forgiveness of sin. He is our hope!
He becomes a human being and dies on the cross for sinners, like me.
Christ’s sacrifice, unlike the Old Testament sacrifices, is once for all. Just before he dies, Christ cries, “It is finished” (John 19:30). In 1 Peter 2, the uniqueness of Christ’s sacrifice is greatly stressed. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1Peter 2:24).
There is no more sacrifice for sin, Hebrews insists (Hebrews 10:26). Christ’s sacrifice is once for all, paying for our sins and grounding our forgiveness and our assurance before God — we don’t have to earn our way into God's presence, nor can we. All these things flow from the cross. They flow from the sacrifice of Christ. They flow from his shed blood.
All who transfer their faith to Jesus Christ, specifically in his death and resurrection for sin, will be forgiven.