Christmas is the Beginning.
The First Coming of Christ
Christmas – God makes His Presence known by coming into this world in human flesh – the Incarnation.
This timing is not arbitrary. The plan of God started before He even created the world. He had Christmas in mind before Adam and Eve. He knew the tragedy of sin before Genesis. He had in mind to restore all that Adam and Eve lost from the very beginning of time. Christ is the New Adam who has come into the world to save the world from sin and death.
Without Christmas, we would die in our sins. All of this is contained in the miracle of Christmas. Jesus Christ is the Messiah who fulfills the promises spoken in the first 39 books of the Bible. He is the Fulfillment of the Law and the Introduction of Grace.
The Law is conditional dependent on our behavior and therefore unable to save us because our behavior always falls short.
But Christ is God who lived out a perfect life. He never sinned. He was innocent. He is the only Person who has ever lived the perfect life that the first Adam failed to do. The second Adam never fell like the first one. He died on a cross, an innocent Man as a sacrificial Lamb offered for our sins. Without Him, without Christmas, we all are doomed.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6
For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Since Christ died, rose and ascended into heaven, God is marking time until……
The Second Coming of Christ
Christ came into the world as a Lamb and will come again as a Lion (Revelation 5:5). Revelation teaches that Christ will release the wrath of God upon this world in His perfect justice and righteousness. Sin cannot enter heaven. Therefore, sin requires judgment. Sin requires death. The Birth of Jesus Christ, His First Coming, is a gift to the world to save us all from the End of the World, His Second Coming.
All of this is orchestrated by God and revealed in the Word of God. The time between the First and Second Coming is the Church Age. This is the time that God has given us to repent of our sins and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation from the end of our life. We have time as a gift to recognize that Christmas is given to us each and every day to receive the Gift of eternal life and be spared at the Second Coming. The time is short. Our days are numbered.
Life as we know it will radically change. Those who know the forgiveness of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will live forever in heaven. Those who miss the whole meaning of Christ and Christmas will suffer judgment. Christmas is a matter of life and death.
Are you ready? Jeff Jackson of First Redeemer Church gives an excellent teaching on the SIGNS of The Second Coming of Christ, We have been given the Gift of the First Coming to prepare us for the Second Coming. Listen to Pastor Jackson’s message and see the Plan of God which will soon come upon the world.
At 19:35, he shows the Timeline and explains the Church Age. We are living in the Church Age which means that we have been given free will to accept Christ and become part of the church, the family of God.
