When I was a little kid I loved Christmas and the tree and the lights and the presents. But mostly I loved Jesus. I loved the little baby in the manger. I danced around the Christmas tree and sang with the angels to welcome him. And I loved the big Jesus too, the one about whom the Sunday school teacher told the wonderful stories. All the time growing up I heard the words and I read the words, and even became a member of the church when I was 13, but it wasn't until I was 21 years old and had truly surrendered my life to God that I realized why Jesus was born and lay that night in a manger in Bethlehem.
I was attending a little United Brethren church, and the preacher was talking about the blood of Jesus and how Jesus was the final blood sacrifice for sin. And it finally sunk in. That's why he came, that sweet little baby in the manger with the cows and sheep all around, and the shepherds kneeling and the wise men bringing their presents. He came to be the ram caught in the thicket, the sacrifice for sin that God Himself would provide.
Jesus came to satisfy all the temporary waiting-for-Messiah-to-come offerings commanded in the Old Testamenti:
Jesus came to be the final burnt offering and atonement for sin (The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29)
Jesus gave the final free-will grain offering (I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. John 6:57)
Jesus was the final fellowship or peace offering, bringing peace and fellowship between us and the Father God (For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20; … God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:19).
He was the final sin offering to purify us in God's sight (God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21; He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. 1 Peter 2:24 ESV)
Jesus was the final guilt offering cancelling all our sin-debt (He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:14 NLT).
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 1 Timothy 1:15
When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:16-17
He came to die for the worst of us, the sickest, the outcasts. And, whether we recognize it or not, that's all of us. Let's sing with angels and worship him!
I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die.
For poor on'ry people like you and like I...
I wonder as I wander out under the sky. ii
… How Jesus the Savior did come for to die.
i From Got Questions: "There are five main types of sacrifices, or offerings, in the Old Testament. The burnt offering (Leviticus 1; 6:8–13; 8:18-21; 16:24), the grain offering (Leviticus 2; 6:14–23), the peace offering (Leviticus 3; 7:11–34), the sin offering (Leviticus 4; 5:1–13; 6:24–30; 8:14–17; 16:3–22), and the trespass offering (Leviticus 5:14–19; 6:1–7; 7:1–6)."
ii I Wonder As I Wander. Appalachian. Collected by John Jacob Niles in Murphy, NC in July 1933 from a young traveling evangelist Annie Morgan.
Image in the Public Domain. The Nativity, Arthur Hughes (1832–1915)
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