The Cross

The Greatest Transformer

For Christmas to have meaning, it cannot be separated from the Cross. The angel said at the birth of Jesus, “He shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21 KJV). Jesus himself said, speaking of His death, “To this end was I born” (John 18:37 KJV). He was the only person that’s ever been born in history who was born with the purpose of dying. The apostle Paul years later said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

The central message of Christmas is that Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection, can transform both individuals and society. Almost everyone at some time or another feels moral guilt and failure. It’s like the little boy who said, “I guess I was born wrong.” Online and in every newspaper and magazine we pick up, and in every newscast that we watch, we see a picture of hate and lust and greed and prejudice and corruption manifested in a thousand ways. And the fact that we have to have police and jails and military forces indicates to us that something is wrong with the human race, and something is radically wrong with human nature.

“Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus; who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!”        (Philippians 2:5-8) NIV