December 20, 2020
Morning Service

The Hallmark movie channel plays nothing but the classic love stories and we all have watched them.  The problem is that the storyline is always the same.  It always goes in four stages; boy meets girl, something happens to break the relationship, something happens to bring restoration, and then they live happily ever after.  That storyline has been spun thousands of ways, but it is basically the same every time.  As we celebrate Christmas during this season, we are really celebrating the “Greatest Love Story” ever told and even it follows the same storyline.  Let me explain and we need to start at the beginning, but the spin in this love story it is a relationship between God and man.  Stage one; God and man meet or in reality God creates man:

 Gen 1:26-27  Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."  (27)  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God then saw what He had created and said it was good.  During the cool of the evening, God would come and walk in the garden and they both enjoyed this wonderful relationship and the fellowship that came along with it.  It was very good!  It was then, however, that something changed.  So begins stage two of our love story.  Something happened to separate God and man; and that was sin.

Gen 3:8-10  And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  (9)  Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"  (10)  So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."

            We all know the story of the serpent tempting them to disobey God and eat of the tree that had been forbidden for them to eat.  Sin had entered God’s perfect world and it changed everything.  Up to this point Adam had enjoyed the company of his Creator but now suddenly he was afraid and ashamed.  Sin had caused their relationship to change.  The perfection of the garden was now tainted and broken.  Sin has caused a separation in the relationship between God and man but why?

  Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

 Our Creator is Holy, Just and Good and cannot violate His character by having a relationship with anything or anyone that has been stained with sin.  Through Adam’s sin God and man’s relationship had been broken and needed fixed.  Of course man thought, as men do, “I can fix this” then asked what needed to be done.  God’s answer was to give man the Law of Moses to follow which man hoped would fix the problem.  The Law with its great details of what, when, and how to do things proved an extremely tall task for man to obey to perfection; for it was only through perfection that the relationship would be repaired.  Paul tells us man’s predicament in the Roman letter and then also gives the answer of why it failed:

Rom 3:23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

            All of us have sinned and deserve our wages; death (separation from God).  The path of restoration through the Law was impossible for us to achieve. Though we desire to reach perfection and make things right, we cannot overcome sin on our own; we need a Savior to bridge the gap.  It appears hopeless if not for that huge three letter word BUT.  Paul says “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  That is where our love story shifts to stage three; something happens to restore the relationship. The gift of God, what is the gift of God?  As we discussed last week, Christmas is a time of giving and is all about gifts.  The shepherds brought gifts of affirmation and praise, the wise men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh, but the greatest of the gifts was the Babe lying in the manger.  Jesus is the “Gift of God” which restores the broken relationship between God and man.  It is through His birth that we celebrate now, His sinless life, and is finalized by His death, burial and resurrection on Easter morning that sin was defeated.  By faith we accept this gift that is given to us.   Gabriel proclaimed this to the shepherds.

Luke 2:8-12  Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  (9)  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  (10)  Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  (11)  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  (12)  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

            “Do not be afraid, for I bring you good tidings of great joy” the angel proclaimed as he had done previously in our story to Zacharias, Mary and Joseph.  Adam was afraid when his relationship with God was broken, but now the shepherds are told not to be afraid because the gift of God had arrived.  The angel said “there is born to you this day a Savior.”  Jesus was born to us (a gift) as our Savior. He is our Savior saving us from the wages of our own sin. The Gift of God given is also the Restorer, Redeemer and Healer of mankind’s broken relationship with God.  A task that proved impossible for us to do on our own was now being completed by God Himself.  When we accept Jesus by faith as our Savior our relationship with our Creator is restored as if we had never sinned. This brings us to stage four of our love story; they live happily ever after.  Paul again explained it this way to the Roman church:

Rom 8:1-5  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  (2)  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  (3)  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,  (4)  that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (5)  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

            Who would have guessed that we find the true meaning of the Christmas season right here in the letter to the Romans?  The problem of sin that had existed from the Garden of Eden was resolved when that Baby in the manger lived a perfect life, died a death we deserved, then arose from the grave.  Jesus, our gift from God, restored the relationship that was broken in the garden.  All we have to do is accept that gift by faith as our own.  Paul again explained it to the Romans like this:

Rom 10:9-10  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  (10)  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.