Part One
As the new year begins, and thinking back on the Christmas season, I noticed a couple of things. One, the New Testament began with a connection to the Old, a continuation of God’s story. Secondly, I noticed that the very first chapter of the New Testament revealed the greatest reason of all for the Christmas season, the primary reason why Jesus came!
First, the continuation from Old to New. Notice the very first verse of the New Testament, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah (Christ), the Son of David, the son of Abraham.” Abraham shows up the first time in Genesis 11:26, “Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” A few verses later, in Genesis 12:1-3, God speaks to him. “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth … To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you … And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The rest of the Old Testament, in one way or another, tells the story of God’s interaction with Abraham (his name was changed from Abram to Abraham) and his descendants. David was a distant descendant of Abraham, and Jesus was an even further descendant. In fact, it was well over 2000 years from Abraham to Jesus. God is apparently in charge of history on a long-term scale, Old Testament, New Testament, and continuing!
Now, the second thing I noticed was in the dream of Joseph, a small-town carpenter whose fiancé was pregnant, and not by him! He was most certainly in emotional turmoil, yet we are told that, “… Joseph … being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.” But God interrupted his plans; “… behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:18-21)
Wait! Don’t miss the reason here stated, “He will save His people from their sins.” That’s it! The point of it all, the reason for the season! From Genesis 3 onward, it’s been obvious that the problem above all problems is sin! Everything God has done since that point (and even before then) has been to save us from the sins that cause all our problems! In fact, the New Testament tells us how Jesus accomplished this goal; in the gospels, and then throughout the entire New Testament, to the very end of the last book, Revelation!
No room here to tell the “how” this was accomplished, but I have to ask myself how well this goal is being accomplished in my life, daily? And in your life? Have you been saved “from” sin? Are you being daily saved “from” sin? Or, do you just go along sinning daily and expecting that the Scripture meant only to save us from the ultimate, final, eternal, result of our sins? If you’ve been saved from slavery, you are not still a slave. If you’ve been saved from drowning, you are not still in the water! If you’ve been saved from sin, you are not continuing to live a life dominated by sin!
Listen, Jesus came to save us FROM our sins!
Everything is About God 