What Christmas Means to Me
By Irvin Baxter
November 1, 2019
As Irvin saw all the Christmas lights, heard the Christmas carols and observed all the celebrations, he paused to ask himself: What does Christmas really mean to me?
I’m aware of the miracle of the virgin birth. I know about the angels appearing to the shepherds the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem. I’ve read about the Wise Men being led by the special star until they came to the place where the Christ child lay. I’ve heard about the miracles and the healings Jesus performed during His time on earth. But what did the coming of Jesus to the earth mean for me personally? One scripture answered my question and changed my life forever. It is found in 2 Corinthians 5:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)
When verse 17 says I can become a new creature, does this literally mean Jesus Christ can turn a lost human being into a new person? Yes, it does because it happened to me!
I have never been the same since the day I was “born again”. I’m not talking about some kind of an imagined pseudo experience. I’m talking about a genuine spiritual experience that happened to me on October 16, 1958. It changed my life forever!
Before I truly experienced Christ, I lived a life of condemnation and guilt. I thought God was angry with me and was anxious to punish me. But verse 18 said I could be “reconciled” to God. What does the word “reconciled” mean?
I took some Latin when I was in school. I learned the Latin word “concilio” means to “bring together”. The prefix “re” means “again”. The word “reconcile” means to “bring together again”.
All of us were separated from God by sin. But this scripture says we can be reconciled to God by Jesus Christ. How does that work?
I Found the Big Secret
It seemed like the harder I tried to find peace with God, the more I wrestled with condemnation. Then I found the big secret in verse 19. There it says God reconciled us to Himself by not “imputing” our trespasses to us. What does it mean when it says God will not impute our trespasses to us?
The word “impute” means “to place on the account of” or “to attribute to”. The secret is that once we are “in Christ” by being born again, God will no longer impute our trespasses to us. But that’s not fair! How could that possibly be?
Verse 21 explains it all:
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Jesus never sinned, but He loved us so much He volunteered for our sins to be imputed to Him, so that His righteousness could be imputed to us.
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Let’s Make it Really Simple
There was a law that ruled the human race from Adam until Christ. It was called “the law of sin and death.” It’s defined in Ezekiel 18:4,
“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” There it is. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)
All of us lived under the law of sin and death. However, God loved us and didn’t want us to die.
Therefore, He designed a plan to save us from the “law of sin and death.” God said, I will become a man and will be tempted like every other human being. However, I will not yield to those temptations. I will live a sinless life. Consequently, I will not deserve to die. But I will trick Satan into killing me anyway. When Satan kills me, he will have broken the law of sin and death, since only the soul that sins must die. Once the law of sin and death is broken by Satan, it will no longer be in force.
Romans 8:1-2 explains it this way:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)
How does His Death Pay My Sin Bill?
In Acts 2 the Apostle Peter was asked by the people what they must do to be saved. In Acts 2:38, he commanded them to,
“…Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38)
Peter said that baptism is for the remission of sins. But what does the word remission mean? The word remission comes from the word “remit”. When you receive a bill in the mail that says please remit by the tenth of the month, what are they asking for? Payment! Peter commanded the people to be baptized for the remission of sins. Baptism is for remission or payment for our sins.
Romans 6:3 says,
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3)
When we are baptized in the name of Jesus, at that moment, His death pays our sin bill! That means we don’t owe the bill of sin any longer, which is only paid by death. Jesus paid our bill through His death. We now have the promise of eternal life!
To learn more, read our blog post What Do You Mean Born Again here: https://endtime.com/what-do-you-mean-born-again/
The Answer in Simple Language
God robed Himself in a human body at Bethlehem. He lived a sinless life and then chose to die in my place. That means I don’t have to die and I now have the wonderful gift of eternal life!
THAT’S WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO ME!
