Silent Night

"Silently, How Silently His Wondrous Gift is Given....So God Imparts to Human Hearts the Wonders of His Heaven"
You probably recognize the title of this post as being from the lyrics of Silent Night. This phrase is my favorite line in the entire song. Yes, we can celebrate Jesus' birth at Christmas, however, the true meaning of Christ's coming is that God would shortly be leaving the Holy of Holies in the Temple and moving His residence into the hearts of those who, in humbleness, would receive Him into their hearts. 1 Corinthians 6:19 "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price."

Christmas takes place in each of us the hour we first believe, no matter what time of the year it is. Christ is born into our hearts just as He was born into the world 2010 (give or take a few) years ago. We instantly are given the Holy Spirit as He comes into our dead to God hearts and makes our hearts alive to God. The Bible uses the word quickens similarly to the life giving force an expectant mother senses when her baby is felt moving around and kicking inside. We experience "God in us our hope of Glory." Colossians 1:27 "God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

We are born into God’s Family. This is where the phrase born again comes from. “You have been regenerated [born again], not from a mortal origin [seed, sperm], but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God (1 Peter 1:23).” We were once born of human sperm; now we are born of the spirit of God. We are born a second time, thus born again.

Christmas took place inside of me personally when I was born again. The day before, God was not even on my radar. The next day all I knew was something unbelievably wonderful had happened. I was filled with joy and excitement about God. I wanted to know everything I could about Him and how to let Christ live His resurrected life in me. There was a complete paradigm shift in my heart.

We are given many presents from God at this personal Christmas of ours. At the moment we are born again we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. “In Him, we also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of our salvation having also believed, we were sealed in Him [Christ] with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory (2 Corinthians 1:22, New American Standard version).” Like a child whose hand is stamped as he pays for his ticket to the carnival, we too are stamped. The child can freely go out and come back through the gate because he has the official carnival stamp that indicates he paid for his ticket.

Jesus paid for our ticket on the cross. That payment gets us through the gate and into the Father’s throne room during our life here on earth and later into heaven when we die. The child’s stamp will wash off, but the Holy Spirit’s stamp is permanent and can never be removed. This gift lasts an eternity.

Additional gifts are given. God cannot seal us with His Holy Spirit until our temples are cleansed, so He cleanses our temples for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, “God made Jesus [who did measure up to God’s perfection] who knew no sin, to become SIN on our behalf (who would never be able to measure up and would always be inadequate in ourselves) so that we might become the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in Christ Jesus.” (Underline mine). This is called The Great Exchange.

What a transaction! Jesus takes our sins on Himself and we get His righteousness. Because of Jesus’ work on the cross, we now measure up just like Jesus measures up, but not because of anything we do. Our acceptance is based on what God the Father did through His Son for us.

But this is not all that happens to us on our personal Christmas day. Not only is Christ in us but we are in Christ. More than 140 passages use the similar phrases in Christ, in Him, in Whom, and through Him. For every one verse that tells us Christ is in us, there are ten verses that say we are in Christ. Some examples:

Ephesians 1:7--In Him we have (present tense) redemption [deliverance and salvation] through His blood, the remission [forgiveness] of our offences, in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor.

Romans 8:1--There is therefore NOW (present tense) no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I Corinthians 1:2--To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who HAVE BEEN (past tense) sanctified in Christ, saints by calling with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

These verses are only samples of the 140 other gifts we have already been given. These verses say we have salvation and forgiveness of sins. These gifts are God's grace! And God will never ever condemn us. God has already given us (past tense) everything that pertains to our being Godly and everything (present tense) that pertains to life. We are sanctified in Christ. We are saints.

Since we are now in God’s family, He considers us His children just as He does His Son Jesus. What a position of honor God has given us in Christ! As His children we call Him Abba. “For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the Spirit of adoption [the Holy Spirit] whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15-17).”

The word Abba suggests familial intimacy. In English it means papa or daddy. This kind of intimacy with God was unheard of and a stumbling block to the Jews. They did not, and some still do not, write out the word God as we do. They would have written G_ _. No other religion purports such an intimacy with their God! The verse goes on to validate that we are not only children of God but joint-heirs with Christ. Everything that Jesus inherits from His Father now belongs to us also. We are not part of the Trinity, but God provided a way for each of us to have a connected, intimate relationship with Him just as Jesus has a connected, intimate relationship with Him.

There is stability in our lives when we have experienced our very own personal experiential Christmas. What God gifts us with cannot ever be taken away from us. We take personally the foundational truth that cannot be shaken, “I am a child of God.” We might be a child of God who happens to be in financial trouble this Christmas, or are having relational difficulties. Regardless of what is going on externally, remember during this Christmas season, you are gifted with a true identity which comes from our Father. It is when our identity is based on who God says we are that we can begin to experience emotional security in our frazzled, exhausted world. Merry Christmas