This Christ whom the disciples called Master is He who, in eternity, rested on the bosom of the Father without a mother, and in time rested on the bosom of a mother without a father—Son of Man and Son of God, just as old as His Heavenly Father and ages older than His earthly mother. He who was in the manger later mastered disease into health, blindness into sight, deafness into hearing, lameness into suppleness and strength of muscles, leprosy into cleanness, storms into calm, scarcity of bread into food plenteous, dumbness into speech, death into life and grace into resurrection glory.
He mastered sin, Satan, suffering, death, the grave and Hell. And through Him we can be more than conquerors, mastering all things that mar proper observance of Christmas, mastering the mind so that it thinks God’s thoughts after Him, mastering Satan by resistance until he flees from us, mastering our bodies until we shall be “always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (II Cor. 4:10) to the glory of Him who “being in the form of God…made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant…and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:6–8).
At this Christmas season, every heart ought to say, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (II Cor. 9:15). You did not ask God for this gift; it was freely bestowed.
At this Christmas season, will you receive presents from earthly friends and reject the gift of God? Base ingratitude! You can commit no greater sin than that of rejecting Jesus Christ. Everything you ever did fades into insignificance in the face of your refusal of the gift of God. Confess your utter worthlessness and simply accept the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s “unspeakable gift.”
At this Christmas season, we may not bring Him as costly a present as the Magi brought, but we can bring to His feet and cradle the frankincense of our joy, the pearls of our tears, the kiss of our love, the prostration of our worship; we can move someone to faith in Him, and give testimony that Jesus, our Saviour, our Lord, is Son of Man without sin, Son of God with power and glory, whose name is ceaseless music at the throne which overlooks the world.– R G Lee
