One day a man fell into a pit. He was unable to get out of it as hard as he tried. Finally someone came along. It was Confucius. He observed the situation and said, “Poor fellow, if only he’d listened to me he never would have fallen in there.” Later Buddha walked by. He saw the man in the pit and said, “Poor fellow, if he’ll come up here, I’ll help him.” Then finally Jesus Christ came along. He said, “Poor fellow!” and jumped in the pit and lifted him out. (From A Foreign Devil in China by John Pollock, p. 54). That story illustrates the meaning of Christmas. The story of Christmas is the story of the incarnation.

“Incarnate” means “in the flesh.” “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:19). Christians believe that Jesus is fully God. There have been various folks who claimed that Jesus only appeared to be God or only had a spark of the divine. But according to Paul, Jesus did not have just part of the Divine nature, but all of it.

Christmas is the celebration of God’s coming into the world as a human being. But why did he do that? God put on human flesh because it pleased him to reconcile all things to himself through Jesus. (Colossians 1:20). Now there would be no reason for reconciliation unless there was a broken relationship. Indeed the Bible teaches that sin makes us God’s enemies.

But God coming in the flesh is only the beginning of our reconciliation to God. Paul tells us that Jesus made peace between us and God “through his blood shed on the cross.” The Bible teaches that Jesus paid the penalty that we owe for our sins. God’s forgiveness is not empty or arbitrary. Sin was paid for by God himself. In Jesus, God both punished sin and was punished for sin. This is how our forgiveness was achieved.

And here’s the really cool part, Jesus came not only to reconcile us back to God, but to reclaim that which was his in the first place.

“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. For everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end” (Colossians 1:15-18, The Message).

The NIV translates it this way: “all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy!.”

Ponder this for a while: Jesus isn’t just the reason for the season; he’s the reason for everything!

Everything!

Jesus is the reason everything exists in the first place.

Jesus is the reason anything exists at all.

Jesus is the reason anything still exists.

All of creation, that includes you and me, is for Jesus.

And he became one of us, so that he might reclaim that which was his by right anyway...only because of the incarnation, death and resurrection, everything becomes his in fact.

My question for you:

How should this truth affect how I think, act, feel and live?


Afterword:
And so, (warning: I'm about to sound John Piper-ish, but I didn't get this from him, I got it from this passage.)

I wonder if this passage teaches us that Jesus' primary reason for coming wasn't us. He came for himself. Wow.