Christmas Day: Jesus is Savior

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, The Lord.

Luke 2:11

Over the past few weeks (26 days to be precise) has lead up to this day.  Jesus is our Savior.  The Old Testament points directly to Jesus and our dire need for Someone to save us from ourselves.  I feel like that if God had given us Jesus from the beginning we wouldn't appreciate Him.  Now we can study the Old Testament and understand why we can't save ourselves.

Jesus is the Lamb of God that serves as Atonement Sacrifice and the High Priest that offers Himself to cleanse us from our sins.  Once we are cleansed and forgiven we are clothed in Jesus' righteousness so that we can now come close to God.  The Holy Spirit dwells within us.

The Hebrew people would have been anticipating Jesus for years and generations yet they didn't recognize Him when He came.  The Shepherds saw the angels and believed.  They went to see Him and worship Him.  Why didn't the angels appear to the religious people?  I'm not sure but I can only imagine from their later reactions to Him, that they wouldn't have gone to Him.  In fact the Bible doesn't record any religious people going to see Him.  

Those who did go and worship Him are recorded for all eternity.  How can this apply to us?  Do you seek out Jesus amongst this rushed and chaotic season?  We have already received the greatest Christmas Gift we could ever need.  We needed a Savior and God gave us One.  Jesus saved us from sin by His sacrifice.  

All Advent long,  a theme that gifts are sacrifices have come up in all my devotions that I read.  The reasoning is that the gift is a sacrifice of the giver.  Didn't God sacrifice His Only Son?  Isn't that a huggggeee sacrifice just for us!  Have you thought about giving Jesus a gift?  What can you sacrifice to give to Him--time, money, all of you?

Merry Christmas!!!

With His Love,

A