The Greatest Gift

I don’t know if you’re a Christmas movie junkie, like myself, but if you are there is a constant theme running throughout most Christmas movies.   It is found in the famous words of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  After discovering that Christmas was not destroyed by his stealing the presents, the story reads:

      And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow 

      Stood puzzling and puzzling: How could it be so?

      It came without ribbons?  It came without tags!    

      It came without packages, boxes or bags!

      And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore 

      Then the Grinch though of something he hadn’t before!

      Maybe Christmas, he thought doesn’t come from a store 

      Maybe Christmas...perhaps…means a little bit more.

The theme that runs throughout almost every Christmas story is that the meaning of Christmas is about something more than presents. All gifts are but a shadow of this, the greatest of all gifts, the coming of the Lord Jesus.  Let's consider how the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of all.

A Good Gift is Necessary

First, a good gift is something that you need really need.    If you’ve ever seen the movie A Christmas Story, perhaps you’ll remember that the main character, Ralphie, wants more than anything “a red rider carbon action two hundred shot range model air rifle,” or a bb gun.  In his mind, he day dreams about defending his house as bandits try to intrude.  He sees the bb gun as a necessity.  Well, along with Ralphie, sometimes our definition of “necessity” requires a bit of modification.  But if ever a gift was truly needed, it was the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I love that line from O Holy Night –



        “Long lay the world, in sin and error pining
         till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. 
         A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
         for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” 

The Bible says exactly that – we are in the darkness of sin, in desperate need for Christ.   The Bible says “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).  Who has not willingly and knowingly done the wrong thing?  Who has not wished that could go back in time and take back their actions?  God sees our wrong doing and doesn’t call it a mistake or a slip up.  He calls it sin.  He calls it wickedness.  He calls it evil.  Upon hearing this, most people think – “I’m not really all that bad.  I’ve done some things that are wrong, but who hasn’t?”  I think I fit in with most people.  But that’s the point – “all have sinned.”  We are told in the Bible that God looked down from Heaven to see if that was any truly good person and what he found was that “there is none righteous, no not one.”  Because of our sin, we all deserve to perish and be separated from God forever.  God saw our desperate need, and so he provided Jesus Christ, the greatest of all gifts.  

A Good Gift Works

Secondly, a good gift must work.  This one is so obvious that it hardly needs to be said.  Imagine the disappointment a child would feel if he hurriedly tore off the wrapping to see an X-Box 360 and then heard you explain that you got on such a great deal because it didn’t work!  It would go from being the best gift of Christmas to being an insult!  Let me tell you very clearly, that God’s great gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ, works!  During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus explained why He came.  He said “I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).  As we heard earlier from the Angel of the Lord Mary was to “call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).  Jesus said “I came down from Heaven to do the will of Him that sent Me, and this is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believe in Him will have everlasting life and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:39).  So the claim, the advertisement on the front of the box, is a complete salvation from the judgment that we just saw everyone deserved.  We deserved eternal death, but he came to give us eternal life.  Hark the Harold Angels Sing is my absolute favorite Christmas carol of all time.  I love Charles Wesley’s words

“Mild He lays His glory by - born that man no more may die.

Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.”   

That’s the claim.  How do we know that this gift actually works?  How do we know that His promise is good and that He really does have the power over the death that rightly has a claim on us?  We don’t have to speculate.  We can go back in history and find about the true event, that after Jesus’ terrible and painful death on the cross, He victoriously brought Himself back to life.  He Himself explains the significance of that act.  He said, “I am he that lives, and became dead.  And behold, I am alive forevermore.  And I have the key of Hell and Death” (Rev. 1:18).  So we don’t have to wonder if can actually release us from death.  He proved that he has the keys when He Himself burst out of the grave as a victorious conqueror.  His death really was a full and satisfactory payment for sin.  And now we can have the assurance that Jesus gives eternal life to all who believe in Him for it.

A Good Gift Lasts

Thirdly, a good gift lasts.  As a kid, I remember getting a giant size Hershey's bar for being in the Sunday School Christmas program.  Mine would last about two days, tops.  My sister Bethany?  She could make that last until Summer Vacation.  She would eat a tiny little bit, with these small mouse like little bits.  I never understood her patience.  But still, no matter how slowly you eat the candy bar, it will be gone someday.  But the gift of life in Jesus Christ is a gift that lasts forever.  John 3:16 doesn’t read ‘life for six months until you renew your contract.”  Once received, it literally endures throughout all time.  It cannot be returned or exchanged.  God cannot take it back.

If today you receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior and tomorrow you fall and hit your head and start thinking crazy and you want to give back your eternal life, if you come to God and say I’ve decided I don’t want eternal life anymore, I’d rather have Hell.  God’s answer is: “too bad.”  The action cannot be undone.  Eternal life is eternal.  God’s reputation is on the line.  He promised that everyone who believes in Jesus will not perish.  He will not allow you to be an exception.  The perfect work of Christ is on the line.  Jesus said “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but to do the will of Him that sent Me – and this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone who sees the son and believes in Him will have everlasting life and I will raise Him up at the last day.”  Once you receive eternal life by simple faith in Jesus, you never have to worry about not having it. 

A Good Gift is Free

At Christmas, family and friends aren’t the only ones who give gifts you know.  Big companies love to give gifts at this time.  Maybe you’ve received an advertisement from Khols or some other shopping store.  Written in big letters - $10 gift card.  Ah, but we know we have to read the fine print.  Some of the moms out there know this exact gimmick.  There’s $10 after you spend fifty, and then only on certain items.  Businesses aren’t charities and there’s a catch.  We’ve come to expect that.  But we don’t expect that from the people who care about us.  Well, no one will ever care for you like Jesus.  He provides the gift of eternal life so freely and simply because He really does want you to have it.   The freeness of salvation is put so well in Ephesians 2:8, 9 - "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."  Or in the words of, O Little Town of Bethlehem,

“How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is giv’n;

 So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His Heav’n.

No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.” 

Again, it’s easy to be skeptical of such a fantastic offer.  I’m sure many of us have declined a deal that a telemarketer explains because “it just sounds too good to be true.”  The reason we do that is because we are sure that the person on the other end of the line does not have our best interest at heart.  We doubt the genuineness and reliability of a person we have only just met.  But surely if we can trust anyone, it is our Maker, the sovereign Lord God, our Father in Heaven.  He does have our best interest in mind.  We read in the Bible, “He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him freely give us all things.”  (Rom. 8:32)  If God was willing to send Jesus to the cross on our behalf, then surely we can trust Him.  This is no gimmick.  There is no catch.  There is no hidden fee.  The price has already been paid when Jesus died on the cross, purchasing our salvation. 

There’s only one thing necessary for a person to do to have eternal life – "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved: (Acts 16:31).  “To as many as received Him, to them he gave the power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (John 1:12) So that’s the big question – will you receive the greatest Gift of all – eternal life – by believing Jesus Christ for it?  Everyone has to make a decision – will they trust themselves or will they trust in Jesus Christ alone to go to Heaven.   If you have seen your need and have come to trust in Jesus Christ for His free gift of everlasting life, know that Christmas has come early.  He you have received the greatest gift possible.  You have passed from death to life.