CHRISTMAS

If it pleases the Lord to spare us that long, we soon hope to listen to the glad tidings that Christ came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15). Most of us have heard the story of Christ’s birth from our earliest youth, and also what the greatest significance is of this fact. May our ears be made to hear and our hearts to understand by the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son! We cannot do this ourselves, but it is our prayer that the Lord may do it for the sake of His great Name and for His covenant’s sake, out of free grace for Christ’s sake!

It is a sad thing that Christmas has been turned into a festivity of the world; and this is getting worse from year to year. Streets and stores are decorated, and churchgoing people follow suit and decorate their houses the same way; but the issue of the matter is more and more glossed over and pushed into the background. Sometimes the question arises: What will be left of the true meaning of Christmas? We are beginning to understand more and more why such men as Calvin, Lodesteyn, and others, were opposed to these special days of celebration. The objections keep multiplying. The sacredness of the fact is thus desecrated as it has been turned into a source of rich profits for businessmen. It has been turned into a festivity whereby the world as well as the churchgoing people pass their time in all kinds of external activities that not only have nothing to do with the birth of the Saviour, but that in essence are nothing but a satisfaction of the flesh.

All kinds of representations, God-dishonoring representations, are publicly made of the “Baby in the Manger,” of Joseph and Mary, of the shepherds and the Wise Men from the East, etc. Christmas has become a worldly feast; indeed, from a practical point of view, it has reverted to heathendom, which also bows before wood and stone, the work of man’s hands. We cannot warn enough against it, in our homes, in church, and in school. If we have any respect left for God’s Word and all that is sacred, we must testify against all these things with everything that is in us. Such testifying must not be done haughtily, but from a humble heart that is filled with a holy zeal for the honor of God, who is so blatantly dishonored by all these heathenish practices. But we must also do it with a heart that is filled with true love for the wellbeing of immortal souls, who are thus being deceived with regard to eternity.

May our warning not be as the voice of one calling in the wilderness! Back, back to the law and the testimony! is what we must proclaim loudly, lest God abandon our generation to utter blindness and foolishness.

A Christmas tree cannot save us. What we need is “the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2). Man-made Christmas lights cannot enlighten us; what we need in our darkened minds and pitch-dark hearts is the Star out of Jacob, the Sun of Righteousness, so that we may rightly learn to know the enormity of our sin and guilt, the fathomless depth of our fall in Adam, the inviolable justice of God, but also the riches of God’s grace revealed in Christ, so that we may be delivered from the dominion of Satan, from the curse of the law, from the judgment of damnation, and be reconciled with God to the glory and praise of His eternal attributes.

And as far as all those Christmas presents are concerned, how empty they will leave us! What we need for eternity is the inexpressible Gift of God. Neither will all those Christmas cards bring us salvation, but only the message from heaven: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” This message is indispensable for each and everyone of us in order to live in comfort and die in peace.

All those outward things draw our hearts away from the true and real meaning of the matter at issue in the commemoration of the birth of Christ. May it be given to us and our children to understand something of the real meaning and the true significance!

It is all too evident that of ourselves we shall not seek it. By nature we are not the least bit interested in it, nay, worse, we are all enemies of God and His ways. Christ said, “Thou wilt not come unto me to have eternal life.” And matters are not any better with our children. Who can bring forth a pure one out of an impure one? Not one! By nature we all want to go to hell, and only grace can change this.

In Paradise, in the state of rectitude, there was no need for a Christ, a Saviour. There we were adorned with the image of God and lived in fellowship with Him. Life was one rejoicing in God. But through our deep fall we lost the image of God and sinned ourselves out of fellowship with Him; we became slaves of the devil and of sin. We destroyed ourselves and are now utterly wretched. We lie under the wrath and curse of God. We separated ourselves from God and, with the exception of the devil, there is no creature more miserable than natural man. And our greatest misery is that we do not realize our misery. By virtue of inherited and committed sin and guilt we are worthy of nothing but hell and damnation, and we are utterly lost. We broke the covenant of works and so that covenant can no longer save and justify us. On our side everything is cut off. There is a debt we can never pay and a breach we can never heal. God’s justice must condemn us and His holiness must consume us.

All these things are matters of which by nature we have no idea. We are dead in trespasses and sins. It is only the Spirit who can quicken us. We can become a hundred years old with a historical knowledge of these things without ever becoming truly concerned over our sins or ever feeling the need to be reconciled with God. We are and remain responsible creatures, but, on the other hand, dead is dead.

What is being manifested unto us on Christmas day? That God, moved in Himself, found from eternity a way to save sinners in and through Christ without violation of His attributes. O those thoughts of God, of which David in Psalm 139:17 said: “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” Concerning this counsel of God we read: “With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?” (Isa. 40:14). “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Ps. 33:11). Concerning the will of God we read: “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself” (Eph. 1:9). This good pleasure or goodwill was toward men (Luke 2:14). God was motivated by His love, for we read: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (I John 4:19).

Truly, this way of reconciliation was not thought out by us, but by the wisdom of the eternal God who is called “the only wise God” (Jude 25). This way is a high way, and adorable way, by which was again made possible what we had made impossible. And what we rent asunder He comes to unite again. The Church cries out: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!…. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33, 36). Eternity will be needed to magnify this eternal wonder! We see it, but we cannot fathom it.

We read in the well-known Christmas account: “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them” (Luke 2:20). They ended up in God, with this given Son and born Child. O what an unspeakable blessing was given to these waiting and longing shepherds! When the angel had given them the message concerning Christ’s birth, they could not remain where they were. They went at once to Bethlehem, and there they were privileged to find that blessed Child — to find Him for their own heart, so that their inner emptiness, with which they probably had walked the earth for years, was gloriously filled. What joy and what bliss that must have been for them!

God the Father found reconciliation and established redemption (Luke 1:68). Already in the Old Testament this Saviour was promised and announced. And in the fullness of time “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal. 4:4), “to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (v. 5). Never has a greater wonder been seen in the world than when God became manifest in the flesh.

Christ came into the world as the Servant of the Father to carry out the work of the Father and to complete it. As we by our sin had dishonored the attributes of God, Christ by His passive and active obedience restored the glory of these attributes again. How privileged are they who out of sovereign grace and through the eternal good pleasure of God may, with reverence and deep respect, see these things as the most necessary, as did Mary when she sat at Jesus’ feet to listen to His words. And it is a wonder from the Lord when they are thus privileged. His voice is so sweet (Song 2:14), that they can’t get enough listening to it. He is altogether lovely!

Christ came into the word to satisfy the justice of God and to quench the wrath of God so that, according to Psalm 85:10, mercy and truth could meet together and righteousness and peace could kiss each other. He came to fulfill the law so that He could bring life and immortality to light (II Tim. 1:10). He came to crush Satan’s head and to destroy his works (I John 3:8). He came to establish reconciliation through satisfaction and to bring in everlasting righteousness (Dan. 9:24). Indeed, we read in I Peter 3:18, “For Christ also hath suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”

Christ came not only to obtain salvation but also to apply salvation. How glorious is He in His person in the mystery of His two natures, divine and human, in order to be a perfect Saviour for all who come to God through Him! With the Church of old we ought to exclaim:

This thing is from the Lord Almighty,
It is a marvel in our eyes;
We cannot understand it rightly
Nor fathom it in any wise!

Blessed are they who by God’s Spirit may attain to the knowledge of this most blessed, most precious, most lovely God and King, and may constantly grow in grace and in this knowledge (II Peter 3:18).

In one of the congregations I was privileged to serve, a man whom God had powerfully drawn out of the world and sin, told me once, with tears streaming down his cheeks, “I have had many saviors who could not save, but now I have one who can!”

It is almost midnight while I am writing this. When I started out, all I could do was sit here and stare. I could not get one letter down on my paper. I have noticed that there are some people, and even ministers, who think that it is so easy for me to write. I take it that they mean this honestly; but then they are honestly mistaken, and won’t understand how often I must struggle to get something down. There are days without end that I can’t take up a pen, until the Lord gives opening, and only then is it true that when He helps the word is easy. How utterly dependent we are on the ministry and operation of the Spirit! We cannot open any doors. Only that blessed Child of Bethlehem can do so. Of Him we read in Isaiah 22:22, “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon His shoulders; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.”

Often all we can do is sit and stare, without seeing any form or comeliness in Him. But when it pleases Him to reveal the treasures that are in the dark and the hidden riches, then the land of Emmanual is wide of concept indeed! Then we sing: “Here roams my soul, in admiration!” “Unto you, who believes, He is precious.”

He is precious in His mission, in His natures, in His states, in His offices, and in His blessings. “He is altogether lovely.” God’s people know moments, no matter how utterly miserable, guilty, damnable, and unhappy they are in themselves, when they would exalt Christ to the highest heaven, as Rutherford once said; and that is also the sentiment of all who may partake in the divine nature and who may experience something of the wonder Paul describes in I Timothy 3:16, “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” To magnify and exalt Christ is the desire and joy of their heart.

Christ was born not in a palace but in a manger, in a stable for animals. O, the marvel of it can never be expressed or described! When something may be fathomed of it, we have no words any more. I think that most of the time when we start speaking about it, true life has already departed from our words, for then already our own personalities come in between, and then we sully the experience with ourselves. It is the same as with snow — when it falls from heaven, it is pure and white, but the first step we place on it soils it.

Christ was born that we might be born again. He was born in a stable so that He might make room for Himself in the stable of our heart, to cleanse and sanctify that heart and make it into a temple of the Holy Spirit. Christ was laid down in an empty manger. God’s people, too, must be emptied from vessel to vessel and completely denuded from all that is self. Only then Christ can live in us. Only then can He become all and in all (Col. 3:11).

Christ descended into hell, to apply in the hell of our heart His redemption and proclaim His grace. He was born under such pitiful circumstances in order to descend and enter into the utter poverty into which we had brought ourselves, to comfort His people: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor; that ye through his poverty might be rich” (II Cor. 8:9).

O, a soul for whom it may truly become Christmas loathes all this heathenish activity of our days. Not that he thinks he is better than all others; the Lord knows that. But his eyes and heart have been opened for something other than the vanity and foolishness of the world. Such a one is convinced and has discovered that he has lost something without which he cannot face eternity. Such people have learned that a round world can never fill a triangled heart. They have discovered that all that the world affords is emptiness; but the same holds true for all that outward religion offers. They have found death within themselves. They are not interested in Christmas cards but that God Himself may speak peace to their souls.

They must have this Christ, the Son of the living God, for their heart. Without Him there cannot be peace. Without Him there cannot be reconciliation with God. In His blood alone is redemption (Eph. 1:7). They must have this Person who alone can give salvation. In their hearts is the prayer:

Give me Jesus, lest I die:
Without Him there’s no salvation
But, instead, my soul’s damnation!

Without Him they are miserable, lonely, and lost. Without Him life is dark, vexing, and restless. A promising God is not yet a fulfilling God.

It was night when the shepherds received the message. It is the same in the life of God’s waiting people. Before Christ is born in their hearts, they have no expectation any more. They run aground wherever they turn. Whatever used to give them hope in times past flies away as with the wings of eagles. Before, such things could encourage them once in a while; but no longer. “Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death” (Prov. 11:4). Encouragement is not the same as encounter; and comfort is not the same as solution, for it may become a pillow to rest on. Only when it is no longer possible for a soul is it really possible; and only then it takes place. First, however, we must come to the point of perishing.

O, what a surprise and what a joy is it when it does take place — when we no longer expect it. But the message itself is not the fulfillment. For that, God’s people must go to Bethlehem. In order to realize what they lacked, the shepherds had to see the angels return to heaven. It was then that they went with haste to the city of David.

There they found the Child, and there they received Him. There they experienced to the joy of their formerly saddened hearts: “Whoever findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord” (Prov. 8:35). God had prepared room in their hearts not only for the promise, but also for the Child. It is all the work of God. But what a wonder, what an eternal wonder, to become the subject of the operation of the Holy Spirit, and to remain such! It is the Spirit who quickens. It is the Spirit who convicts. And it is the same Spirit who glorifies Christ. And to know Christ is eternal life. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

He is the Way for all who have lost the way. He is the Truth for those who find nothing in themselves but lies and deceit, who are more often hypocrites than truly sinners. And He is the Life for all those who have found death in themselves and in everything that is not God and Christ. “This God is our salvation.” “And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken” (Isa. 32:3). “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). Indeed, not to go deeper into it, we may, with regard to the living Church of God and to those people who have been emptied by God, sing with the Psalmist:

And in Him forever
All men shall be blest,
And all nations hail Him
King of kings confessed.

Christmas is not a feast day of the world. Neither does it have any meaning for self-righteous Pharisees and scribes. They indeed celebrate Christmas, but it is all dead and empty. They sit near a tree without roots, which soon will be picked up by the garbage man, and near little lights made by the hands of men, which soon will be burned out. How utterly dead and poor all this is! Death entertains death, without realizing it. All this proves the veracity of what we read in Matthew 11:25 — “thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Children have a father and a mother. And in order to be a child, one must first be born. We must be made children — insignificant, dependent, and honest. A child cannot take care of itself — it is helpless and must wait to be helped. Mary, too, had become such a child. She sang in her song: “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:47, 48).

May it become such a Christmas for us! That is necessary for each and every one of us travelers to eternity. It is a privilege that we may listen to the proclamation of it and hear the Word of God. But that is not sufficient. Words must become matters for us. We must be made the object of the subject. These matters must be known experientially between God and our soul. We, too, must experience that the Holy Spirit comes upon us and the power of the Highest overshadows us, so that Christ may be born in our hearts and we by faith may be united with Him; indeed, that we may be planted together in the likeness of His death, so that we also may be in the likeness of His resurrection (Ro. 6:5). Christ must dwell in our hearts by faith, so that we may be rooted and grounded in love (Eph. 3:17). Less than that will not suffice. And when we learn to know something of our lost condition and by God be made a sinner before God, it will be a matter of course that we loathe all that which in our days is made of Christmas. Christ has no concord with Belial, neither does unrighteousness with righteousness. It is utterly impossible to serve both God and the world. If we live with the world, we shall die with the world. God draws His people out of the world, and they loathe all this religiosity connected with Christmas, because it is nothing but an abomination in the sight of God.

The world’s way of celebrating Christmas must grieve us because all it is is a dishonor to God and a denial of what God has revealed in Christ. When God begins His work in us, we find ourselves alone in the world — alone with a debt that reaches to heaven; alone and without God in the world; alone with an unsaved soul, which groans under the justice of God, under a righteous judgment, and under its lonesomeness. God’s people realize that they have lost God, and the burning question becomes: How will I ever be reconciled with God?

Everything is cut off for these people; all exits are walled up. They don’t know anything any more. It becomes night for them, night all around; and that is terrifying. And they often fear that soon it will become night forever. Looking back, they find nothing but guilt; looking ahead, they see only a holy and righteous God, who cannot deny Himself, and who, by virtue of His divine essence, must uphold His justice. Nothing is left for them but to perish forever. And that is what they rightly have deserved.

But they cannot do without God. They groan: “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down!” And when God’s time has come, He fulfills what He has said in His Word: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isa. 9:2).

It is this Light that arose in Bethlehem’s manger. And He will shed His light abroad in all such dark hearts, for God will not forever leave His people in their sorrow. “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart” (Ps. 98:11).

Here and there, there are still some people who sit in darkness. They can’t go along with the world any more, but all they can observe in themselves is death, unfulfilled promises, an accusing law, an unpaid debt, and a demanding Judge. If you are like that, may the light of salvation dawn for you! So many Christmases have come and gone without the Child having been born for you. You have been disappointed and saddened so often. Words cannot express how miserably you walk the earth oftentimes. That must be personally experienced before one can understand it.

How blessed it is, however, when we may learn to take pleasure in the punishment of our unrighteousnesses, but above all, when we may observe that God remembers His covenant. Then the moment has come that we are no longer concerned about our salvation but rather about how God’s honor is served best. Then we love the justice of God, God Himself, and His attributes more than anything else. And at that moment the Father Himself comes with His Son. Then is confirmed what we read in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world,” etc.

If now the Word might become flesh for you personally, what an unforgettable day and hour that would be! God would receive the honor due Him and your empty soul would be filled with Him who is the only fulfillment. Then the language of your soul would be: “He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Ps. 98:3).

The people who were privileged to celebrate Christmas in truth in their lives, who experienced that God revealed His Son to them, may rejoice in God; they may sing of the ways of the Lord because the glory of God is great. They may sing with Mary: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46, 47). Still, Mary had to experience afterwards that the sword of God’s justice must pierce her soul. Hence it is so necessary that the Spirit of God continues to strive with us in order that we may attain to the finished case. May this be followed by a growing “in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18)!

Whether we can see this or not, the most fruitful life is found in being empty, for only then is there place for new revelations and confirmations of the work of God in our hearts. We cannot glorify God in the aspects of Him we do not know. John the Baptist cried out concerning this blessed Christ: “He must increase, but I must decrease”! (John 3:30). Mary was privileged to bring this Child into the world. Joseph was allowed to see Him lying in the manger. Simeon was privileged to take Him into His arms. And Anna was brought unto Him. These are all mysteries revealed to those who fear God.

We must draw to a close — not because the fountain is dry, for the river of God is full of water. And it seems, nay, it is so - the more we may draw from it with the arms of faith, the fuller the fountain becomes. O may our hearts and lives be filled with Him who is God to be praised above all forever and ever! He is also “fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into (his) lips.” Then it would be Christmas indeed!

O Lord, grant this out of grace for Thine own Name’s sake to Thy poor and miserable people, who are wandering, ready to die, and languishing in prison, to the praise of Thy Name and attributes! Amen.

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