on time—at least from His perspective. According to His celestial watch, it was in the exact fullness of time for Him to send forth His Son to redeem the world. All of history had been building toward this redemptive rendezvous since before time began (Revelation 13:8). And this divine invasion would forever split time. It would divide human history in two, between BC and AD. Christmas would give all of life a new direction! From the very first moment of creation, Christmas was an absolute certainty. Man’s primal sin and fall from a state of spiritual innocence made Christmas a redemptive necessity. From God’s perspective, human history had been moving in a straight line: from the Garden of Eden to the manger of Bethlehem, from Adam and Eve to Joseph and Mary, and from the transcendent Creator to “Immanuel . . . God with us” (Matthew 1:23). It is impossible to separate the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes from the Son of Man who was crucified, wrapped in a burial shroud, and laid in a tomb. And just as Jesus the Baby did not remain in the manger of Bethlehem, Jesus the Christ did not remain in the tomb outside Jerusalem. Redemption was secured by the resurrection. The resurrection was the next to last chapter in the Christmas narrative that will finally be consummated with the events of the Second Advent of Christ. Then His redemption will be followed by the restoration of Creation when God will make all things new (Revelation 21:5). The great message of Christmas is that the sovereign eternal God not only created time, He entered into it in order to redeem it by the birth, life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. And He is redemptively working from within time for our blessing and benefit. That’s what Christmas is really all about!
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