Inspiration & Worship

The Dawn of Grace

While many details related to Jesus’ birth are murky, scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments couldn’t be clearer about his purpose for coming: to bring light and love to a dark world and everlasting life to those who choose to believe on him as their lord and savior. In Luke 4:16-21, shortly after Jesus began his ministry, we read that he went to his hometown synogogue in Nazareth, opened the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (part of the Old Testament, written some 700 years before he was born) and read:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Then Jesus closed the book, gave it back to the minister and sat down. Everyone stared at him, and he told them, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

While many religions recognize Jesus as a prophet, only Christianity celebrates him as the son of God and the messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. Christianity is entirely unique in its message of grace.

“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,” writes Paul, the apostle, in Ephesians 2:8.

John 1:17 tells us, “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

Spiritually, Jesus Christ ended all inequality by extending the option of salvation to all people, Jew and nonJew, male and female, slave and free (Galatians 3:28). Shortly before his death by crucifixion, Jesus prayed not only for people who already believed on him, but for “all those who shall believe on me through their word” (John 17:20) – and

that is us.

Why not take time this season to read for yourself the scriptures that describe Christ’s birth? You’ll find them in the first chapters of the gospels of Luke and Matthew. ❚