And it came to pass,that after three days they
found Him in the temple, sitting in the
midst of the teachers, both hearing them,
and asking them questions. All that heard
Him were astonished at His understanding
and answers. And when they say Him,
they were amazed: and His mother said unto Him,
Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? Behold,
Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.
And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me?
Wish ye not that I must be about My Father's business.
And they understood not the saying which
He spake unto them.
Luke 2:46-50
Jesus was born as any other man was born and was a human being, albeit joined with the Father who beget Him, who He had the same essence only now He had the body of a man. God the Father never stopped being God the Father and left that mode to be in the mode of a man. The Holy Spirit that is of the same essence as the Father and of the Word of God who was now Jesus Christ in human form. The Trinity never stopped being the Trinity. You may ask:"How?" I do not know for if I did then I too would be God, or a god. God is not us and is a different being so we must not apply human ideas about Him as to His size, His motives, and rely only on that which God reveals to us about Himself and His purpose to have that debt of sin paid. Do we need to know about His younger days as a child? No! For what would that do for us? Nothing more than what He revealed to us as a man. Now we do have this account where He was speaking with the teachers and by this we have a peek into His being God. The birth of Jesus was the plan all along so that God would bring to heaven, to eternity men who would believe on the One Whom He sent forth to be that payment. Christmas then is more about Him, as it should be, than presents, or anything else even though they are good and fun, we must never take this celebration (even if we do not know for sure if that date was His actual birthday) and speak about why He came and what He did.
All this, especially after some 2,000 years since Jesus was on the earth, we must take by faith. But we do have the accounts that were recorded for all to read and learn about so that our faith is not a blind faith, it has a foundation that cannot be disproved.
Faith so often is based upon error, but would there be faith unless it were based upon truth. So does faith save a person? No! It is Jesus Christ the object of our faith and it is only our receiving of this free gift, faith, that comes to us knowing that our belief, our faith come from God and nothing that we can do to earn that free gift, all we can do is receive that gift. We are not to attempt to win God's favor by our character, our works. Authentic Christians simply believes on the sacrifice that Jesus Christ offered at Calvary. Faith then is an outgrowth of our hearing the word of God, our belief in what we have heard, and out of the growth comes a new life and all good works. Salvation....well, that is absolutely all of God, His free gift. Question: Will you accept that gift? Have you heard the word of God? Is what you have heard the truth about God or is it simply the words by a man according to his presuppositions, or ideology, even his theology? Or is it because you not only have heard the word of God, you have read the word of God, you have prayed to God for guidance, and by all this have come to know the truth based on His word and not some man?
What comes first? The chicken or the egg? Faith or salvation? This is simple: if salvation was not already present no amount of faith will save you. Your faith is only to accept that free gift of salvation and then to turn your life into a new life.
The greatest Christmas gift you can receive is salvation! You open that gift by your faith!
Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh
righteousness, those that remember thee
in thy ways: behold, Thou are wroth; for we
have sined: in those is continuance, and
we shall be saved.
Isaiah 64:5
Have you received your free gift?
Richard L. Crumb
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