December 18 | Bible in a Year: Obadiah; Revelation 9

The Miracle of Christmas

[God sent] his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. Romans 8:3

READ Romans 8:1–10

At a car boot sale, I found a nativity set in a beat-up cardboard box. As I picked up the baby Jesus, I noticed the finely sculpted details of the infant’s body. This new-born wasn’t cocooned in a blanket with closed eyes—he was awake and partially unwrapped with outstretched arms, open hands and fingers extended. “I’m here!” he seemed to say.

The figurine illustrated the miracle of Christmas—that God sent His Son to earth in a human body. As Jesus’ infant body matured, His little hands played with toys, eventually held the Torah and then fashioned furniture before His ministry began. His feet, once plump and perfect at birth, grew to carry Him from place to place to teach and heal. At the end of His life, these human hands and feet would be pierced with nails to hold His body on the cross.

“In that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins,” Romans 8:3 (NLT) says. If we accept Jesus’ sacrifice as payment for all our wrongs and submit our lives to Him, we’ll find relief from sin’s bondage. Because the Son of God was born to us as a real, wiggling, kicking infant, there’s a way to have peace with God and the assurance of an eternity with Him.

By Jennifer Benson Schuldt

What’s the difference between celebrating Jesus at Christmas and celebrating the season of Christmas?

Dear God, thank You for sending Jesus to earth as a human baby to free me from the bondage of sin and death.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

In Romans 7, Paul wrote of the law or principle of sin he saw at work (v. 21), and asked, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (v. 24). The emphatic answer comes in the next verse: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25). The powerful chapter of Romans 8 builds on that happy solution to our problem by encouraging us to live in the strength of the Spirit (vv. 2–4). The chapter closes with Paul’s emphatic declaration of the scope of God’s love for us (vv. 31–39).