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Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
It’s Christmas Eve and the last day of the Advent. Tomorrow, we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus.
It’s also the last day of messages that have spanned this Advent season. Since November 30th, the Lord has given me weekly series, centered on the Advent theme of that week. First, it was hope followed by peace and joy before entering this last week by looking at the matter of love.
To date, we have learned the following:
1. The scriptures command us to love.
https://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com/2025/12/advent-series-commanded-to-love.html
2. True love, the love defined by the Bible, can never be taken away from a Christ believer.
https://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com/2025/12/advent-series-permanent-love.html
Finally, we saw that when we love as we’re commanded, it never fails because it is a love dictated by a perfect God who gives us flawless scriptures.
https://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com/2025/12/advent-series-love-never-fails.html
That brings us today and the hope found in baby Jesus that forms our joy on Christmas, a hope that was birthed from the love of God the Father. Look at our two passages today, both from John:
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10
Since mankind’s great fall into sin through Adam and Eve’s indiscretion at Eden’s tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3), all people became transgressors who fell short of God’s glory. Indeed, they were at enmity with the omnipotent Maker and Master of all things, not a place anyone should want to be.
This enmity created a chasm between the Creator and His created people, a separation that removed any possibility of eternal salvation. Rather, all were destined for the everlasting torment and damnation of Hell.
It was into this dilemma that we find God resolving this issue and He did so out of love. Before this resolution could happen, atonement was needed, not by way of the endless procession of animal sacrifices that were only temporary but through a divine offering that would bring mercy, grace, forgiveness, and salvation once and for all.
This sacrifice was Jesus, God’s “one and only Son” who would be God’s perfect and unblemished Lamb (John 1:29), sent from Heaven to earth so to serve as “an atoning sacrifice for our sins”. All one needed to do in order to be saved was believe in Christ, therefore becoming a Christian. This simple decision carried eternal blessings for it delivered the believer from perishing and ushered them into eternal life.
We should note that there isn’t anything that anyone can do to earn this redemption. There’s no to-do list of items one needs to accomplish such as loving God so He could love in the best way ever in return. Rather, God saves us through His Son, not because we loved Him first but because “He loved us” and desired to save us strictly by way of His deep compassion and kindness.
Friends, as we finish up this Advent season and look to Bethlehem tomorrow on Christmas Day, may we also keep one eye on the cross because this little infant who will be wrapped in swaddling cloth and laid in a manger will grow up to die in our place, purchasing our pardon with His own life before being resurrected in power three days later so that we can have the chance to do likewise for placing our faith and trust in Him.
Until that time, the day when this earthly life ends and our forever life in Heaven begins, let us continue to rejoice in our Savior Jesus, the One God gave freely so that “we might live through Him” every day He blesses us with here on earth.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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