This Christmas season a lot of people are exchanging gifts because they say that it is the “spirit” of the season.
In offices, schools, organizations and families, a certain kind of exchanging of gifts has become traditional wherein people each write their names on a piece of paper and put it inside of a box or hat and then each also draw the name of the person they are supposed to give a gift to. Usually there is a price range agreed upon for the gifts. The point is that each person would receive a gift of more or less equal value to the one he or she gave.
This is all nice but let me just say that this is NOT the true essence or “spirit” of Christmas.
A few years ago, I preached a message entitled Exchange Gifts where I talked about an uneven exchange of gifts with God, wherein God gave us the most precious gift of His Son and everything else and then we give back to Him the very meager gift of our lives.
It again sounds better than the previous one but again, I realized that this is NOT the essence of why Christ came. Christianity is not about an exchange of gifts! This is because there is nothing of value that can even be remotely considered as a gift that we can give back to G0d. It is NOT an equal exchange. It is NOT even an unequal exchange. It is a one-sided giving. All we can do is to receive that gift by faith.
But don’t get me wrong, an EXCHANGE DOES HAPPEN! We can see this in the following verses:
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21
He took all of our sin and was crucified on the cross for them. He then gave us His righteousness so that in God’s eyes, through faith in Jesus, we are sinless and perfectly righteous. He gave us the gift of eternal life. He gave us THE GIFT. We gave, or rather, He took our JUNK!
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
Galatians 3:13-14
Once more this verse shows this Divine Exchange. This time, Jesus became a curse for us, He took all of our curses. He did this so that we would be blessed with the blessing given to Abraham. If you look at the covenant with Abraham, it was not just a spiritual blessing that was given to him but a blessing in every area of life. Once more, Christ gave us a GIFT and He took our JUNK!
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.“
Isaiah 53:4-5
People often do not realize this but even our health and healing was paid for by Christ in the Atonement. By his wounds (literally stripes or lashes) we are healed. The Apostle Peter in the New Testament restates this as “…we WERE healed” meaning it is already in the past tense. Christ was not even on the cross yet but even while on the whipping post, He already paid for our healing. Once more such a great GIFT. All we have to do is to receive it by faith just like in each and every one of these Divine Exhanges! He took our pain and sicknesses and He gave us healing.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
2 Corinthians 8:9
People over spiritualize this verse but if you really look at the whole context, this talks about finances and provision. Here is another often-neglected Divine Exhange: Christ took our poverty, He became poor so that we may be made rich. This is also based on the richness of His grace and is also received by faith. The reason why many Christians fail to appropriate this gift is because we often do not believe this and we try to “pay” for the financial blessing of God. We think that we should do something in order for us to qualify for His provision. If all of His Grace is received by faith in Christ, then it should be no different for this. Again, He gave us a tremendous GIFT and He took all of our JUNK!
This Christmas, we could exchange gifts with one another but let us be reminded that we can never exchange gifts with God. His grace is undeserved. No one can match His gifts. He gives us gifts and all we can give Him is, in the Apostle Paul’s words, RUBBISH. Let us honor our God by simply receiving by faith, the Gift of His Son Jesus Christ and everything else that comes with Him.
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
Romans 8:32
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Related Posts:
Why Christmas? – 5 Reasons to Rejoice!
Related Podcasts:
COVENANT Series Week 1: The Promise
COVENANT Series Week 2: Health and Healing part 1
COVENANT Series Week 3: Health and Healing part 2
COVENANT Series Week 4: Provision and Prosperity
ALL IN Series Week 1: Blessings in Christ
ALL IN Series Week 2: Grace and Love
ALL IN Series Week 3: Adoption part 1
ALL IN Series Week 4: Adoption part 2
ALL IN Series Week 5: Power and Authority
ALL IN Extended (delivered in Victory Los Banos) Adoption
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