Tidings of Comfort and Joy: God’s Free Gift

So does anyone have a gift they’re that excited to give? Often the greatest anticipation isn’t the receiving-it’s giving the gift! Who’s given someone a gift early because you couldn’t wait until Christmas? Sometimes when you find the perfect gift you can’t wait for that person to open it and see the look on their face! For example-how excited would you be to give some of these gifts away? For your tech savvy dad-pic 1. Or for your buddy-pic 2. Or for the foodie in your life-pic 3. For first time parents-pic 4. For your niece or nephew-pic 5. Or for your spouse-pic 6! I would not be able to wait to give these gifts away! But no matter what gifts you’re giving this year they do tend to be our primary focus during the Christmas season because few things consume our time and money more than Christmas shopping. And yet I want us to be reminded this morning that at its heart, Christmas is about the presents, it’s about gift giving-because it’s about the gift we all desperately need from God.

Now you might not think of this as a classic Christmas passage but take a look at what it says in Rom 5:15. What that’s saying is that 2 really big things have happened in our world-first there was the trespass of Adam-he’s the one man being described here-and second there was the gift of grace from Jesus. Now the trespass of Adam doesn’t mean he violated some no trespassing sign God set up in the Garden of Eden. Like what’s the big deal with a little trespassing? Rather-that word trespass means that Adam disobeyed God by not doing what He said. Adam trespassed God’s command. He went further into territory God told him not to go. Think about that a second. Sin is going beyond what God has told us not to do. God didn’t say to not eat from any tree in the garden. In fact God had told them to eat from seemingly millions of trees-Gen 2:16-17. Notice the difference-every tree-just not this one. From every to one. Was God trying to limit Adam’s enjoyment or stop his fun? Was God forcing Adam to just eat vegetables while the good, juicy fruit was off limits? Not at all. If the deck was stacked in favor of someone doing the right thing-it was here! It would be like going to a restaurant where they say-you can eat from anything on the menu-just not the spare ribs. Everything else is yours from the calamari to the sushi to the steaks to the pasta to the chocolate cake. Just avoid those spare ribs. Or back to the trespassing idea-you can go anywhere you want in Disneyworld, every ride at every theme park-no lines-fast passes for all of them-just don’t ride It’s a Small World-avoid that one ride! Which is clearly the ride no one wants to ride anyway. But what do we do? What did Adam do? He went straight to Small World and hopped on! He trespassed beyond God’s boundary. He ate the spare ribs-ultimately he broke God’s law by eating from the one tree God said not to-and of course that’s sin. One of the most convicting definitions of sin says that sin makes us less concerned about what God wants and more concerned about what we want. Isn’t that the truth? Adam and Eve-in that moment of temptation were far less concerned about what God wanted-what God told them to eat-which is here in this command in Gen 2. What has our God told us to do? What has our Creator and Maker commanded for us? Let’s follow Him because He knows best. Instead-what did they want? Gen 3:6. At that moment they couldn’t care less about what God wanted-and ended up doing what they wanted-what they thought was good, what looked good and what their heart desired. Which is always what happens to us. I know what I want God-it’s far better than what you’ve said-so I’ll go get it, I’ll do it. I’ll enjoy it. And it might taste good or seem good for a moment or for a season. It might seem like no big deal and something small to us-but it’s a big deal to God with far lasting ramifications because it’s not just one little bite or one little taste of sin-it’s a heart of defiance and disobedience to Him. A heart that says I’ll do what I want to do. And we all know the result of that. They got kicked out of the Garden and restricted from God’s presence, and ultimately it led to death-both physically and spiritually.

But that’s not where it ended-look what it means for us-back to Rom 5:15–the many died by the trespass of the one man. Which means that what happened in the Garden has a ripple effect that directly impacts you and me-because the death caused by Adam’s sin is now experienced by all of us. And yet we can’t claim to have lived any better than Adam and Eve. None of us can say that we’ve avoided sin and always done what God’s commanded. None of us are walking around with a perfect streak since birth-give me some space people-haven’t made a single mistake my whole life! I’m doing really good here! We all know the things we’ve done and the ways we’ve disobeyed God and gone our own way. So death is that fair and just penalty for all of our sins. So Pt1:Tidings of Doom and Gloom: Death is what we deserve because of what we’ve done. You are not being unfairly punished by God. Nor is He showing favoritism or letting some people off the hook. He’s treating every single person on the planet the same-Rom 3:23. And all means all. We’ve all fallen short of God’s glory which means no one is automatically going to heaven when they die. Heaven is not the default mode for mankind. Again-back to Pt1. And by death that means spiritual separation from God in hell. If you’ve been in our Christianity Explored course-or ever taken it before-it mentions how Jesus talks about hell not to simply be a doom and gloom sort of person-but to give us a much needed warning. To open our eyes to the truth that hell is real and it does exists. That death is what we deserve and what we’ll experience-unless something steps in and intervenes. And that something is a Someone-and we talked about Him last week in our study on Joseph. What did the angel say-Matt 1:20-21. It’s the very reason why Jesus came-to solve the age old problem that began way back in the Garden. My Christmas devo says-Tidings, 144. It all went wrong with Adam-complete doom and gloom! But it all goes right with Jesus and His obedience-and that’s where we encounter the tidings of comfort and joy.

Back to our main verse this morning-Rom 5:15. And here’s where we see the distinction between something earned and something given. There’s a huge difference between getting what you deserve based on what you’ve done versus getting what you don’t deserve based on grace. Because that’s what this gift is-it’s the gift of Jesus that came by grace. Look at how this goes on-Rom 5:16. Because of our sins we stood condemned before God and there was no getting out of it. Sort of like when you get in trouble by your teacher at school. She caught you red-handed, you’re guilty and there’s nothing you can say in your defense-even though you still try to get out of and escape your condemnation-No, no-I wasn’t cheating-I was just looking at their paper for some advice, I was just verifying that my classmates and I were thinking the same things-wanted to make sure that I was saying what he was saying. But the teacher says-Sorry, you cheated-now you get an F. Your actions bring consequences-just like your sin brings condemnation. Yet look at how all this changes because the gift of grace brings justification. It says-You don’t get an F anymore, you get an A in the class because someone else has graciously retaken the test for you. Someone else’s grade is going to be applied to your report card and credited to you. You didn’t earn it or deserve it or do anything to get it-in fact you did the opposite by cheating-but you get to receive it because of the gift of grace. That’s what this passage is saying-Rom 5:17. That’s what the gift of Christmas is all about-that Jesus has come to this earth as our Savior-living the perfect life we could never live-and when we receive Him by faith into our hearts His perfect righteousness is applied to our account so that we’re no longer condemned in our sins but stand justified before God with the righteousness of Christ. We’re given justification-not because we’re just-but because Jesus is and we’re trusting in Him. That’s what grace is al about! So Pt2:Tidings of Comfort and Joy: Eternal life is what we get because of the gift we’ve received. And there’s no better time to think about receiving that gift at Christmas when we all have gifts on our mind-but the key word is received. That’s the word that makes all the difference-because it’s when you make the gift yours.

Going back to Rom 5:17-I want you to notice what it said-those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness. This gift-like any other gift has to be received. You can’t expect to be saved and have eternal life if you don’t receive God’s gift and open it-which of course happens by faith. For example-you’d be rather foolish if there’s a gift underneath the Christmas tree with your name on it that you don’t receive. Does anybody do that? Leave their gifts unopened under the tree? Does anybody say-I don’t need it, I’ll get it next year? Never-if there’s a gift for us we’ll take it and unwrap it-we’ll receive it. And yet so many people fail to receive God’s gift of grace in Jesus. Do you remember what it said about Jesus in John 1:10-12. We are called to receive the gift of Jesus when we trust Him and say-Lord, I need you. I confess and repent of my sins-I ask you to come into my life-I receive you into my heart-knowing that your sacrifice and death on the cross makes righteous-it’s not anything of me. He’s not something that we can leave under the tree and neglect. Nor is He someone to just remember at Christmas-Oh yeah, baby Jesus was born-that’s such a sweet little story. It’s not a passive thing you look at-He’s the gift that we must actively receive into our hearts by faith. Is this verse true of you? Can you say this as you approach Christmas-that you have received the gift of Jesus? He’s the most important gif you’ll ever open! Listen to how it continues-John 1:14, 16-17.

And that’s the last part I don’t want us to forget-we have received grace upon grace. It’s not that we just get one batch of grace-one gift of grace-it’s grace that continues throughout life. Never-ending grace that shapes and softens and transforms our hearts-making us more and more conformed to Christ. And that’s our last point-Pt3:Tidings of Comfort and Joy: God’s Ongoing Grace is what sustains us and sanctifies us because of who we are. Way too often people forget that while we’re saved by grace-we’re also sustained and sanctified by grace because we’re saved by grace. It who we are! You don’t need God’s grace once just to get you in-got my entry ticket to heaven, I’m all set. You need His grace every single day of your life. You need His grace to forgive you, to restore you, to chip away at your old self because He’s remaking you into someone new. You need His grace to transform your attitude, to impact your relationships and the way you interact with the people around, to fill you with joy and peace when the world continues to struggle and suffer in sin. Is grace upon grace evident in your life? Is His grace radiating forth in how you live? That people can see it transforming you and changing you? Or would they have to look a long time before they’d see His grace-if they’d even see it at all? Pt3.

We cannot forget that we’re sustained by grace-because when we forget that we start to think that we’re the result of our own salvation. That the good works we do, how religious we are, the amount of devotions we’ve done, or how long we’ve been a Christian is what’s saved us. That somehow our own behavior or performance is what’s made us right with God. That what we’ve done or what we’re doing is somehow paying God back. But it doesn’t work that way. The gift of His grace-what Jesus has done for us-is what got us in-and the gift of His grace is what keeps us and makes us His. It would be like deciding around March to start paying someone back for the Christmas gift they gave you. Does anybody do that? Thanks so much for that Bathe and Brew-I’ve been drinking lots of coffee in the shower-it’s great-let me start paying you back for that! No one does that-because if you do then it’s not a gift anymore. It’s something you bought or that you paid for-and that will never be the case with the free gift of God. There’s nothing you will ever do to pay Him back. Nothing would be ever enough. He doesn’t want you to pay Him back. He simply wants your heart to receive His grace and be sustained and sanctified by that grace!

Christmas really is about the gifts-because it’s about the gift of Jesus! Luke 2:10-11. Just like that little boy excited to give the gift to his mom-the angels were so excited to announce God’s gift to us! Have you received it? Is the Savior who was born 2,000 years ago your Savior? Is the gift of His grace the gift of grace you’ve received?