The Deeper Meaning of Christmas

The real reason for the season is in understanding Easter

Christmas is a very radical idea at its root. Christmas and Easter are holidays to celebrate two important theological ideas. They (holidays) are not in themselves necessary or even important.

Here is what matters

God became a man (human) and lived as a human being. This was the first part of the gift, and Easter — the resurrection — was the completion.

To the people who first heard the idea, it was crazy, and it remains largely misunderstood today. Gross commercialization has not helped, nor has politicizing it.

The idea sounds rather silly on the surface.

“Here, take my son and kill him, then I’ll forgive you,” seems to be what God was saying by sending Jesus to die on the cross. Let us be really clear on this point. Jesus did not come to show us how to live or to teach us spiritual truth — though he did do those things. He, as God in the flesh, came to die on the cross to pay for our sins. That was his primary mission.

Jesus did not come to show us how to live or to teach us spiritual truth — though he did do those things. He, as God in the flesh, came to die on the cross to pay for our sins. That was his primary mission.

That does not make sense either if Jesus was just a man. The idea is that in some way we must make restitution to God because we rebelled. This idea has been common in all cultures since there have been cultures. We rebel when we sin. It’s not the sin of Adam that condemns us, it is our own sins. So by the gift, who was Jesus, God himself made restitution to himself to make us clean.

It is like a judge assessing a fine to a guilty person who has broken the law. But then the judge takes out his checkbook and pays the penalty himself. God has justifiably pronounced us guilty and then paid our penalty himself.

It is like a judge assessing a fine to a guilty person who has broken the law. But then the judge takes out his checkbook and pays the penalty himself. God has justifiably pronounced us guilty and then paid our penalty himself. God demonstrated this by becoming a man and dying on the cross and then rising from the dead three days later.

There is nothing for us to do but accept the gift. We accept it by believing. That is Christianity, Christmas, and Easter all in one sentence.

What Christmas really means. Or, why Christmas only matters because of Easter.

Jesus is not literally God’s “son” in the literal sense that humans have sons or daughters. It is more a word picture. Some people say God knocked Mary up, but it was not about sex. She was made pregnant supernaturally and bore a child that was part human and part God. Fully God and Fully Human. There was no sex involved.

The Image of God

The gospel of John calls Jesus “the word.” The Greek word is Logos. It means the image or essence of something. It is the likeness, but also the thing itself. Thus Jesus is the logos of God. The image of God, and, therefore, God itself.

When you see a photograph of someone, you see that person. When they saw Jesus they saw God in the same way.

To Greek readers, at the time this would have been a very revolutionary concept. To the Jews to say there was anyone other than Jehovah was blasphemy-even if they were one and the same. To the Greeks, saying God would become a man, was foolishness.

It’s not so different today. The message of Christ is still considered foolishness to many, and offensive to many.

Only-begotten son

Jesus is the “only begotten” Son of God, meaning the only one who ever came to earth as the manifestation of God in a supernatural way. There are many “sons” of God. All believers are “sons” (or daughters) of God. There is only one “begotten,” however.

God became flesh and blood when Jesus was born. He was called God’s “son” but he was really God in the flesh. Jesus was a human manifestation of God. To be a human he had to be born.

In ancient Hebrew literature, a son and father are considered equal. That is why the religious leaders of the day objected when Jesus said he was God’s son because Jesus was saying he was equal to God. He was claiming to be God and the religious leadership — the Jews — definitely understood that is what he was claiming.

Jesus said, “if you have seen me you have seen the father.” God is not a human being. God is a spirit, and we don’t know what that looks like. But we see the human manifestation of God in Jesus. God is called “father,” but obviously God is not male or female, nor a literal father in the human sense.

God “the father” is the great spirit. Jesus is his human self, and there is the Holy Spirit, a third manifestation that reveals himself even today. Some call that the Trinity. Some go to great lengths to try to explain that, and some dismiss it is three Gods. The three are just three different manifestations of the one God. It’s not that complicated.

If God can create the entire universe, it is not too much of a stretch to think God can have different manifestations and can be in more than once place at once. So God’s spirit remained in Heaven, and his physical human body manifestation came to earth as Jesus. He was in two places at the same time. This is why there is no conflict in the idea of Jesus (being God) could pray to God in Heaven. Humans are finite. There were no doubt things that the physical Jesus did not know because a human mind cannot contain all that is God. He was limited to human capacity while on Earth. He did have the power to perform miracles, which was evidence that he was God. But he was fully human while on earth. He had to eat. He had to go to the bathroom.

Here is why it matters.

God created people in His image, meaning we have a spirit like the one God has. The first people rebelled. I don’t know why, but humans tend to rebel against God. Then we feel guilty and do all kinds of things to try to make peace with God. That is the reason a lot of religions got started, an attempt to appease the Gods (or the one God).

Today’s atheism makes the self into God. Saying there is no such thing as God or “sin,” is just another way to try to justify the self.

But according to the scriptures, God has been in the business of reconciling his rebellious people to himself since the day after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. We are not guilty because of Adam and Eve’s sin. They were just the first. It is our own guilt that we have to deal with. God deals with it by paying our fine. There’s nothing for us to do but accept the gift.

It is our own guilt that we have to deal with. God deals with it by paying our fine. There’s nothing for us to do but accept the gift.

God saw all the religions that were trying to find their way to him, and he took very radical action. This is also what makes Christianity unique. Most religions are about how to reach God. Christianity is about how God reaches out to us.

The Gift

God came to earth in human form and paid for all our sins. We no longer have to “try” to get to God. The message is clear. We are forgiven and acceptable to God. There is nothing for us to earn. There is nothing for us to do. That is the gift of Christmas, the offer of a relationship with God. It is not based on our merit, but on the love of God for his creation.

Religion tells us how to be good enough to be pleasing to God. God says believe and you will be saved.

The reason for this was so God could show us that he isn’t mad at us.

He wanted to make the point so badly he came to earth as a human being and paid for all our sins. We are forgiven. He went to the point of dying or allowing his human manifestation to be killed. That paid the price so to speak. He then rose from the dead, to show he had defeated sin and death. The resurrection matters even more than death.

That all starts with the gift at Christmas. It culminates with the resurrection on Easter. That is what Christmas is about. That is the real theological meaning of the Christ child.

This is the reason for the season.

James Jordan is a freelance writer who lives in the Midwest. Always interested in hearing your comments about the stories. Here are a couple more.