Post Theme: The Unspeakable Gift
Often in our hurried culture, we hear people talking about their dread for the busyness of the Christmas season. People say they can’t wait until Christmas is over. They talk about how Christmas is just another commercialized holiday. Others dread Christmas shopping or the pressure to finish making their gifts. Some talk about “giving back” at Christmas as if it were nothing more than an obligation or responsibility, missing the absolute joy it can bring.
How do we not just “get in the giving spirit,” but actually foster it back to good health? Where does it spring from? Maybe it stems from the very thing we celebrate at the holiday a month before Christmas: Giving Thanks. After all, what springs more naturally from gratefulness than generosity?
Our busyness and the enormity of our gift giving list CAN rob us of the joy of the season and of giving, but somehow the whole process, the whole month, changes when we remember the real why of what we’re doing. We’re not giving because we HAVE to, at least we shouldn’t be. We’re giving, because of the unspeakable gift given to us more than 2,000 years ago. As we draw closer to that day of celebration, let’s take a moment to look back at the gift and, in doing so, draw closer to the One Who gave it.
The Unspeakable Gift (2 Corinthians 9:15)
That description in itself is worthy of notation. We’re about to discuss something, which the Apostle Paul declared indescribable. The adjective he used comes from two roots. One meaning to narrate in full or wholly, and the other a negator. So “Unspeakable” literally means unable to fully declare or narrate. It’s simply too wonderful, too amazing to tell the whole of the beauty and power found in the gift of Jesus Christ.
The Unspeakable Gift of Love (1 John 4:9,10)
God sent His only begotten Son into the world. Think about that. God, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, took note of the need of the wretched sinners on planet earth. The love of Christmas isn’t that we love God but rather that He loved us.
The Unspeakable Gift of Life (1 John 5:11-12)
Through that amazing love, God gave us something no one else could ever give. He who breathed life into our nostrils also gave eternal life through the gift of Christ. Scripture is clear that when Adam and Eve sinned, sin entered into the world as a whole. And when sin entered in, death followed. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23, Romans 5:12) No one was excluded. We will all die because we have all sinned. Not only did physical death enter in but also spiritual separation from God for all eternity. But God did not leave things there. While we were all helplessly damned to death, He laid down His own life to make a way of life and eternity in His presence.
The Unspeakable Gift For You and Me (Isaiah 9:6. Luke 2:11, James 1:17)
We’ve all heard it said, “Then a little boy was born to them,” or “Then a little girl was given to their family.” Jesus is God’s son, but God gave Jesus to US, to you and me. Both in the Old Testament and in the New, God declares it. Isaiah said a child would be born unto us (humans), and the angels told the shepherds that a child had been born “to you” (again us humans). The Father entrusted His one and only begotten Son—to us!
Look how we cared for that gift! We, through the very sinfulness that He came to forgive, drove Him to a wretched, miserable, painful, humiliating death. But God knew. He knew exactly the path that would lead from the manger to the cross, and He gave us His Son anyway. There is no variableness, no shadow of turning in Him. Before time began, He set the course His Son would take. When the day came, He never flinched. He sent His perfect gift despite the failures and imperfections of the recipient. That, as we’ve already said, is love.
The Unspeakable Gift of Grace (John 1:16, 17, Romans 3:24)
Grace permeates the gift we celebrate at Christmas. Without grace, there would be no Christmas to celebrate. Grace and mercy walk hand in hand. God could have given us what our sins deserved, but He didn’t. That’s mercy. Instead, God gave us something far beyond what we could ever hope to deserve. That’s grace.
Through Moses, God gave the law, which taught us of our inability to reach God’s standard. Through Jesus, God exercised His unfathomable grace, which not only brings us to the standard but also breaks down the wall that sin erected between us and God.
The Unspeakable Gift of Knowledge (2 Corinthians 2:14)
Jesus was to be called Emmanuel—God with us. I have some special friends that I’ve made through online connections, but most of my online-only friends are mere acquaintances. We have spent no time together. I don’t know what makes them smile, the sound of their voice, or what expression they make when they’re thinking hard. Do they fidget when they’re nervous? Some things we only learn by being in one another’s presence.
So, on that first Christmas so many years ago, God sent His Son so that we might know not only Jesus but the fullness of the Godhead. God described the knowledge of Christ as an odor. For some it is sweet, for others it is not. To those who turn their hearts away it is the smell of death, but for those who believe, it smells of abundant life.
The Unspeakable Gift of Redemption (Luke 2:38, Romans 3:24, Romans 6:23)
In the movies, occasionally the one who’s been kidnapped is the hero, but more often they’re the one in need of rescue. In our story, it’s always the latter. Our captor holds us and requires a ransom, which we could never pay. We have no means of escape. But Jesus paid it all. When Anna held that baby for the first (and maybe only) time, she gave thanks because she knew this child would bring redemption (ransom) to her people.
We are justified by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. The perfect gift of the God who never changes is eternal life. Salvation is for US, for you and me. It is at the heart of why Jesus came, why He left heaven, why He walked among us even though we would so completely fumble the gift we were handed, and why He not only endured our betrayal but also the death of the cross. He was born not just as baby but as Redeemer.
The Unspeakable Gift of Victory (1 Corinthians 15:57)
Through Christ, God has given us victory. If Jesus had come and lived and died and nothing more, we would have nothing to celebrate. All men are born, live, and die. But Jesus did more than that, He conquered death. He suffered the penalty of hell for us and then rose up from the dead. That act made the gift complete. It destroyed the sting of death. Through Christ, we are given both victory over death and victory in life. We don’t have to walk under the burden and weight of sin. The battle has been fought and won!
OH! Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!
Now that we’ve taken a moment to look back at what we’ve been given. Let’s take a moment to apply it to our giving. That is where we started after all. Let’s ask ourselves (and the Lord) how we should give. Let’s make our giving, each and every gift, a gift for Christ and a gift that reflects what we’ve been given.
This blog is part of a series of blogs connected to the 2018 Green Bean Project. Click here to find out more. Maybe this will be part of your gift for Christ this Christmas.
