Weekly Reflections

It is good if we can see the stark contrast between the evil and suffering of our world and Christmas. But we also need to see the connection between them. Christmas is about the evil and suffering.  Christmas happened because of the chronic corruption of humanity and the power of death.

Christmas is the great act of the Creator who intervened in his world to restore a humanity which is meant to bear his image. It is about God himself acting to remove the corruption of death which plagues the human race. It is about God the Son, by whom everything was created, taking humanity on himself in order to rescue humanity from the judgment of death.

It is not possible to think about Christmas without thinking of the death of the babe who was born to die. His birth was the means by which the one who bore the image of God perfectly and gloriously reinstated that image in humanity. He not only was the image of God. He took his place as the representative of God in the world in order to overthrow the usurper who by deceit had gained the rule of the world. Thus he came as the true representative of God to regain the rule over God’s world.

He did this by his death. He took the humanity that was corrupted and liable to death upon himself. And by taking it to death and through death, brought it into a new life over which the old corruption had no power. He thus destroyed the power of the devil to rule the hearts and lives of humans. He established a new race with himself as head which would be transformed into his likeness and share his image, the image of God.
Dale