Christmas Story - Day 3 - Why was Jesus born?

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If they could have saved themselves He would not have come to do it. If men could have saved themselves, God would have let them do it, and when they had accomplished the great work He would have put the crown upon their brows and said, "Well done" But no sinner can save himself, much less can he ransom his brother from sin's slavery.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If they could have saved themselves He would not have come to do it. If men could have saved themselves God would have let them do it, and when they had accomplished the great work He would have put the crowns upon their brows and said, "Well done!" But no sinner can save himself, much less can he ransom his brother from sin's slavery.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If they could have saved themselves He would not have come to do it. If men could have saved themselves God would have let them do it, and when they had accomplished the great work He would have put the crowns upon their brows and said, “Well done!” But no sinner can save himself, much less can he ransom his brother from sin's slavery.

Christ Jesus came to save sinners.

Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died for the ungodly. Prophets had repeatedly declared that "salvation is of the Lord," and had long spoken of Jehovah as "a just God and a Saviour." The gospel prominently sets this forth. He was called Jesus or Saviour, because He would "save His people from their sins;" and when the angel of the Lord announced His birth to the shepherds, he said, "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Jesus Himself taught His disciples that He came, "not to destroy men's lives, but to save them;" and when a sin-convicted woman received Him as such, He pronounced her "saved;" and when another joyfully received Him, He declared, "This day is salvation come to this house." Paul testified that the grace of God bringeth salvation, and He counted it "a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." How blessed is the contemplation of the fact, that God still proclaims salvation for the chief of sinners, through the atoning death of Christ! Well may we sing — "Salvation! let the echo fly The spacious earth around; While all the armies of the sky Conspire to raise the sound. "Salvation! O thou bleeding Lamb, To thee the praise belongs; Salvation shall inspire our hearts, And dwell upon our tongues."

Why did He come the first time? He came to be the Saviour. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14). He died an atoning death on Calvary’s cross in order that salvation and forgiveness of sins might be offered to all mankind.

But for what purpose was God in the midst of men? There could be only one reason for this great event. If He had desired to send some message of warning, entreaty, or command, a servant like to the prophets would have served the purpose, for at sundry times and in diverse manners He thus addressed the fathers of old. If He had intended to make an example of sinners by executing His righteous judgment against them for their sins, an angel or two would have sufficed, as in the case of the guilty cities of the plain. But when Emmanuel appears, men and angels must be silent, and stand aside, and every ear must be attentive to Him, for He comes to reveal the eternal purposes of God, and declare and bring to pass the intentions of divine and infinite love. "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17).

And the Son of God saw our sad condition, He saw that we all needed a Saviour, and because He loved us, He laid aside His glory, and came into this world—the world that was made by Him—and was born a babe in Bethlehem. He did not send an angel to rescue us, but He came Himself to redeem us: and the name He chose to be called was Jesus; which word means Saviour; for He came to save His people from their sins.

But you say, I don't believe in the devil. Possibly not; but if you deny the personality of Satan, you seal your own condemnation. Mark that! If you deny the reality of the power of Satan and his personality, you will have to give up God's Christ, who appears on the scene, after the pathway of the first man — oppressed and governed by Satan — had been one of sin, sorrow, misery, and distance from God for four thousand years. At length "the dayspring from on high" dawned on this world. I do not wonder that heaven went into an ecstasy when the blessed Jesus was born. I am not surprised that when the angels of the Lord announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem the glorious tidings, "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11), that heaven went into ecstasy. I would that your heart knew a little about it. Why did heaven go into ecstasy? I will tell you why. It recognised that if a Saviour sent of God had come there was a clear solution of the difficulty as to how man was to be saved from his lost condition. "God was manifest in the flesh." The Eternal Son of God was to be man's Saviour, come down from heaven to earth, and there appearing as "the Man Christ Jesus."

We must begin with the One who came, for apart from Him there is no gospel for men, no Saviour for sinners. It was Christ Jesus who came. But who is He? The Bible leaves us in no doubt as to this. When John was moved by the Holy Ghost to write of Him he scorned and discarded all introductions and preambles and made haste to get at once to his great subject, as he declared, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made … and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." He is God, the Creator, eternal in being, almighty in power, infinite in wisdom, and He came into the world to save sinners. Of old, when the corrupt and guilty cities of the plain were to be judged and destroyed, two angels were sent to do it; and when rebellious men were to be rebuked for their iniquities, the Word was sent by holy prophets. But now the time had come, not for judgment, nor for rebuke, but for salvation; and neither angels nor prophets were equal to this great work. For this the Word must become flesh, the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father must become man. The day of salvation could not dawn until He appeared, but when Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners the light of that glorious day began to shine for all.