Life and Death at Christmas

Day 15 Advent

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

As I was about to begin this devotional, I received word that Marion Newstrum had just died. Marion and her husband Elmer had been part of our church longer than most of our members had been alive at the time. She was 87. They had been married 64 years.

When I spoke to Elmer and told him I wanted him to be strong in the Lord and not give up on life, he said, “He has been a true friend.” I pray that all Christians will be able to say at the end of life, “Christ has been a true friend.”

Each Advent I mark the anniversary of my mother’s death. She was cut off in her 56th year in a bus accident in Israel. It was December 16, 1974. Those events are incredibly real to me even today. If I allow myself, I can easily come to tears — for example, thinking that my sons never knew her. We buried her the day after Christmas. What a precious Christmas it was!

Many of you will feel your loss this Christmas more pointedly than before. Don’t block it out. Let it come. Feel it. What is love for, if not to intensify our affections — both in life and death? But oh, do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructive to be bitter.

Jesus came at Christmas that we might have eternal life. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Elmer and Marion had discussed where they would spend their final years. Elmer said, “Marion and I agreed that our final home would be with the Lord.”

Do you feel restless for home? I have family coming home for the holidays. It feels good. I think the bottom-line reason for why it feels good is that they and I are destined in the depths of our being for an ultimate Homecoming. All other homecomings are foretastes. And foretastes are good.

Unless they become substitutes. Oh, don’t let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final, great, all-satisfying Sweetness. Let every loss and every delight send your hearts a-homing after heaven.

Christmas. What is it but this: I came that they may have life? Marion Newstrum, Ruth Piper, and you and I — that we might have Life, now and forever.

Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.

John Piper

Why Christmas? Because of Calvary

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Why did Jesus come? Luke 19:10 tells us. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.” 

Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). He is the solitary Savior, the only Savior. 

I’ve often said Jesus is not a good way to Heaven. Jesus is not the best way to Heaven. Jesus is the only way to Heaven. When you say that, a lot of people get their hackles up, but I still want to tell you, apart from Jesus, there is no salvation. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” 

He’s not just one more Savior. If He’s not the only Savior, He’s no Savior because He said He was the only one. And if He said He’s the only one, and He’s not the only one, then He’s a liar, and a liar is nobody’s Savior. I’ve got some wonderful news for you, friend. He can save anyone. 

Because of the birthday of Jesus, each year you are one year closer to Heaven, one year closer, if you know Him, to seeing His dear face. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God who left Heaven, came to this earth, suffered, bled, died, and walked out of that grave a living, risen Savior. He’s the one who sent me to tell you that He loves you. 

ACTION POINT:

He wants to save you and He will save you today if you’ll give Him your heart. If you have not already done so, do it today. Pray, “Jesus, I give You my heart. I believe You died to save me. You will save me if I trust in You. I do trust You, Jesus. I'm trusting You today.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Making It Real for His People

Day 14 Advent

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)

Christ is the Mediator of a new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his blood — the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20) — finally and decisively purchased and secured the fulfillment of God’s promises for us.

It means that God, according to the new covenant promises, brings about our inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ.

And it means that God works this transformation in us through faith — faith in all that God is for us in Christ.

The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith in Christ.

The best place to see Christ working as the Mediator of the new covenant is in Hebrews 13:20–21:

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The words “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight” describe what happens when God writes the law on our hearts in accord with the new covenant. And the words “through Jesus Christ” describe Jesus as the Mediator of this glorious work of sovereign grace.

So, the meaning of Christmas is not only that God replaces shadows with Reality, but also that he takes the Reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our hearts. He does not lay his Christmas gift of salvation and transformation under the tree, so to speak, for you to pick up in your own strength. He picks it up and puts it in your heart and in your mind and gives you the seal of assurance that you are a child of God.

John Piper

Jesus, The Savior

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One day I drove my car off the hot pavement out into a grassy area because I knew where there was a persimmon tree. I love persimmons and I thought, “Well, this is about the time those persimmons would be ripe.” But I got impossibly stuck in the mud. I got a board and tried to dig myself out. I found a piece of carpet there in the woods and put that under the tires. My tires only sunk deeper.

I prayed, “Lord, I’m in the mud. I need your help. I’m helpless here. Lord, get me out.” And almost at the same time, a man came by in a four-wheel vehicle. With that mighty truck, he pulled me slowly out of the mud. I was back on solid ground.

I was so grateful. I hadn’t known what to do, but God sent someone in a four-wheel truck with a cable. That’s so much like salvation. We’re looking for the things of this world and sinking in the mud. We say, “Well, I can get myself out of this.” And the more we try to handle it, the deeper and deeper we sink. We need somebody who will see us, care for us, come to us, and get us out. Jesus is a Savior. He has what it takes to extricate us from the mud we’ve gotten in.

When I got home, my car was covered with mud. I got out the hose and began to get the mud off. That man got me out of the mud, but it was up to me to deal with the mud that was still on there. When I got saved, I was covered with mud. But since then, I’ve been letting Jesus, the Water of Life, clean me up.

ACTION POINT:

You can struggle all you want, but all you’re going to do is sink deeper. Stop the struggle. Surrender to Christ. You don’t have what it takes to get out unless someone takes you out. And that one is Jesus. His name is wonderful. He is the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

The Final Reality Is Here

Day 13 Advent

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. . . . They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8:1–2, 5)

We’ve seen it before. But there’s more. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing.

Hebrews 8:1–2, 5 is a kind of summary statement. The point is that the one priest who goes between us and God, and makes us right with God, and prays for us to God is not an ordinary, weak, sinful, dying priest as in the Old Testament days. He is the Son of God — strong, sinless, with an indestructible life.

Not only that, he is not ministering in an earthly tabernacle with all its limitations of place and size while getting worn out and being moth-eaten and being soaked and burned and torn and stolen. No, Hebrews 8:2 says that Christ is ministering for us in a “true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” This is not the shadow. It’s the real thing in heaven. This is the reality that cast a shadow on Mount Sinai for Moses to copy.

According to Hebrews 8:1, another great thing about the reality which is greater than the shadow is that our High Priest is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. No Old Testament priest could ever say that.

Jesus deals directly with God the Father. He has a place of honor beside God. He is loved and respected infinitely by God. He is constantly with God. This is not shadow-reality like curtains and bowls and tables and candles and robes and tassels and sheep and goats and pigeons. This is final, ultimate reality: God and his Son interacting in love and holiness for our eternal salvation.

Ultimate reality is the Persons of the Godhead in relationship, dealing with each other concerning how their majesty and holiness and love and justice and goodness and truth shall be manifest in a redeemed people.

John Piper

The Welfare In His Name

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The thing your heart is yearning for is peace. Jesus is called “The Prince of Peace.” The Bible says, “Let the peace of God rule your heart” (Philippians 4:7). You see, God, through Jesus, came to give you peace.

Has anyone ever left you anything in a will? Jesus did. Just before He went to the cross He said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

This is the legacy Jesus left for you. Jesus willed His body to Joseph of Arimathea for burial. Jesus gave the care of His mother to the apostle John. Jesus yielded up His spirit to God the Father. But Jesus gave His peace to you. And there’s no lawyer on earth that can break that will. It is yours. It is your throne gift.

ACTION POINT:

If you don’t have peace, it’s because you don’t understand what you have in the name of Jesus. There is welfare in His name. Call upon Him today. Ask Him to help you receive the peace He has provided.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Replacing the Shadows

Day 12 Advent

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. (Hebrews 8:1–2)

The point of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has not just come to fit into the earthly system of priestly ministry as the best and final human priest, but he has come to fulfill and put an end to that system, and to orient all our attention on himself, ministering for us first on Calvary as our final Sacrifice and then in heaven as our final Priest.

The Old Testament tabernacle and priests and sacrifices were shadows. Now the reality has come, and the shadows pass away.

Here’s an Advent illustration for kids — and those of us who used to be kids and remember what it was like. Suppose you and your mom get separated in the grocery store, and you start to get scared and panic and don’t know which way to go, and you run to the end of an aisle, and just before you start to cry, you see a shadow on the floor at the end of the aisle that looks just like your mom. It makes you really hopeful. But which is better? The hopefulness of seeing the shadow, or having your mom step around the corner and it’s really her?

That’s the way it is when Jesus comes to be our High Priest. That’s what Christmas is. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing: Mom stepping around the corner of the aisle, and all the relief and joy that gives to a little child.

John Piper