The Christmas Story of Love

The story of Christmas is about Jesus being born. The gift of Christmas is that God gave his Son, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). The motivation for God giving his Son was love, for God so loved. The Christmas story is about God's love for us.

In this exists love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (1 John 4:10-12)

Pray not for great deeds to be done so the world will know Christ this Christmas season but that the love of the Father is made known among you. So that you have a genuine and sincere love for one another. Loving one another is the command Jesus gives us and refers not to the world but to the church. We are to love one another as he loves us. This implies we must know and experience the great love of Christ before we can love others in such a way. I pray not for you to love others but first, to know of the love of God, that surpassing knowledge, to experience it in such a way that the glory and love of God are made known to you. Then you will shine bright this Christmas to a dark world.

The gift of God's son to the world is immeasurable. God gave his son as an atonement for sin, which is the reconciliation of God and humankind through the death of Jesus. Through the death of Jesus, a new covenant was established. Jesus redeemed us, paying the debt for us, that which came from the one transgression of Adam brought upon all mankind. God gave his son as a proportion for sin (the appeasement for sin) not just ours but for the whole world. Jesus came to save all those the Father gave him and interceded for them and for those who would come to believe through their words (John 17:20).

righteous Father, although the world does not know you, I know you and these know because you sent me and I have made known to them your name and make known that love which you loved me, existing in them and I in them (John 17:25-26)

Jesus was sent to make the Father and that his love, the same love that he loved l the son. Knowing the Father is eternal life, "now, this exists eternal life so that knowing you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent" (John 17:3). The Father sent Jesus so that we would be saved and have eternal life and eternal life is in knowing the Father. The greater is in knowing the Father, being reconciled to him, having fellowship with him, and that his love is made known to us.

... and proclaim to you the eternal life that existed with the Father and was made known to us whom we have seen and heard, proclaiming to you so that also you have fellowship with us and that ours is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-4)

The gift is that we have fellowship with "who" is eternal life, as eternal life is in knowing the Father and the Son. Jesus the word that became flesh and dwelt among us, the word of life, whose words exist eternal life was revealed to them, John writes, is now proclaimed to us so we too may have fellowship. Eternal life is that Jesus has made known to us the Father and we have fellowship with him. Our joy is made complete in knowing the Father and Jesus Christ, whom God sent to make known his name and love.

I have made known to them your name and make known that love which you loved me, existing in them and I in them (John 17:26)

If God exists in us then the love of the Father has been made known to us. We love because he first loved us. God is love and to have fellowship with him is to know of his great love. The same love which he loved his only son, this is the love he wants to make known to us. Fellowship with the Father exists of love, to abide in his truth is to abide in his love. These two are inseparable as we grow up in the knowledge and fellowship of him; truth in love.

I in them and you in me so that existing in fullness, one, so that the world knows because you sent me and I love them just as loving me (John 17:23-24)

It is this fullness of God's love that the world will know of him through us. God wants the world to know that he sent Jesus and that he loves them. Jesus made known the Father's name, his words, and his love. And through this fellowship, we have in knowing the Father and his son and his love, this oneness, the world will know that he is from the Father. The overflow of knowing God is love as Jesus said we would be known to the world as his disciples by our love for one another. This unity we have in knowing God and his love will be a sign unto the world.

so that existing all one just as you Father are in me and I in you so that they also exist in us that the world believes that you sent me and the glory that you give me I give them so that existing one just as we are one, I in them and you in me so that existing completely one that the world knows because you sent me and love them just as you loved me (John 17:20-23)

The Christmas story is one of love, if we miss this we miss the association of God's glory with his love. We miss the point of the good news of Christ, of the gospel. Because God loves us he makes known to us through his son the same love that he loved the son with. The fellowship, the unity, the oneness we have with the Father and Jesus Christ will show his glory to the world in the form of love. As we know in increasing measure the love of Christ we will overflow to the world, and the world will know and see God's love and glory through us. This is the heart of the Christmas story, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

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