What is Christmas and why do I celebrate it?
Having been born into a family that observed the traditions of the Church of England, Christmas for me has always been about the Spirit of Christmas, the jubiliation, the celebration, the spirit of festivity , spending time with family and friends. It has only been over recent years where I have discovered a deeper meaning to Christmas .
Christmas is about the birth of a man called Jesus , and his birth certainly means more to me than just a reason to celebrate a festival.
Jesus was not even born on the 25th December, believe it or not .
No one knows what day Jesus Christ was born on. From the biblical description, most historians believe that his birth probably occurred in September, approximately six months after Passover. One thing they agree on is that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December, since the bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold Judean winter. So why does man celebrate Christ’s birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?
The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.
In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.
In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.
Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means “wheel,” the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.
In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.
Many of European paganistic traditions have been assimilated into Christian festivity. And there is nothing wrong with what man does with his traditions as long as he does not go into error or futility
For me there is a greater meaning to Christmas…..
The 25th Dec reminds me of the greatest and most significant point in history when the birth of a single man made a massive impact on the spiritual realm. His birth was an incarnation, of a heavenly being penetrating the earthly realm for a divine purpose. So great was this event that it even made an impact on the physical realm; in that it set a point in the assignment of the calender where every event before him was called BC ( before Christ) and every event after him was called AD ( Ano Domini which is Latin for the year of the Lord)).
This is not coincidental as He himself is refered to as the Alpha and the Omega, which means the First and the Last……… which invariably means He who is not governed by time
Such cannot be said of a mortal , and He certainly cannot be of this world . But what Jesus did is more than just assigning the calender. His significance is in the greatest work of salvation,…… ie to redeem the souls of man from the damning effect of sin!
In order to understand the relevance of the purposes of Jesus entering the history of man, we need to go back further in time in history, into the time of Abraham, the Father of both the Jews and the Arabs, about 2000 years after the creation and fall of Adam, the first man, in regards to original sin ( which will be explained later)
The law of God was FIRST given to the family tree or rather the descendants of Abraham because God found Abraham righteous in HIS sight; and chose to preserve them through the LAW, and then bring forth freedom to them in his Son Jesus when he as the Messiah was to be revealed later. And through this SEED Jesus , the entire world was to be reconciled unto him. Until that point in time, he entrusted the family line of his faithful servant Abraham to teach his descendants the ways of truth and gave them the LAW through Moses. The purposes of the LAW was to keep these descendants , called the Jews, in the path of righteousness, until the Messiah would be revealed.
However the LAW has its shortcomings . Not in itself but because of the very inadequacies of man. A man who is free to do what is right does not need a LAW. The Law is therefore only needed to keep a man from Lawlessness. Therefore the Law keeps a man gravitated towards the path of righteousness but is unable to rid him of his root problem, sin. Take for instance our society. If all of us were perfect, no law will be necessary because we will by nature do what is right according to our conscience and righteousness coming from our heart . But we are not perfect. Therefore the law is needed to act as a barrier to evil……such as to prevent a murderer from going translating his thoughts into evil action …. Just as the robber relents because of the repercussions presented to him through the system of justice.
But does the law serve to purify the thoughts and intentions of man in present society? Certainly Not! It only keeps him at bay constraining him to do what is right. This is exactly the parallel here. The law does not purify man. It only serves to keep man from lawlessness!
Therefore a man who is bound by law, to help him keep off lawlessness , is still governed by sin. Therefore a better way was needed. Somebody had to remove the penalty of sin and release man from the incriminating nature of the Law; and introduce to him the freedom to do what is right without having to follow a system of Law. This person is the Messiah, his true name Yeshua, or Yehoshua, which means the One who Saves. The Law that was given to the Jews was only a temporary measure until the Messiah was to be revealed
The Messiah was to wipe away the penalty of ALL of man’s sin, and replace the written Law with the Law that is to be written upon their Hearts by Faith.
A man cannot pay for the souls of all man. Only a perfect man can pay for the sins of his brothers. But it would take a God to pay for the sins of all men past, present and future. For such a Man has to be more than just without sin to present the perfect sacrifice (already an inhuman feat) . He has to represent ALL men , from the past , present and future. He has to proceed forth from eternity ( the Alpha and the Omega)………… …………….
Such a man cannot be a mortal, he has to be divine.
That is why Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM. John 8:58......................................................................
In fact, these very words that Jesus used are exactly the same way God answers Moses when he ASKED HIM WHAT His name was at his encounter with Him at the burning bush ……..
I AM THAT I AM……Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you….
That is why the Jews tried to stone Jesus because they considered this saying of his an act of blasphemy
God is Light. Darkness cannot comprehend this light. God is selfless, his outlook is selfless, and his eyes are always on the good of others. This is how he made Adam, the first man, in his image and likeness. Adam knew what was perfect. But Adam had to be tested in this matter; not for God’s sake, ............. but rather Adam’s.
Adam fell when he chose to look inwards upon ‘his own needs’ and satisfy a selfish longing to taste of something that appealed to him, so that he can be like God , knowing both good and evil. But little did he realize that his poor choice…… would open his eyes to evil. Little did he know that when he bites into the fruit…….. he would have consummated his evil choice and would then……. be plunged headlong into a fallen state
What probably shocked him was when he ate the fruit he tasted immediately the consequences of his action, ie the taste of evil . He knew immediately that he had fallen from grace; and felt the alienation from his relationship with God.
Until then Adam was clothed in righteousness, ie the glow of the Light of Life, which clothes all celestial beings of the kingdom of God……………. immediately dimmed within Adam . Adam then saw his nakedness and that of Eve and realized he had to hide from all because his nakedness of sin was clear for all to see. When God asked him why he was hiding, he said he was naked. God asked him who told him he was naked almost as if to say what did you do, my son Adam, that told you, you were naked?
Ever since then sin has grown and has served to sap the life out of man by the introduction of death . The life span of Adam who knew little sin was a thousand years , but this span has degraded over the years as God had to gradually commute life span to prevent man from annihilating himself and his race prematurely!
Man was alienated from God because of sin. But ever since his fall Adam and his offsprings ( the human race) have always yearned to be restored to that Light. The sons of Adam have attempted to reach God in a multiple of ways through man made efforts and self attained enlightenment . They called these various endeavours……….. religions……… which is man’s earnest and sincere attempt to reach God .
But what man could not do God did by sending himself . God has already reached out to man!
God has no form. In the beginning………….. he chose to appear in a form in which his creations will be able to identify His persona and be able to relate to as a person. His creation, man, was made in that image of His persona. This persona is called the Son of God . That is why the Word says NOONE has seen God but the Begotten who is at his Fathers side has explained him.
Listen to what God says concerning his SON in the scriptures……
- This is my SON in whom I am well pleased.
- Kiss the Son ( which means embrace him like the Jews do) lest He be angry….
- You are my SON, today I have begotten thee….
- And he shall be called EMMANUEL, which means GOD WITH US
In Titus 3 vs 5, it says he came to save us by washing us of our sin. How did he accomplish this? He did it by regenerating our spirit and renewing our mind. Sounds heavy? Not so….
We are all easily identifiable as offsprings of our parents because we have physical and soulish traits that resemble our parents.
In a parallel way Adam was designed to be the son of the Living God because God had imparted into his mortal body, his breath or spirit, and by doing so, he had enabled Adam to connect with Him through his human spirit. The Word says when a man dies, his body returns to the ground from which it came and his spirit returns to God who gave it. Now the spirit in us, had been designed to be in communion with God and to receive from him the very deep things of God.
However when Adam sinned , the sin served to block and choke up this conduit of connection between man’s spirit and God’s spirit. And we the offsprings of Adam inherited this fallen state and alienation from God, from our father Adam .
Because the wages of sin is death and death was thus introduced into Adam’s family tree, it therefore now required the lifeblood of a divine being to erase that condition of sin in order to restore man back into his originally destined relationship with God.
It required someone in the capacity of the Lord himself to pay a price to remove this dross of sin that separates man from God because it is something no man or celestial being can do. Jesus paid that price for the sin of Adam’s family line . Now, whoever believes in His salvation work, acknowledge they have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and put their trust in Him as their Lord and Saviour; will be saved from the consequence of sin and death and will be restored into a spiritual relationship with God for eternity. This act of faith in acknowledging the price that Jesus paid for mankind’s sin will open the door to his salvation and the restoration of his spiritual conduit with God!
Adam was able to see life with his spiritual eyes through his spiritual conduit with God. When Adam’s spiritual conduit with God was interrupted by sin, he could only perceive and appraise issues from a superficial, soul based point of view. He was unable to use his spiritual faculties in the manner he had been able to do before. Therefore he started seeing things selfishly, superficially, inilaterally, partially, etc………… truly a far cry from what he was designed to do.
Something precious had gotten lost between God and man!
God’s way of transfering wisdom to us works differently though. When a man acknowledges the salvation work of Jesus, his spiritual conduit is cleared of sin and his relationship with God is regenerated .
The wisdom of God then starts to flow from the depths of God’s Spirit into such a man's spirit , and then from his spirit, to his soul , bringing about the renewal of his mind . The regeneration of his spirit starts a process of renewal in his mind that will take him from one level of faith to another, as he spends more and more time in communion with God.
That is why Paul says the spiritual man appraises things spiritually ( According to 1 Corinthians 2:14 Now the natural man doesn't receive the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can't know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.)
The death of Jesus and His resurrection and work of Salvation must not be in vain, …………not for HIS sake , ……………………..but OURS. Or else a God would have died for his creation in vain!
May you find your joy and fulfilment in the Lord this Christmas and may your spiritual conduits be restored unto God by receiving the Lord Jesus as your Lord, Master and Saviour .
Wishing you a Blessed Christmas!
Alburn
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