On a real day, in real history, in a real city, in the real world, God himself came to take away all guilt, to fulfill all hopes, and to defeat all enemies and make us safe and satisfied forever.
This was a day planned in eternity before the creation of the world. Indeed the whole universe — with untold light-years of space and billions of galaxies — was created and made glorious for this day and what it means for human history.
The new birth and all of its effects, including faith and justification and purification and final conformity to Christ in heaven, would be impossible without the incarnation and life and death of Jesus — without Christmas.
The incarnation of the Son of God is necessary because the life we have through the new birth is life in union with the incarnate Christ.
Christmas rightly marks the occasion of the Messiah’s birth, but there is so much more to Jesus than the day he was born.
“If being Jesus-focused is a killjoy for your Christmas, you don’t know him well.” –John Piper
A digest from Desiring God