BIBLE READING:
John 11
The life of Jesus wasn’t only about His death.
Often, I feel we give a lot of emphasis in our study of Jesus to when He first came into the world, and then when He died for our sins. These are extraordinary and important things to emphasize, but the way Jesus lived is also incredibly important to understand how to be His follower.
It is not only His perfection that makes Him able to take away our sins, but it is in His perfection that He also showed mankind how to be fully human. When God made mankind, He didn’t make a mistake. He knew what He was doing, and He was pleased with His creation. However, things went off the rails because mankind rebelled against a relationship with God through their own free will.
This rebellion is known as the fall. The fall tainted mankind from that point on. We’ve all felt the consequences of this rebellion, and we have all done our own fair share of rebelling in one way or another.
The good news about Jesus is that He came to reverse the fall, and to restore mankind’s relationship with God through faith in Him. Part of the reversal of the curse is Jesus fully embodying the original creation of humanity and empowering those who have faith in Him to also embody the original creation of God. This is why Jesus says this in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Experiencing this life to the full should give us hope.
When you have hope, that is not something that you’re going to want to keep to yourself. Hopefully, as you’ve spent this time preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ coming, God has put people on your heart to invite to a Christmas service at church. One great way to do this is using social media. Sometime today, share a link on a social media platform inviting your friends to spend Christmas together with you at your church so they, too, can experience life to the full that only Jesus offers.
(We would like to thank Parkview Christian Church, Orland Park, Illinois for providing this plan)