Charles Dickens’ immortal classic “A Christmas Carol” was released on December 19, 1843, and has never been out of print. This beloved novel tells the dramatic story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy, greedy, sour, stingy man who bellows, “Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas,’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding!” Yet, one Christmas Eve, Scrooge is radically changed into a generous and happy man. With great humor and insight, Dickens’ book captures humanity’s universal longing for inner peace as it ends with the fact that no one could ever keep Christmas like the new, transformed Scrooge!
In a like manner, as a young man, the Apostle Paul hated Jesus and His followers with a burning persecuting passion. He was absolutely determined to destroy the early church and the first Christians. He “made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison” (Acts 8:3). But one day he unexpectedly encountered the risen Christ, and his life became a totally different story (Acts 9:1-16). In a letter to Timothy, his son in the faith, Paul described that life-changing event by saying, even though he was “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man . . . the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:13-14).
Jesus was born into our world to change our eternal destiny by changing our heart in the here and now. Real Christmas is about a heart transplant; by our faith and trust in what Christ did for us on that first Christmas tree, His cross, “if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). In the Scriptures, no one remained the same after they had encountered Jesus.
In 1739, Charles Wesley penned, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” In one of the verses, he poignantly writes, “Born to raise the songs of earth, born to give them second birth.” The second birth is the life-changing, transformation we experience when we come to Christ and totally trust Him and Him alone for the work of salvation He did for us on the cross. Someone once wrote, “We cannot truly know the birth of Christ until He is born in our hearts and He cannot be born in our hearts until we are born again.”
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” —(Matthew 1:23)
- His Birth in History. “That Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.
- His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside.
“Have I allowed my personal life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God?”
I cannot enter the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is a command, a fact based on the authority of God’s Word. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.
A middle-aged woman recently became a Christian writes, “I can’t believe it but I’ve really changed; God has given me the desire to want to study His Word, pray, turn away from the wrong things in my life. I want to worship God and be Christlike in my thought life, relationships and decisions. I use to think I wasn’t complete unless I was in a relationship. Yet, I’ve been hurt many times. Now, I finally have the power to forgive those who have done me wrong. The only thing that used to make me feel good was going shopping. Where once “I” was the center of my world, God now occupies that place. I am a different woman! To me it’s not becoming more religious. God has really become personal to me. It’s about a relationship. Jesus has become my personal Savior, not just a historic concept. I know I have been “born again.” I now enjoy real peace of heart and mind, I never knew that before. My guilt has gone. I know without a shadow of doubt that my sins are forgiven. I know I’m going to heaven when I die. I didn’t have that assurance before and that scared me. I’ve lost some friends and family members who were not believers. However, I wanted to make sure I was saved. On top of all that, I now experience joy and love on a whole other level much deeper than ever before. I’m not perfect. I still have a long way to go. But, what a difference Jesus has made in my life so far!”
This, my friends, is the grand personal transformation that Christ can make in your heart this Christmas. This is why Jesus is the heart of Christmas. This is why Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so that we could be born again.
David Crews Ph.D. Publications 