Without Christ, We Would Still Be in Our Sins

Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.
—Hebrews 10:7

What would the world be like if there was no Christmas? If Christ had not come, there would be no sacrifice for our sins.

Here’s a pop quiz with only one question: When and where was the first announcement of Christmas preached? If you said in a field outside Bethlehem, the sermon preached by the angel to the shepherds, that would be a great answer—but it would be wrong.

The first announcement of Christ’s coming occurred nine months before the angels appeared to the shepherds. This announcement occurred not on earth, but in heaven; and the preacher of the sermon was Jesus Himself. Hebrews 10 records the words Jesus spoke as He was stepping on the balcony of heaven about to come to earth to plant Himself in the womb of a peasant teenage girl. Why was Jesus willing to do that? The writer of Hebrews says, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He [Jesus] comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You [God] have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God’” (Hebrews 10:4-7). Jesus said, “God, the reason I am leaving heaven and taking on human form is in order to do Your will.” The only way Jesus could have accomplished God’s will was in a human body.

Now, what was God’s will that Jesus came to accomplish? It was not to be a good example to us. It wasn’t to be a good teacher to us. It wasn’t to show us how we ought to live. All of those things are true, but they’re secondary and tertiary to Jesus’ primary mission in coming to us.

What does God desire more than anything? What was His will? It was to be reconciled to you and me. And the only way for that to happen was by Christ coming in human form to take the punishment that we deserve for our sins. That’s why Paul says, “God made him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

If Christ had not come, there would be no sacrifice for your sins and my sins, and we would have been left to an eternity of separation from God.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “If Christ Had Not Come” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2012.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.