The Gift That Saves

Have you ever seen the perfect gift for someone? You see it, and you know that is just what they need – it’s the most perfect gift!

Chuck Swindoll tells the true story of a wife who wanted to get the absolute perfect gift for her husband. Christmas wasn’t really close yet, but she’d been thinking and thinking about the perfect gift, and then it finally hit her.

And so, she went to the store, but the gift was very expensive, so she asked if she could put it on layaway and pick it up later. But the store owner said, “Why don’t you go ahead and take it now, and you can make payments on it?"

So, she took it home. But she just couldn’t wait. So, she gave it to her husband way before Christmas. Well, her husband was a police officer, and not many days later, he got a late-night call about a robbery. And as he was chasing the suspect, suddenly, the suspect pulled his car over.

The officer carefully approached the vehicle when the door suddenly swung open, and with the flash of a high-powered pistol, a bullet found its mark and left the husband lying in the road.

Later, the wife gets a knock on the door. Two uniformed officers are on the porch, and the event she has always dreaded is unfolding. They tell her that her husband was shot. But, he’s in the hospital recovering from only a deep bruise because the gift that she had gotten him - a bullet-proof vest. Her gift literally saved her husband’s life.

That woman knew the gift that would save her husband’s life, and God knew the gift that would save our eternal lives.

God knew the gift we needed above all things in this life because God created us as eternal beings. But sin had caused an irreparable separation between God and us. And God knew the gift we needed most was the gift of eternal life with him.

And so, in eternity, before the beginning of time as we know it, the infinite God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit- prepared the only gift that would save us, the only gift that would give us back eternal life.

Turn over to John 1:1-4.

John 1:1–4 (NLT)
1 In the beginning (when the beginning came) the Word already existed (The Logos – God in expression). The Word was with God (One with God), and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

That is the gift that saves. The LIFE of Jesus brought light to everyone. But not everyone receives this gift of light and life.

Just down in John 1:12, we see how we can receive this gift that saves.

John 1:12–13 (NLT)
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

Jesus – God in Expression – came to the manger as the gift that saves. But the Bible is clear. It is only those who believe him and receive him who will benefit from that gift.

For those who do put their faith and trust in Jesus as their Savior, verse 13 says, They are born-again, not with a physical birth, but a birth that comes from God.

And then, John 1:14 says,

John 1:14 (NLT)
14 So the Word (Who is God) became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

The gift that saves is God becoming man, and making his home among us. God came and dwelt among us, as a man!

In The Message, John 1:14 says this.

John 1:14 (The Message)
14 The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son…

Jesus Christ being born in the manger – is God becoming flesh and blood to save us from the eternal consequences of sin.

Hebrews 1:3 (AMP)
3 [Jesus] is the sole expression of the glory of God [the . . . radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power.
When He had, by offering Himself, accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high,

God the Son, who upholds and maintains and guides and propels the universe by his mighty Word of power – he offered himself as the only acceptable sacrifice for the cleansing of our sin and the ridding of our guilt. That is the Gift that Saves.

You know, I’m glad that our culture still allows us to celebrate (kind of) a Christian Christmas (at least for now). But how many people who are scrambling to celebrate Christmas today, are even aware of the eternal magnitude of the gift that God sent to save us. Even more important, how many have genuinely received this gift that saves?

God sent us the One Gift that he knew we truly needed, and the moment we draw our last breath we will realize it is the only gift that we truly needed from God.

On November 26th, just three weeks ago, many of us lost a dear friend, Brent Stackhouse, with no notice and no warning. Just a call in the middle of the night – Brent is gone from this world. But thankfully, Brent had received this Gift that Saves, and he had been radically transformed by the new life of Jesus Christ in him. And he was holding on to his gift of new life every day. Then, in an instant, the very moment he needed this gift, it was there and it saved him.

And Brent is alive forever as a Child of God in the glory and presence of God because he had received and embraced the gift of eternal life that Jesus was born in that manger to offer each of us.

Jesus Christ – God in Expression – was born in the manger in order to die on the cross for our sins. It was the victory of God over our sin that was born in that manger. It was the Love of God for you; personally, that was born in that manger.

Jesus Christ is the Message of all that God has to say to us, he is the Fullness of all that God has to give us, and he is the Essence of all that God is for us.

Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh.
He’s the IMAGE of God revealed.
He’s the FULLNESS of God imparted.
He’s the GLORY of God reflected.
He’s the GRACE of God extended.
He’s the POWER of God demonstrated.
He’s the SALVATION of God provided.
He’s the HEART of God expressed.
He’s the LOVE of God manifested.

Jesus was born in that manger to die on that cross to become the sacrifice for your sin so that you could receive the free gift of the righteousness of God in him.

In order to do that, God had to become a man. No man could do what needed to be done in order to offer the only gift that can save man from the consequences of sin. God himself had to come into our world in the Person of Jesus Christ. Fully man and still fully God. And though he was wrapped in a body like ours, he was completely sinless.

And so, the day was set, and the mother was chosen. And the Holy Spirit caused Mary to become pregnant with a child, and that child would first grow inside Mary, just like any other child. And then, he would grow outside Mary, just like any other child. And few knew that God was living among us, as a man, in order to give us a gift we could never deserve, a gift we could never earn. A gift that God would pay for himself while we were still lost in our sin.

Romans 5:8 (NLT)
8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

God the Son came into our world to freely offer us the gift that saves because God knows what we really need. He knows this life on earth is a vapor. And so, Jesus came to bring the gift of real, eternal life in the glory and presence of God himself.

And believe me, please, there is a day when each one of us is going to desperately need this gift. Hebrew 9:27-28 tells us when that day is and what Jesus has done to prepare us for that day.

Hebrews 9:27–28 (NLT)
27 And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,
28 so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people . . .

The “many people” here are all those who will receive the free gift that saves.

So, Christmas IS about a Gift. But not those shiny gifts that need batteries and disappear quickly. Christmas is about the Gift that Saves, the Gift given by God to us – given when we could never deserve it and when we could never earn it. A Gift that gets more and more glorious every day that we live in it. And a Gift that each of us will desperately need when we stand before God.

This is the Gift that was prepared for you before the foundation of the world, and it’s a Gift that will carry you through all eternity.

Don’t reject the gift that saves in exchange for those shiny presents of the world. Because all those shiny presents of the world are soon going to vaporize, and the gift of God will stand alone in the end, with you either receiving it or rejecting it.

Jesus Christ came to the manger as the ultimate expression of the love of God for you, personally. Jesus Christ came – as the only Gift that Saves.

John 3:16–17 (NLT)
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

If you want to receive this gift that saves, you can pray a pray like this right now; Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I need to be saved. I need your forgiveness and your mercy. Please forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Be my Savior and my Lord. And please fill me with your Holy Spirit to enable me to follow you all the days of my life. Thank you for saving me. In your name I pray, Amen.