Monday, December 25, 2023
Savior, Messiah, Lord
“The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” (Luke 2:11 NLT)
On the first Christmas, the angel announced to the shepherds, “The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” (Luke 2:11 NLT).
We can have joy this Christmas because we have a Savior. We have a Messiah. And we have a Lord.
We have a Savior. Jesus came to save us from the power and penalty of sin. Whatever we’re going through in life, we must remember that we have a Savior. He has taken our sin and has put it away from us, “as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12 NLT).
We have a Messiah. “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew word that means “anointed one”; “Christ” comes from the Greek word that also means “anointed one.” Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to the Jewish people to send His Son as the Messiah. It’s a reminder that God keeps His promises. We have a Savior who has forgiven our sins. And we have a Messiah who keeps His promises.
We have a Lord. We have Someone to tell us which way to go in life, Someone who will direct us in the path that we should take, Someone who will protect us as we go on that way, and Someone who will welcome us into Heaven when we have finished our course on Earth.
Joy was present on that first Christmas. Yet we might think, “I’ll be happy later, when my next paycheck comes” or “I’ll be happy after I see what I get for Christmas” or “I’ll be happy when I finally get through this difficulty.”
We all have problems in life. The apostle Paul, for example, wanted to go to Rome to preach the gospel. Instead, he ended up there as a prisoner. Yet in the midst of those bleak circumstances, he wrote, “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4 NLT).
He was saying, “I have a message for you: Lighten up. Rejoice in the Lord always! If anyone has a reason to be depressed, it’s me. But I’m not depressed. And you don’t have to be either.”
C. S. Lewis said, “God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. . . . God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”[1]
If you’re looking to this world to make you happy, you never will be. If you’re looking to Christmas to make you happy, you never will be. You need to know Christ. That is the answer.
The same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem and lived a perfect life voluntarily went to a cross and died for the sins of the world. Then He rose from the dead. That is the gift that God offers us. It’s the gift of eternal life.
We have a Savior. We have a Messiah. And we have a Lord. That is all we need to have a joyful Christmas.
Copyright © 2023 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
[1] Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. William Collins, 2012.
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