CHRISTMAS The Cost: The Son

If I were to offer you a trade…You give me a 20 dollar bill, and I will give you a one dollar bill. Would you do it? No Way! Why? Obvious, that is a very bad bargain. This is the season that everyone looks for bargains. Sadly, it is also the season that is full of a lot of depression. Why is that? Part of the answer has to do with the cost this season brings to our personal finances. Either we cannot afford to get everyone what we want, or we can and feel pressured to do so.

Christmas should not be about getting and pressure to buy; yet we live in a real world. It has become a part of the culture, and we have to deal with that. One way to help bring a balance is to consider the cost for those from the original Christmas.

We saw looking at Joseph and Mary that it cost them their future: Their Plans, Reputations and even the Roles they thought they would have.

What did it cost the Son of God?

First: Consider Who Jesus is:

Hebrews 1:8–12 But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness above Your companions.” And, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of Your hands; They will perish, but You remain; And they all will become old like a garment, And like a mantle You will roll them up; Like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.”

The Sovereign Lord of all creation, all power, no lack and needs nothing

What did Christmas Cost Jesus? - His Rights

Philippians 2:5–7 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,

John 1:1, 14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Scriptures explains that God became “Incarnate”- Jesus took on flesh, remaining God, yet not claiming the right to live as a Deity.

           

We say Jesus became a man like it was nothing! In doing so we treat it with contempt.

Imagine if when Columbus was asked what did he do, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “I found some land!” The Wright Brothers say – “we went for a ride!” Or, Neil Armstrong (first man on the moon) said, “I went for a walk!)  

To say that God became a man, like we are talking about an everyday occurrence exposes our finiteness.

How does incarnation work??? It means taking on flesh, but to know how that works requires only one thing…you be God! The minute we finite minds try to remove the stress out of infinite Truth, we remove the divine!

God became a man, born of a virgin, and the cost was great.

Let’s consider just some of the cost of Christmas for God the Son.

·      [1]          Cost the Right to home

This is not some move around the block! Not a state, country or even world. This was a move from a Dimension!  From the Spiritual to the Physical realm. Where Jesus lived there was no sin, no danger and no pain. He gave that all up for us.

·      [2]         Cost the Right of perfect Fellowship with the Father.

In Heaven it was face-to-face, in the presence of the Father. Now it was no longer face-to-face and at the end of the road that perfect fellowship was broken as Jesus became sin for us!

·      [3]          Cost the Right of Eternity

God has no beginning and no end – yet when He became incarnate that changed. Jesus was in the womb, being knitted together like all other human beings, with the exception of the sin nature. He had to travel the birth canal and have the rude awakening every baby has as they leave the warmth of the womb to come out into this world!

Luke 2:7, 11 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Jesus experienced an end, when men tortured His body to death and His spirit experienced the pain, separation and wrath that sin brings. *Remember…this experience was not for anything He did, but for what we did.

John 19:29–30 A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

We have looked at three of the specific cost that Christmas cost the Son of God. I have several more and will look at them next time. For right now though, I want us to consider that we should never meditate on Christmas in a vacuum. Yes it is a time of joy, however, we will never experience the fullness of that joy unless we go all the way to Easter with it. All of the cost was worth it to Jesus because He desired to do what the Father’s desire was, which is supply us a path to redemption. 

This Christmas contemplate; what have I done with God’s gift to me? Ignored it, turned it into a fuzzy love story, accepted the gift…but squandered the possible investment of my life? Or have I understood the gravity of God’s gift, receiving with joy of redemption that Christmas brought and living everyday a life that seeks to honor Him?

Don’t let this Christmas pass without understanding it’s potential to change your life!