He Came for Everyone

Giuliano Traballesi, The Nativity Drawing, National Gallery - NGO Image, Public Domain

“You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9, NLT).

      There is an incredibly powerful reality in the coming of our Savior to the earth to redeem the peoples of the world.  It is what we truly celebrate in the Christmas season and is the joy of our salvation.  It is incredible, that the Christ who existed and reigned in heaven would be willing to come to earth to redeem a world lost in sin and consumed with selfishness.  It took the ultimate sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son to reach to the lowest realms of wickedness, lifting any and all who would believe in Him to the heights of heaven and eternity. It is a reach beyond our comprehension as the Holy God moves beyond every dominion of human sinfulness and every other power of heaven and earth to love and save us by His favor and grace.

      God’s love reaches to the lowest places.  His love reaches to the fatherless, the poor, the outcast, the forgotten, the lonely, the neglected, the brokenhearted, the miserable, the used and misused, and even to the cynical and the prodigals. His love is truly incomprehensible in its reach to all those who are hurt and damaged by sin.  Sin attacks all good and all virtue, maiming people and their relationships, but our salvation in Christ redeems pain and brokenness. No one on this earth ever escapes the damage and stain of sin and because of this common fallen state; we all need a Savior.  We are all in a lowly place and since our Christ comes to all of us in our lowly condition, no one or no damage is ever out of the reach of His love.

      This powerful reality of Christ giving up His heavenly place and coming to redeem the world, even coming to the lowest in the lowliest of places is born out in the tangible and physical aspects of the Incarnation and birth of Jesus.  Jesus was not born in a palace. The rich and powerful religious and political classes do not even notice His birth nor were they invited.  The proclamation of His birth, which bursts from the heavens with such glorious excitement is not seen or witnessed by royalty but rather by members of one of the lowliest and common of all occupations. Shepherds were not respected and were disregarded as ceremonially un-clean and unwelcome worshipers in the synagogues and in the Jewish Temple. It was to these poor and lowly caretakers of the flocks in the fields, that the heavens were opened with the shattering announcement that God’s favor and peace had come to the world.  They were the first to worship the new born King. In their humble worship, we see that the lowliest are remembered and would be redeemed by the heavenly Son, now born into the world.

      What does all this mean to each of us?  How does the mighty reach of Christ to the poor and lowly, translate into joy in our lives? Joy comes as His redemptive love reaches all of us. He comes to every place. He comes to every way that we have failed and covers all the sin of our lives. It means there will never be a lowly place where His presence will not be with us through His Holy Spirit. He will always come, never abandoning us in the low points of our lives. He comes, lifting us up from the places of pain and suffering and giving us His peace.  Christ coming to the lowly … means nothing can separate us from His love as we believe and follow our Savior.  The coming of Christ; is real joy to the whole world. To the lowly, Christ will always come. Thus no one is beyond the reach of God’s love through the grace of Jesus Christ. His coming to be born in the lowly manger was the first moment of His coming to the lowly but it was only the beginning of the incomprehensible myriad of times Christ will come, again and again through His death and resurrection to save the world. The message of the birth of Christ is simple … Jesus comes to save and give life, now and forever.  Thanks, be to God.

Thought and Scripture Reading  … God’s generosity towards us, should move us to be generous.  2 Corinthians 8 & 9