Grace and Christmas

As I see it…

How enormous must the gap be between the holiness of God and man's fallen sinful nature! It is a gap so large that we cannot comprehend it. Or, if we claim that we can comprehend it, it is grossly misunderstood. About a century ago, C. W. Formby wrote: They (sinful mankind) are not thinking of humanity as fallen, or in any sense as being really in serious need of redemption and an uplifting Grace…Their views are summed up in such expressions as, "What you call sin cannot be very wrong, it is quite natural after all." "I cannot see why any redemption should have been necessary. The tendency to do wrong is only a matter of being underdeveloped." Thus the fatal deficiency becomes apparent at once. The great fundamental facts of the Fall have been practically wiped out of their mental horizon. With the loss of these facts, the truth of Christianity must become unintelligible… We have become the blind leading the blind into a further state of depravity (if indeed, states of depravity exist!). The contrast is unfathomable, abiding in the highest heaven is the holy God of the universe, existing in inaccessible light. The task would appear insurmountable: How then can the Holy One of Israel be connected with the fallen crown of his creation? Redemption seems implausible. But then there is the matter of the incarnation! God accomplishes the impossible. He places the sum total of the godhead into a funneled container of humanity; has him live the perfect life in a very fallen world and grants him the title and vocation of the "Lamb of God." Christmas never looked so good to those graced by the Incarnation; it never appeared so quaint as it does to those who still make foolish statements about their natural tendency to be "underdeveloped." Indeed, what else could a hapless fallen race say at this time of the year but, "Happy Holidays"? The grandeur and grace of Christmas is but a religious fog to them. But for us who know the Savior, our resplendent greeting to each other becomes the angelic induced: "Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace to those with whom he is pleased!" Or, simply put: Merry Christmas!