Receiving the Gift

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right

to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.

John 1:12

We celebrate Christmas by giving gifts in honor of the gift of His Son that the Lord gave to us.  But as with any giving, there must be receiving.  The gift must be taken; and in regards to the gift of Christ, He must be appropriated, taken into one's self and made a part of one's self.  For, after all, He is the gift of God. All of salvation is bound up in Christ. In Him are found salvation, justification, righteousness, sanctification, glorification, reconciliation, peace, hope, joy, security, spiritual life, and eternal life.

How do you know you have received the gift?

1. You cling to Him with a tenacity and a ferocity as you would cling for dear life to a rock, even when battered and bruised by the waves of the storm, but refusing to let go and be taken under. You know and understand He is your only hope.

2. Your trust is in Him and Him alone, and you refuse to trust in yourself, your ability to keep your own set of rules. You don’t trust in your self-made righteousness. You refuse to trust in a system, a decision, a prayer, an event, an action, but your only and total trust is in Him.

3.Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice.” So you know His voice and you listen for His voice above the cacophony of the competing voices of this world. It is  to His beat that you march, not the world’s or your own. It is His approval that you crave. It is His voice you long to hear, and it is His presence that is most dear.

4. He is your most precious treasure, the most precious gift you have ever been given. He is the pearl of great price by which all else pales in comparison. He is the One for whom you would forsake all others. He is most precious, most dear to you, more special than your family, your friends, than all comforts, than all your stuff. He is more precious and more dear then all the trinkets of this world; more precious, more dear than your pride, your reputation, yes, and even more precious than life itself.

Have you received Christ? Have you received the indescribable gift that God Himself has made available to all the world.  Receive Him today and take into yourself the full and true meaning of Christmas, and rejoice in the Christmas of God.

United with Christ

According to Paul in Ephesians 1 this is what we have in Christ:

1. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
2. Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
3. Predestined for adoption as sons.
4. The free bestowal of His grace.
5. Redemption through His blood.
6. Forgiveness of our trespasses.
7. Knowledge of the mystery of His will.
8. An inheritance.
9. Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise-the pledge of our inheritance.

United with Christ

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized

into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism

into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through

the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His

death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that

our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no

longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. 

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we whall also

live with Him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the

dead, is never to die again; death is no longer is master over Him. 

For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all;

but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Even so consider

yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:3-11



Union with Christ

...in its broader aspects it underlies every step of the application

of redemption.  Union with Christ is really the central truth of the

whole doctrine of salvation not only in its application,

but also in its once-for-all accomplishment in the finished

work of Christ.

John Murray

Redemption Accomplished and Applied

Page 161

The Gospel

The Gospel changes your life because

the Gospel unites you to Jesus Christ.

Sinclair Ferguson

Basics Conference

2010

O Holy Night -- Kate Smith

Kate Smith considered her voice a gift from God, and indeed it was.