As a little girl, I knew Jesus was born to save me from my sins, which seemed the only reason anyone ever talked about as to why Jesus came to earth at all. And friends, Jesus did come to earth to live the life we could never live and die the death we deserved. He came to save us, to deliver us out of the darkness and into the light.
Yet as I dig into God’s Word, I’ve learned that our God is the God of “and:” grace and truth, salt and light, hope and peace. Jesus came to earth as a baby for multiple reasons in order to give us multiple gifts.
Jesus offers us the gift of salvation.
God, in love, created us and gave us free will. (If I were God, I wouldn’t have wired us that way, but I digress…) When confronted with a choice to obey and trust God’s commands or to disobey and question God’s heart, Adam and Eve chose the latter.
This choice sealed our fate.
Adam and Eve weren’t the only ones impacted by their sinful choice. Each and every generation until the end of time would now be infected by sin. (Thanks a lot Adam and Eve.)
But God loves us so much and couldn’t bear to be without His beloved children so God planned our rescue through His Son Jesus.
He sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to earth to save us. Jesus was born of a virgin and obeyed His Heavenly Father by sharing the truth with people. Yet the people didn’t accept Jesus as their Messiah and crucified Him, just as God said they would.
Through Christ’s death on the cross, our sins are paid for, our stains washed clean and our status now justified, holy, and righteous. Praise be to God for His indescribable gift!
To receive the free gift of salvation, given to us through grace by faith, we simply receive it. We proclaim Jesus and set Him apart as Lord of our life. Then we walk with Him as He shepherds and leads us at our own pace.
Try-hard girl, hear me that your salvation does not depend on you, but solely depends on Jesus and what He did on the cross. Your rock-solid salvation holds firm because of Christ’s complete and finished work. Our responsibility is to accept and believe what is true and has been done on our behalf. If you’d like to read how the gospel intersects with your real life, read this.
We need the gift of salvation because we are dead in our sins and are incapable of saving ourselves without it. Through this gift, we learn that the Giver is merciful, an all-sufficient provider, loving, one who knows our needs, all-powerful, a promise-maker and a promise-keeper.
(Supporting verses: Genesis 3; Psalm 23; Isaiah 1:18; John 3:16, 19:28-30; Romans 3:23, 6:20, 11:16; Acts 4:27-28; Galatians 4:7; Ephesians 2:8-9; Colossians 3:13-14; 2 Corinthians 4:5 )
Jesus offers us the gift of life.
God’s goal for us isn’t simply that we receive salvation and avoid hell, but to experience a full and eternal life.
Jesus tells us Himself that He came so that we experience life in the fullest possible way, like superabundant, superior, excessive, preeminent, incredibly amazing kind of life.
As wives, mom, employees, friends, what does this mean for us in real-time? It means that “we live in His inexhaustible joy, peace, patience, love, self-control, power, endurance, and ability to meet every situation.” (BSF’s Study of John)
So moms, when you trust in Christ, He gives you:
- the gift of an abundant life so you can change the one-hundredth diaper this month.
- joy when you see your children come to know Him.
- peace when your teenager acts crazy-town.
- love for your neighbor.
- self-control when exhaustion sets in and you can’t answer “Why?” one more time.
God gives you the power, endurance, and ability to obey your boss, greet the customer with a smile, serve chicken nuggets for dinner (again), and receive His love for you.
He doesn’t want you drifting through life or needlessly suffering. Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose again so you can glorify God, enjoy Him forever, fulfill His purpose for you, experience His presence, adore and love Him, and obey Him. That’s pretty awesome, right? If you’ve ever wondered how Jesus relates to the modern-day mom, read this one.
We need the gift of life because, without it, we are dead. Through this gift, we learn that the Giver is loving, generous, and has our best interest at heart.
(Supporting verses: Psalm 16:11; Ecclesiastes 12:13; John 3:16; 10:10; Galatians 5:22-23)
Jesus offers us the gift of freedom.
Try-hard friends, we are free! Because Jesus set us free, we are free from:
- worry,
- fear,
- spiritual death,
- the power of sin,
- guilt,
- comparison
- shame,
- busyness,
- and seeking our identity and worth from anywhere else.
God knew we would fall into habits and patterns that hurt us. In His mercy and kindness, He gave us Jesus so we wouldn’t be held captive by high expectations, isolation, perfectionism, and all that so easily entangles us.
True freedom looks — not like doing what we want when we want it — but like obeying God and fulfilling His purpose for us. True freedom means becoming the women God created us to be.
God gives us all the freedom and opportunity in the world to live out our dreams, interests, and talents. We are free to live out what God uniquely purposefully placed in us. He gives us the opportunity to use our divine gifts and live an abundant life, which allows you to embrace the good works pre-destined for you to do. We were made to be free to shine a light and bear His image.
But we can so quickly fall back into the slavery of doing more, trying harder, and fear. How can we experience freedom and stay there? Read on here.
Sweet friend, God’s heart for you is for you to live in freedom.
We need the gift of freedom because we are held captive by sin without it. Through this gift, we learn that the Giver is merciful, kind, hopeful, and cannot stand oppression.
(Supporting verses: Genesis 1:27; Psalm 18:16-19, 103:12; Matthew 5:16-20; John 3:17; 8:34-36; Romans 6:7; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Galatians 2:1, 4:7, 5:13; Ephesians 2:10; Hebrews 2:14; 2 Peter 2:19-20)
Jesus offers us the gift of relationship with Him.
A relationship with God looks like friendship with Him and adoption into His family.
Here’s what is crazy to me: Jesus calls us His friends. We are friends because we have the privilege of two-way communication with the God of the universe. Because Jesus was born and died, we can boldly approach the throne of grace and talk to God. In the past, only the high priest could do that, and then, only once a year. Now, you get to talk to Him any time you want, 365/24/7.
He also calls us His family, which means you are God’s girl, His daughter and a co-heir with Christ. Paul tells us that adopting us is something God wanted to do and is tickled pink about it! Doesn’t that gift feel lavish and generous to you too?
Being in a relationship with God in your real-life means:
- Spending time with Him through prayer and reading His Word
- Listening to Him
- Trusting Him
- Receiving and accepting His love and grace
We need the gift of relationship because we are wired for it. Through this gift, we learn that the Giver is loving, willing, open, accepting, gracious, generous, available, and kind.
(Supporting verses: John 15:15; Romans 8:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 3:26, 28, 4:6-7; Ephesians 1:5, 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 3:1)
As a little girl, I knew that Jesus was born to save me from my sins.
Now I know that God offers us so much more than that. He is the ultimate Dad, the most generous gift-giver, the One who knows our needs before we do and is able to meet every single one.
God is good, sweet friend. He lavishes you with His love. He delights in you. What incredible gifts He offers!
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