The incarnation of Jesus Christ pointedly preaches our inescapable need for radical, personal, and moral rescue and forgiveness.

One of the primary purposes of the incarnation of Jesus is to humble each and every one of us. Let me say it this way: only when you accept the very, very bad news of Jesus’s birth will you then be excited about its very, very good news. Good news is only ever good news to people who know that they need good news. Ten dollars is extremely good news to a poor man, but would not even get noticed by a rich man. The promise of healing is wonderfully good news to a very sick woman, but would not even get the attention of a woman who was in good health. Jesus’s birth is both the worst and the best news ever, and understanding both will change your life forever.

It is humbling to accept that God came, in the person of Jesus, to live the way that we were created to live, but would never live, to die the death that each one of us deserves to die, and to rise out of the tomb, defeating sin and death because there was simply no other way. God knew that our condition was so desperately grave that he was willing to go to this extent to reach and rescue us. Ponder the fact that God was willing to control the events of world history to bring this world to the place where conditions were right for Jesus to come, simply because we had no power whatsoever to help ourselves out of our desperate state. Humanity was so incredibly messed up that there was only one solution for us: God himself!

God knew that something lurks inside all of us that twists every thought, that diverts every desire, that shapes the direction of every choice, and that controls every word and action. And he knew that because this thing was inside us and not outside us, we would never be able to conquer it on our own. For all the beauty of his law, he knew the law could expose us, it could guide us, and it could indict us, but it would never be able to rescue us. So the only hope for messed up and desperate people like us was the sending of the ultimate rescuer, his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The reason the birth of Jesus is such gloriously wonderful news is that in his birth God offers you and me the only solution to the fundamental brokenness of sin that is the core tragedy of every one of our lives. So confessing our brokenness is the only way we will ever fully understand and celebrate the birth of the Messiah, Jesus.

Let me define the brokenness of sin, which every human being shares, with five words: separation, inability, delusion, judgment, hopelessness. First, because of sin we exist in a from-birth state of separation from God, for whose glory we were created and in whose fellowship we were meant to live. Separation from God robs us of the core reason for our existence. Sin also renders us unable. It makes it impossible for us to think as we were made to think, to desire what we were created to desire, to speak as we were designed to speak, and to behave as God intended us to behave. How sad is it to be a human being, but not be able to live as you were created to live! Because sin blinds, it also leaves us in a constant state of delusion. We think we know ourselves well, but we don’t. We assess that we are more righteous than we actually are, and because we do, we don’t seek the help that we desperately need.

But on top of these disasters is something even more terrible. Sin doesn’t just leave us separate from God; it places us under his judgment. Because we have rebelled against him and demanded our own way, we have again and again broken his law. How tragic is it to be under the judgment of the One for whom you were created! Yet there is one more thing to be said about the effect of sin. Sin leaves us hopeless. Since sin is a matter of the heart, a condition of our nature, it is impossible for us to escape it on our own. We are under its destructive effects and power, yet we can do nothing to help ourselves. The apostle Paul describes our lives apart from the amazing grace of the birth of Jesus as “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).

The beautiful news of the Christmas season is that God wasn’t willing to leave us in this tragic and desperate state. He had every right to make his final response to us be one of judgment, but he wasn’t willing. He chose to respond another way, not because of what he saw in us, but because of what was in him. At Christmas we celebrate a God who is glorious in his abundant love and patient mercy. He chose to give grace to those who could never deserve his favor. He chose to rescue those who could not help themselves. He chose to forgive those who had rebelled again and again. He chose to not leave us in our blindness, but to open our eyes. He chose to empower the unable. And because he chose all of these things, he chose to send his Son. The glory of the birth of Jesus becomes even more glorious when it is seen through the humbling lens of the desperate condition that was the reason for his coming. Accept the very bad news of Christmas today, so that you can celebrate even more joyfully its wonderfully good news.

For further study: Ephesians 2:1–10

For parents and children:

Central theme: Broken

Ask your children what we mean when we say something is broken. Ask them if there are any broken things in their lives. Get them to talk about what they think it means when the Bible says that sin has left all of us broken. Then talk to them about the fact that Jesus came because we are broken and we cannot fix ourselves.