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by Greg Laurie
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. —Romans 5:8
Who is on your gift list this Christmas? Usually, we give gifts to family and
friends. We want to buy gifts for people we love and people we care about. We
tend to give gifts to those who treat us well, people who are kind and
considerate to us. And often we will give gifts in return for gifts that we have
received. Some of us will even buy gifts for our pets.
However, we generally don’t buy gifts for our enemies, do we? We don’t give a
gift to the person who has slandered us in the past year. We don’t give a gift
to the irate neighbor who never has a kind word to say. We don’t give a gift to
someone who has tried to run us out of business. Nor do we send a gift to the
thief who stole the car stereo last month.
But think about this: when God sent Jesus Christ, His Son, and gave us this
ultimate gift, He gave it to us while we were still His enemies. The Bible tells
us, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We did nothing whatsoever to merit or
deserve this gift. In fact, what we really deserve is judgment, because we all
have sinned against God. We all have deliberately crossed that line.
The amazing truth of Christmas is that, in spite of our sins, God sent His Son
to save us. In that tiny manger in Bethlehem, He gave us an undeserved gift.
Summary sentence: Have you received an “undeserved” gift before?
Copyright © 2011 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
See Also:
What I Want for Christmas
I have always believed in the promise of Christmas. There has always been something special to me about this time of the year, going back to my earliest days of childhood.The Greatest Gift of All
The real message of Christmas is not the gifts we give each other. Rather, it is a reminder of the gift that God has given to each of us. It is the only gift that truly keeps on giving, so I want to point out four things about it.
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