Long Lay the World

By Michael Youssef, Ph D.  12/22/22

At Christmas, we celebrate something so astonishing that it’s nearly mind-boggling. We celebrate the most powerful, most incredible, most joyous event in all of history: the moment when the Creator of the universe stepped into the womb of one of His creations and was born as one of them.

But why was it even necessary? Why did Jesus come from heaven?

Read Romans 3:23. Through Paul, God makes it clear that each of us is born with a terrible, incurable disease—sin. Sin, at its very core, is doing things our own way instead of God’s way. It is being dishonest rather than telling the Truth. It is not forgiving someone because you do not want to let them off the hook. It is living a life of worry and anxiety when God says He has everything under control. It is spewing words in anger because something in you wants to hurt the person with whom you’re arguing.

Every one of us is born with sin. It is in our DNA. We inherited this disease from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and it is incurable. Reforming cannot help; containing it cannot help; ignoring it cannot help; and avoiding it cannot help. We are born sick with sin, and we can do nothing about it.

But thankfully, God loves us too much to leave us in sin. He is well aware that our powerful disease requires a powerful antidote. He knew that the only one who could cure the disease of sin was a sinless person. So God sent His sinless Son, the second member of the Trinity, to come from heaven in human form—God in the flesh.

Jesus lived a sinless life, and yet, while He was on the cross, He became sin for us: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus, sinless Jesus, became our sin–bearer. He took our sin on His sinless body, and He died the death that we deserved to die, paying the price for our sins.

Do you know that your sins have been paid for? What you were powerless to do, Jesus did for you. Jesus is the antidote for your sickness, and He gave His life to heal you completely.

Take some time to praise God for the gift of His Son. Whatever you’re doing right now, give Him your undivided attention as you reflect on His sacrifice and love for you.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for the great gift of salvation through Your Son. Help me never to forget the true meaning of this celebration and my deep need for a Savior. May all the glory of this season be given to You. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).