The Promise of Christmas

The story of Christmas actually has its roots in Genesis 3. When God told Adam not to eat from the forbidden tree, God made Adam a promise. “…but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17) God’s promise was that the consequence of man’s sin was that he would lose his relationship with his Creator. God kept His promise. When Adam and Eve fell to the seduction of the serpent, curses were declared on all three co-conspirators as our first parents were banished from the garden and severed from life with God. Yet in the midst of keeping His promise, God gave them a new promise as He pronounced the curse on the serpent. “And I will make enemies of you and the woman, and of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15) God promised that the woman would have a Child (Jesus) who would ultimately crush the head of the serpent, thus breaking Satan’s power over man and providing a way for man to be restored to relationship with God. As the details of the promise were further developed throughout the Old Testament, we can see how God orchestrated a fulfillment of that new promise leading to Jesus’s death and resurrection. This new promise to bring mankind back to life would require God to do something that man could never do for himself. God would have to pay man’s sin debt, which He accomplished when Jesus shed His blood on the Cross.

The promise of Genesis 3:15 began its culmination that night in Bethlehem. Jesus was born, lived perfectly, died sacrificially, and rose triumphantly to provide the payment that would satisfy God’s righteous demand for the sin of Adam and all of his descendants. There’s nothing any of us could’ve done to pay that debt. Without help, we were hopeless. Jesus descended to the earth to redeem us so He could bring forgiveness to us. This is what we call vertical forgiveness. Jesus extended forgiveness down to us so that our relationship could be restored with the Father, all for the glory of God. We didn’t deserve it. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t initiate it. We are simply the recipients of the forgiveness so graciously and extravagantly brought down to us by Jesus. The birth of the baby in the manger was the necessary first step that led to the fulfillment of the new promise.

Because we didn’t earn the vertical forgiveness, our only natural response is to extend that forgiveness horizontally. God expects forgiven people to forgive others. The forgiven—forgive! Those of us who have received and enjoyed the forgiveness that vertically came down to us are compelled by that grace to extend it horizontally to others. Having been forgiven, we are called to forgive.

The Forgiveness Cross is a reminder that, having received forgiveness vertically, we are compelled to extend it horizontally. The Forgiven forgive. Grace received demands to Grace extended. I think it’s significant that the fulcrum of the Forgiveness Cross is the letter G! The bridge point between the forgiveness we receive and the forgiveness we extend is God’s Grace and Glory. God forgave us by His grace and for His glory, and we forgive the same way…by His grace and for His glory.

That’s why the model of Gospel-centric forgiveness is so important. We forgive not because we benefit by forgiving, which we most definitely will. We forgive because of the grace and glory of God. God is never more glorified in us than when we choose to forgive those who have wounded us because that’s when we look most like Jesus.