Today I heard a sermon given about the importance of Christmas, and what it truly means for us. It challenged me in my life, and moved me to write this piece of my growing understanding.
The link to the full sermon is below if you’re curious, but I can summarize it like this: Christians (myself included) so often think of Christmas as being just about forgiveness. We think that God forgives us our sins through Jesus. He does more than that though, he delivers us out of the power of sin.
I heard it beautifully said by a fellow in my church, “forgiveness removes debt, but doesn’t change the person formerly in debt.” (Paraphrased.) How true is it that after we seek forgiveness for our sin, that we find ourselves not long after returning to the scene of the crime to commit it again. It’s so easy for us to fall into a trap of wanting to be delivered from consequence, without giving up our transgressions. I realize that lately this has been true of myself.
I think of the broken cup analogy. You may have heard it used as an example of why regret and apologies don’t solve problems. If you break a ceramic cup, then apologize, the cup remains broken. You can try to put the pieces back together, but the cracks ensure it won’t be able to hold liquid.
When Jesus forgives us, he takes that broken cup and makes it new again. The cracks are removed, the debt is gone. But what’s to stop us from breaking the cup again? And again. And again. We like holding the cup, because it gives us control. We want the cup to be intact and whole, but we don’t want it out of our hands. However when we enter into a relationship with Jesus, he asks us to hand him the cup. If we refuse, we deny ourselves the chance to grow deeper with him.
To put it in a more practical way, think of the cup as one of your relationships. Maybe your spouse, or your sibling, or your best friend. Breaking the cup could be cheating on your spouse, falsely accusing your sibling, or going behind your best friend’s back to deceive or harm them. You might try to repair things yourself, but the relationship now has cracks, even if you can put it back together. Only Jesus has the power to fully mend and restore it, and only Jesus has the power to guide us to a place where we stop breaking it to begin with.
We are entering a new year today. COVID still rages on, politics continue to spread fractures in our society, and there will undoubtedly be many pains we must face in the coming months. We don’t have the power to change that, but we do have the ability to embrace the one who can change us. We can live better, love better, be better, only through the power of Christ Jesus our savior.
This year I commit to loving Jesus more fully than I ever have before. I will give my life to him, and I know he will burn away the sin from me, so that I can better reflect the image we are all blessed to carry. You can do it too, he is waiting eagerly.
Philippians 2:13 (ESV) – For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.