We are getting into the Christmas season, a time when many of us give and receive many gifts. I suppose gift giving is mostly thought of as being part of the secular side of the holiday, and it is, but, if pondered in the proper context, it could also perhaps help us to relate to the spiritual side as well. It could perhaps help us to better understand the true meaning of Christmas. To that end, in this 5 part series on Christmas gifts, I would like to look at the answers to five questions that pertain to gifts.
What do we think about when someone gives us a gift? I think, for most of us, consciously or unconsciously, there are 5 basic questions or considerations in our mind.
What is it?
Do we need or want it?
How much did it cost?
Was it given voluntarily?
What are we going to do with it?
What in the world do these questions have to do with Jesus? In the context in which we usually think of Christmas gift giving and receiving, of worldly gifts and worldly circumstances, these questions have nothing to do with Jesus. However, if we look at these same questions, from a different prospective, then they have everything to do with Him. So, I would like to look at each of these 5 basic questions, first from a secular prospective, and then as they relate to our relationship with God.
In part 1, I looked at the first question in the list, “What is it?” and I pondered God’s gift to us. You can find that here: The Gift Series, Part 1
In part 2, I looked at the second question, “Do we need or want it”, and I pondered just how much we need God’s gift of grace. You can find that here: The Gift Series, Part 2
In part 3, I looked at the third question, “How much did it cost?”, and I pondered just how extraordinarily costly was His gift of grace to us. You can find that here: The Gift Series, Part 3
Now, let’s move on to question 4.
Question 4: Was it given voluntarily?
Do you know about those obligation gifts? You know, you don’t really want to get this person a gift. You don’t know them all that well and you see them about every three years but you have a situation where propriety dictates that you should get them something. You go to Wal-Mart, at the last minute, and you just get the first thing you see that isn’t too expensive and you think they may not hate too bad. It isn’t personal at all. Now, we’ve all done it but what does that say to the person who receives it? They probably already know it’s an obligation gift. You didn’t really have to get it but you sort of felt like you did and that’s why you did and they know it. Now, they probably don’t hold that against you. After all, they probably got you an obligation gift too. But the obligation kind of decreases the value of the gift, both for the giver and the receiver, doesn’t it?
Let’s look at the spiritual side of this. The extraordinarily high price that God payed for His gift of grace to us, did He pay that price voluntarily?
He certainly didn’t have to do this. Jesus was fully man and so He suffered as much as any man would, actually He suffered more, as I explained in part 3. However, He was also fully God and, thus, He could have easily stopped what was happening to Him. Speaking of His own life, in John 10:18, Jesus said “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” In Matthew 26:53, just before His trial, Jesus said to Peter “do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” In John 19:11, Jesus told Pilate “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above”. Jesus, multiple times, clearly said that He could have stopped what was happening to Him.
He not only said it. He also demonstrated it.
John 18
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered.
2 And Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with His disciples.
3 Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?”
5 They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them.
6 Now when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 Then He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
8 Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,”
9 that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.”
Verse 3 tells us that Judas, when he came there to betray Jesus, brought with him a detachment of troops. There is debate concerning exactly how many men this would have been, probably somewhere between 300 and 600. In verses 4 and 5, Jesus asked them who they were looking for and they said Jesus of Nazareth. In verse 6, Jesus said “ego eimi”, which literally translates from the Greek as “I am”. Most English translations say “I am He” but the “He” was added by the translators, for the sake of clarity, but it is “I am” that we should be focused on here.
We first see God referring to Himself in this way in Exodus 3:14, when He tells Moses “I AM WHO I AM” and “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you”.”.
Jesus makes 7 “I Am” statements in John, I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35), I am the Light of the World (John 8:12), I am the Door (John 10:7-9), I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-14), I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25), I am the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6), and I am the Vine (John 15:1-5). There is a great deal that can be gleaned from every single one of these 7 “I AM” statements. Taken in aggregate, Jesus is equating Himself with The Great I Am, with God. What could be considered the 8th “I Am” statement in John is simply “I AM”.
What was the effect of this proclamation “I AM”? Look back at John 18:6. Those who sought Jesus “drew back and fell to the ground”. They did not just stumble and fall. The “fell to the ground” here is from the Greek word “chamai”, which more suggests that they were knocked flat. Simply by identifying Himself, Jesus disabled an entire detachment of Roman soldiers. In so doing, He proved what He had earlier said, that no one could take His life from Him (John 10:18), and what He later was to tell Pilate, that he could have no power over Jesus if it was not allowed by God (John 19:11). We have established that Jesus, Himself, was and is The Great I AM so, what Jesus was really saying to Pilate was “You will have no power over me at all, unless I allow it”. Jesus both said and demonstrated that He could very easily have stopped what was happening and was to happen to Him. He knew how unspeakably horrible it would be (see part 3), He could have stopped it, He knew He could have stopped it, and yet, He did not stop it.
the gift of grace was not an obligation gift on His part. He very clearly had a choice. He chose to do what He did for us, because he loved and loves us, me and you, so much. This was not a begrudging gift. In Luke 23:34, as He hung on the cross, He said “Father, forgive them”. He wasn’t only referring to those who had just physically nailed Him to the cross. He was talking about all of us whose sins sent Him to and held Him on that cross. He was talking about us. That’s how much He loves me and how much He loves you! That is how He loves and that is how He commands us to love.
We can feel secure in His love and we are secure in the grace that His love willingly purchased. Let’s come back to the Scripture we were just looking at, just before Jesus’ arrest.
John 18
7 Then He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
8 Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,”
9 that the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none.”
In verse 8, we see Jesus protective nature. He not only had the nature to be protective, He had the power to protect, as He had just demonstrated. He basically said that He would come willingly and peacefully, if they would “let these go their way”. By “these”, He meant His disciples. In verse 9, He said that he was doing this in order to fulfill what He had previously said, that “Of those whom You gave Me I have lost none”. This is a paraphrase of what He had said in John 17:12, when He had been praying for His disciples. This is also reminiscent of what he said in John 10:27-29, shortly after He had said “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11-14). In that Scripture, He wasn’t just talking about His disciples, He was talking about all of us who would call on Him as Lord and Savior.
John 10
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
You see, what Jesus did, so very willingly, was not a natural act. It was a work of God. Natural acts can be undone by natural means. However, acts of God cannot be undone. No one can take us from Him, nothing can take away our salvation in Him. He makes sure of that. He is lovingly protective, just as would be a good parent to a child, and He was focused on this protectiveness even immediately before He knew that He was to endure the most horrific suffering of all time, “let these go their way” (John 18:8). He was focused on that even in the midst of that suffering, “forgive them” (Luke 23:34). He loves me, He loves you, SO much. This Christmas season, rest in that love. It is secure.
So, you see, this gift of grace, which we so desperately need, which cost Him so much, He didn’t have to pay that price. He had a choice to make and He made it. Now, we too have a choice to make, multiple choices, actually. First of all, His gift of grace is freely available to anyone who will receive it but we must make that choice to receive. If you have never done that, please visit the “The Most Important Thing” section of this website. Once the decision has been made to receive His gift of grace, the choices don’t stop there. In fact, the choices begin there. Once we have received His gift, as with all gifts we receive, we have a choice to make concerning what we will do with that gift. Please come back for part 5, where we will talk about the 5th and final question in my list about gifts, “What are we going to do with it?”. May the peace that only He can give be with you.
