The Season (Christmas Time) is often called “Advent.” That noun is derived from a Latin verb, “venire,” meaning “to come.” Prefixed by a preposition, “ad,” meaning “unto.” So Advent is a time when we realized and delight in the COMING of Jesus God’s Son TO the earth!

And of course we look back on His FIRST ADVENT, around 2,000 years ago. But we look forward to His SECOND ADVENT some time in the future, albeit perhaps soon!

Now, you may be asking, “What does this have to do with John 3:17, that Verse?” (We’re all familiar with John 3:16 … but we need to read and memorize one verse further!)

Let’s read it … “For God SENT not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

GOD sent HIS SON (JESUS) into the world, past tense. JESUS therefore “CAME TO” earth … in obedience to his Father.

All right, WHY?

WHY did God send Jesus (think Virgin Birth, Mary and Joseph and Bethlehem) that first “Christmas?”

“That the world might be saved!”

We would all be on the way to Hell (or already there) had the FIRST ADVENT, the FIRST COMING of Jesus not occurred!

Oh yes, let me quickly say it … the BABY in the manger became the MAN (GOD-MAN) on the Cross, shedding His divine Blood to forgive sins … but the Birth had to precede the Death!

Jesus did not come to condemn (in Greek “krino,” meaning to judge) the world, not at the First Advent anyway. He really came to “save” the lost world!

That’s the meaning of Christmas for the Believer, the true Christian! Or at least should be the meaning of that grand day.

Christmas … not a tinseled tree but an old rugged TREE, the CROSS!

Not a wrapped gift in a box of some sort … but an eternal gift, life in Heaven never ending with Jesus!

Yes, why can’t I associate Christmas with such powerful verses from God’s Word, more readily associate the two anyway?

Here it is again: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:17

Something to ponder this 9th day of December, 2020 …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.