Christmas is About the Gospel

What is the Gospel?

“And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'”

Luke 2:11-12, ESV

The word, “Gospel” means, “Good news.” It’s the same word used by the angels when speaking to the shepherds in Bethlehem. They were not just announcing news that happened to be good, they were announcing the best news that had ever happened. The news of salvation.

Even though the Bible presents the birth of Christ as a Gospel event, many Christians fail to see Christ’s birth for all its Gospel importance. Instead of finding the Christmas story important to their spiritual lives they merely find it interesting. But the message of Christmas is the message of Christ, making it of utmost importance.

Becoming a Christian means receiving the God’s Gospel–broken down into the three steps below. As each step of becoming a Christian is explained, how the birth narrative of Christ in Scripture reveals the Gsoepl message will be explained as well. Ultimately, it will be shown that, as many have said before, the manger sits in the shadow of the Cross.

I. The Gospel is Acknowledging That All Have Sinned And Are Incapable of Earning Heaven by Their Own Works

The first step to accepting the good news of Christ’s birth is understanding the bad news of one’s own death–a death earned by sin (Rom. 6:23). God says in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The Psalmist says that when God looks down from Heaven, He sees no one that does good, “not even one” (Ps. 53:3).

People need a great Savior because they themselves are great sinners. As Charles Wesley said, Christ was, “Born that men no more may die.” The salvation of humans requires a human Savior. God couldn’t send a Savior in any form. He had to send a Savior in the very form of the ones He was obligated to punish according to His justice yet desired to save according to His mercy. He had to put on flesh.

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Romans 8:3-4, ESV

Jesus becoming human is a reminder of the depravity of the human condition. No human can keep God’s Law, so God had to become human to keep it Himself.

II. The Gospel is Recognizing that Christ Lived and Died as a Substitute for Sinners

At the beginning of Christ’s birth narrative in Matthew, an angel of the Lord explains to Joseph in a dream the kind of Son his betrothed wife will deliver:

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:21, ESV

When the angels announced the Gospel/good news to the shepherds in Luke 1:11-12, it is the only instance in Scripture where the title “Christ the Lord” appears alongside the title, “Savior.” When the angel announced Christ’s birth to Mary, the angel said His name would be Jesus (Lk. 1:31). The name Jesus, Yeshua, is the name Joshua, and means “Yahweh saves.” In every instance where Jesus’ birth is announced, He is announced as One born to save.

The idea of salvation was common in the Old Testament. God’s people routinely needed rescuing, and God promised both to be their Savior and to also send them saviors (Is. 43:11; Hos. 13:4; Neh. 9:27; 2 Kg. 13:5). Kings, prophets, priests, and judges all served as lower-case saviors throughout Israel’s history (Jg. 2:16; 2 Chron. 12:7; Obad. 21). They redeemed, rescued, protected, and provided for God’s people.

The promised Messiah in the Old Testament was the prophetic culmination of all these lower-case saviors (Lk. 24:27; Is. 19:20; 59:20). He was both a King and a Priest, a Prophet and a Judge (Deut. 18:16; Is. 9:6-7; Heb. 7:17). Although by the time of Christ, the Jews assumed this Messiah would be their savior from foreign enemies (Lk. 19:11; Acts 1:6), the angels in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels make clear that God’s Messiah will be born as a Savior from sin.

Sharing the Gospel to the Jews, Peter understood the birth of Christ in this way:

“God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Acts 3:26, ESV

Paul, writing to the Galatians to correct the mistakes made by, “Those who wished to distort the Gospel” (Gal. 1:7), also explained the true Gospel as one connected to Christ’s birth:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Galatians 4:4-5

The begotten Son of God had to make Himself human to make humans the adopted sons of God. God’s Savior was repeatedly promised in the Old Testament as a son born of a woman. The Old Testament alludes to the birth of the Messiah more often than to the death of the Messiah. The authors of the Old and New Testaments understood that for Christ to die a human death, He first had to be born into human life.

III. The Gospel is Responding to Christ By Faith

The Nativity story is full of characters who were not merely hearers of the Word, but doers of it (Jas. 1:22). They did not merely smile and nod when told the news of Christ’s birth. They responded with faith–true faith–the kind of faith that produces action.

The salvation sequence is patterned repeatedly throughout the Nativity story: 1) God’s Word is heard, 2) God’s Word is accepted by faith, 3) That faith is shown to be genuine by resulting in obedience. Mary accepted God’s word by faith, which resulted in her singing a song of praise to Him (Lk. 1:46-56). Joseph accepted God’s word by faith, which resulted in him not divorcing his pregnant wife (Matt. 1:18-25). The Magi accepted God’s Word by faith, which resulted in them risking their lives to avoid Herod and protect the child (Matt. 2:12). The shepherds accepted God’s Word by faith, which resulted in them leaving their sheep to see the Lamb of God (Lk. 2:8-15).

The question is, will you accept God’s Word by faith?

In the Gospel of John, God says that the Word has now become flesh (Jn. 1:14). The Word that people are called to accept and follow by faith is not a word given through the appearance of an angel (Lk. 1:31), or a word given in a dream (Matt. 1:20), or a word given by heavenly hosts in the sky (Lk. 2:9), but a Word born in a manger (Lk. 2:12). Jesus is the Word of God that we must accept by faith, which results in repentance and following Him as Lord and Savior (Acts 11:18).

The shepherds proclaimed Him as Savior. The angels worshipped Him as Lord. The Magi bowed down before Him as King. Mary Treasured Him as God. Will you? 

Will You Receive the Gospel?

As the Christmas carol reminds us, God does call out and say, “Oh come all ye righteous.” He does not say, “Oh come all ye interested.” He says simply, “Oh come all ye faithful” (Matt. 11:28; 16:24-26).

Jesus calls His people to respond to His salvation by faithfully following Him (Lk. 14:27). This means repenting from one’s former life of sin and choosing to follow Jesus Christ as both Savior and Master of your life (Acts 3:19; 8:22). If you believe in your heart and confess to God with your mouth that His Son Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord of your life, you will be saved (Rom. 10:9). Do this, and Christmas truly becomes a day of good tidings and great joy (Lk. 2:10).