As a parent and a grandparent, especially at this time of the year, a child around the house, especially a newborn, changes everything. Most adults know just how big of a change having a child is for every aspect of their lives. Babies change everything in a family, even a family that already has children. Suddenly schedules are different, amount of sleep is different, priorities are different. Everything changes! But the birth we’re celebrating tonight has had a far more drastic effect on the world and our individual lives.
In a few short verses from Paul’s letter to Pastor Titus, he outlines for us what this birth means for us going forward. He says that “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.” As we know “Grace” is the undeserved love that God has for mankind, you and me. As we talked about just last week, we don’t deserve this love; we can’t earn this love; by all rights, we should not have this love. But that’s what grace is, love that shouldn’t be ours but is.
What did that undeserved love do for us? It looked at our nature and had mercy on us. Because of the disobedience that started in the Garden, we were all in a bind that we couldn’t get out of. God demands that we be perfect, flawless in our obedience to his will. Yet sadly, that’s not something any of us have been. From conception on, you and I have been sinners, rebelling against the God who made us. One sin was enough to condemn us, and our sinful nature remains.
And so, on our own, without help, we faced judgement as the only outcome for our sin. Hell is the separation from God for eternity. But we know that no matter how bad things might be or feel in this life, Immanuel, God with us, is always with us, whether we believe and trust in him or not. Damnation is an existence of unending torment being totally removed from God’s care and protection. It’s what you and I deserve from God. On our own, that’s all that was waiting for us. We should expect nothing else.
But, as we said, a baby changes everything. This child that we celebrate in Bethlehem’s manger wasn’t unexpected or a surprise in any way. From the first sin in the Garden of Eden, through all the prophets, God had told his people very explicitly what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. We have been reading scriptures from Isaiah all advent long that tell us that truth. God would send a messiah, a savior to defeat our sin and rescue us from eternal judgement. To achieve that, this champion would have to suffer and die to pay our debt and rescue us. Fortunately, This Baby Changes Everything!
This child that comes to us on this night is the very embodiment of God’s grace because he came to give us the love, hope, peace and joy that we did not deserve. We deserved eternal judgement, but he came to give us the opposite. He came to give us an eternal life in heaven. Jesus would live the life that we couldn’t or can’t. He gives us an example of perfect obedience to God, and a flawless life. He takes the sins that you and I had committed and allows himself to be punished for them. On the cross, Jesus would literally suffer our judgement and be abandoned by God so that you and I would never face that.
This baby that comes tonight Changes Everything. We were lost to sin, and now are secure in eternal life. This infant brought us infinity! Now no one can take God’s love and forgiveness from us. Everything about our eternal lives has changed. And that means that this baby brings changes in the rest of our lives as well. This Baby, as Paul writes, trains us to reject ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. He gave himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are his own chosen people, eager to do good works. This Baby Changes Everything about our lives!
God’s grace found in and through this baby, changes us. It changes us from people who are self-serving to people who are self-sacrificing. Because of the Baby that comes this night, the Children of God reject disobedience. Because of this baby, we can have that peace, shalom for mankind that the angels proclaimed to the shepherds.
There will come a day when we see our Savior return, not as that baby in Bethlehem’s manger, but returning on the clouds in all his glory and power as the King of kings and Lord of lords; and he will return to bring us home with him. Friends the gift of Eternity, is the best Christmas gift that we can receive because it will never be broken, worn out, or lost. For believers, for us as Christians, at Christmas, This Baby Changes Everything! Amen.