Ark Valley News - Hope and hilarity

Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: December 10, 2015

Victory begins with Christmas

A young couple in our church are going to have a remarkable Christmas this year. Their cherubic little daughter is now 18 months old. Anna experienced her first Christmas last year, but she was an infant in her mother's arms and couldn't really participate in the excitement. This year will be different. Now, as a walking toddler, she has the ability to explore. She has the opportunity to get into everything.

Lori messaged last night that she had erected the family Christmas tree in the middle of the room. Sweet little Anna was given instructions: "Don't touch. Don't touch. Don't touch!" They weren't having much luck with that. The instructions seemed to make her want to touch it all the more.

Lori wrote, "I guess I shouldn't feel too bad. God had a tree in the middle of His garden and He gave His kids orders not to touch it. They didn't obey either."

I had to laugh at that. It is true. We just can't seem to help ourselves. God's kids have never done a very good job in the realm of obedience. We do try, but always fall short. Did you know that the word "sin" means "to miss the mark"? Our aim is shaky. We release the arrow and it seldom hits the bull's eye. We really do have good intentions, but as the apostle Paul said, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." (Romans 7:15)

I know, all too well, the frustration at sin that Paul felt. Eve and Adam also experienced the pain of giving in to temptation in the Garden of Eden. All men are sinners and fail to hit the target of righteousness.

I hear, and feel, the apostle Paul's anguish when he shouts in Romans 7:24: "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"

Personal sin ought to cause anxiety. There should be a confession of our own wretchedness before a holy God. But there is a solution. Paul answered the rhetorical question he asked in the next verse. "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 7:25). What a relief! The answer to our wretchedness and bondage to sin and death is found in Christ.

Jesus came to dwell with men. We call that Christmas. The reason he came was so that we might have victory over sin. We couldn't keep the rules, so he did. We couldn't pay the price of sin, so he did. The one, sinless, Son of God paid the penalty for our debts. Our victory began with Christmas but concluded with the cross. Christ came to die in our place. I am so glad that Christ came.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17)

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. He can be reached at chuck@valleycenterchristianchurch.org or 755-1233.