Greetings Friends everywhere! It is that time of year which believers with genuine hearts, apart from all the distractions, celebrate with true rejoicing hearts. It is a story which carries such deep spiritual meaning with equally transcendent impact beyond any story man could have written. Why, because the story of Christmas, or the birth of the Messiah, is God’s own story about mankind. It’s time we read the whole story as God tells us, and celebrate it as a gift from God as we enter this season of rejoicing.

I will share the three reasons and purposes of Christmas, so that by the end of this post, you will be left without any shadow of doubt or misgivings about Christmas and God’s own story about humanity. Let me itemize the three-pillar purpose so we will know the story of Christmas from Scriptures.

• God gave His only Son Jesus to rescue humans from the sin-condition mankind was consigned and confined to because of our first parent’s (Adam and Eve) disobedience and fall to Satan’s devious and scheming temptation in Eden. (Gen.2:15-17; 3:1-6, 11)

• God gave His Son so He will restore to humanity the “Love Personality” He had created Adam and mankind to become but failed. Instead, Adam bequeathed fallen humanity with the “sin personality” through rebellion. This is also the ‘rebellious personality’ of the evil one, Satan. (Gen.1:26-27; 1 John 4:16; Rom.8:29; Jud.1:6) John tells us this wonderful truth, “There is no fear in Love. But perfect Love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in Love” (1 John 4:18). (You may read more on the topic of “Love Personality” at: http://bulamanriver.net/27435)

• God gave His Son so that through Him human immortality through the power of the Holy Spirit is made reality. Immortality is the heritage of humanity as the supreme gift from God our Father. (John 3:36; 6:40; 3:16-17; Rom.8:11)  

The account of Jesus birth was recorded in the Gospel of Luke in this way, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  And everyone went to his own town to register.  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 

“An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”  When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”  So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” (Luke 2:1-20) This is the most beautiful and inspiring part of God’s story about man. For in it we witness the humblest manner God chose for His Son to enter our human world through the virgin Mary, in a manger, in the little town called Bethlehem.

Following the three steps shown above outlining the reasons for Christmas, let me now expound upon each of them, and see from the Scriptures how God, as our everlasting Father, saved humanity and brought mankind to Himself as His immortal children.

First, How God Save Mankind: Let’s answer how Jesus rescued humanity from the sin-conditioned humans were consigned to live through the fallen Adamic humanity inherited from our first parents? There is only one way, Jesus as the Second Person of the eternal Tri-Personal God (Trinity), came by being born a human, lived a sinless and perfect life, defeating Satan in the temptations to acquit and exonerate humanity from Adam’s sin in Eden. (Matt.4:1-12; Gen.2:16-17; 3:1-6) Then Jesus went on to redeem mankind of all sins through His sacrifice upon His cross, thus freeing humans from the fallen sin-condition inherited from Adam once for all time. (1 John 1:7; 2 Cor.5:21, NLT; Heb.10:10, NLT)

Second, How God Restores Humanity Into His “Love Personality” (Gen.1:26-27): Before His death, Jesus promised to send a Friend and Helper in the Person of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Tri-Personal God (Trinity), to be with mankind forever. (John 16:7; 14:26; Luk.24:49) Now, Jesus having removed once for all time the sin-condition humanity was held in prison from Adam’s fall through His redemptive sacrifice, God the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon mankind on Pentecost. (Act.2:1-4)

The Holy Spirit is the power and personification of the divine “Love Personality” in humanity, displacing and replacing the “fear personality” of the fallen ‘Adamic humanity.’ The devil is the author and power of the “fear personality” emerging from the sin-condition he had imprisoned humanity since Adam’s fall in Eden.

Paul said of the Spirit, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).  

Thirdly, How God Grants the Gift of Immortality to Humans: As “Immanuel” Jesus was human as well as divine, thereby through His resurrection, humanity was raised with Him, and thus mankind became a perfect sinless species forever mirroring and reflecting God’s likeness in “Love Personality” of Christ through the Spirit. (Gen.1:26-27; Eph.2:6; 1 John 4:16; 2 Cor.5:21) This was God’s plan all along when He gave His Son for us, so we can be saved and made immortal children of God. When Jesus took our humanity, He was named and became the Immanuel (“God with us”), or God in human flesh. (Isa.7:14: Matt.1:23) Thus, as God’s Son and the Immanuel, death could not hold Him in the grave, He was resurrected from the death to eternal life and so did humanity, from the sin-condition to the eternal Love-condition. (Act.2:24)

So there, as briefly and comprehensively as I could, I have shared from Scriptures the 3 pillars of the purpose of Christmas. They tell us why God the Father gave Jesus His Son to be born a human and rescue fallen humanity from sin and perdition, to restore us to His Love, and confer the gift of immortality in order to make humanity His everlasting children. (Gen.1:26-27; 1 Cor.15:42-45; 1 John 4:16; Rom.8:29, CEV)

Petition: Friends, as I have closed my post in the past, I customarily give our readers the opportunity to give their lives to our Maker. I thank you for investing your precious time with me in the sharing of the good news of Jesus who has enabled us to live the Triune Life*. Jesus is alive today as our High Priest in heaven seated at His Father’s side, and ceaselessly mediating for us. I hope that in your heart of heart you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, and be part of living this glorious humanity made children of God forever.

You can privately and quietly pray the prayer below in your heart. I am asking you to pray this prayer as a human being Christ died for, regardless of your background. All are inducted into the one mankind Jesus saved, not into any religious sect or denomination, or divisions one may espouse – but into the glorious humanity that Christ is preparing as the holy temple for God’s dwelling:

Prayer: “Almighty God, Father of all humanity, forgive me of all my sins for I receive Your Son, Jesus, as my personal Savior. In Your incalculable grace, grant Your promised celestial life in Your Son through Your Holy Spirit, and open my eyes to the wondrous gifts you have conferred upon me and all humanity. May Your Love guide and protect me and my Loved ones always, and bring us all into Your beloved and divine Kingdom. I praise and thank You, Amen.”

Welcome to the celestial life of Love in God’s holy, eternal Family. (1 Tim.6:19) Then keep in touch with God’s Word for you by reading and studying your Bible, and visiting this blog and website and look at various subjects that may be relevant for your situation – go to: http://bulamanriver.net. You can email me with your questions at the address shown below.

Personal Blessing: Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life”* Be strong in the Lord’s joy.

Farewell for now!

*Triune Life”: Relationship with God has no meaning without Love. By its very nature, Love cannot endure in solitary existence. So, when God said “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness…” He was revealing Himself as existing in His trinitarian existence. That is, His Tri-Personal Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Gen.1:26; Matt.28:19; John 14:10, 16; 16:7) The Hebrew word for ‘God’ in the creation account is “Elohim.” It describes God as a Trinity – the Tri-Personal Godhead, which other scriptures attests. (Matt.28:18-20; 1 Pet.1:2; 2 Thess.2:13; 2 Cor.13:14) So, God is Trinitarian in His Love nature. Love by its nature is relational as God is in His Tri-Personal Being. Hence, a human being was created a relational being.

Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family to raise composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Being. The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Being.

It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. When Adam saw Eve, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Gen.2:21-23).

Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His unified and one triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as all humanity is one with and in Adam.

Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate from, but of one substance from Adam, so was all of mankind. Likewise, through Jesus, humanity is made of one spiritual substance with the triune God through Jesus who took our humanity upon Himself and joined us to the divine triune existence forever.

The three-dimensional Triune Life/Love is opposed to living the one-dimensional solitary life of the fallen humanity inherited from Satan through Adam’s rebellion. Humans speak of freedom, as if they know whereof they speak. Freedom is something which can never be gained through the self-centered ‘solitary life’ humans promote for themselves under the influence of the devil. True freedom can only be reached through true Love, for Love and freedom are opposite sides of God’s divine nature. You cannot gain freedom without Love, neither can Love be experienced without freedom. Freedom begins with a life of liberation from sin and taking upon ourselves the “Love Personality” of the divine. (Gal.5:1; Rom.3:24; 1 John 4:16)

For additional information about the Triune Life: http://bulamanriver.net/?p=8036. Also at: http://bulamanriver.net/9092.    

**Bulamanriver: To read the different facets of the life of the Bulamanriver, you may obtain a copy of my book, “Bula” Man-River, from Amazon.com; xulonpress.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online book stores. All proceeds will go towards furthering the work of Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.

Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664

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