A Major Difference Between Law and Good News; Spurgeon on Saying “Merry Christmas,” and a Question About Christ’s Birthdate
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AN IDEA FROM ME
Moses climbed a mountain and received the law. So you can go to the top of the mountain and you can receive law. That's good. But here's the problem. Scripture is very clear by works of the law no one will be justified before God. So you can climb to the top of the mountain. And you can say, “Okay, I'm here. I've got my principles. Now I'm going to live according to these principles.” But why did God give the law to Israel through Moses? To show how holy God is, to show how sinful we are, to show we need a savior. If you try to adopt principles for yourself, even if you are very effective, you are never going to be perfect, and Law is really good at revealing our imperfections.
So, now you contrast that with the message of the gospel, which is the good news of what Jesus did for us. Jesus also went up a hill. It's called Calvary, the hill of the skull. That's what Calvary means. Calvary is a Latin term that means skull, basically, or head. And Jesus goes up this skull hill, this place of death, and he ascends not to receive a law, but to pay the consequences of our having broken God's law.
—”Finding Your TRUE PURPOSE in a World of Confusion,” with Jimi Allen of TalkLab https://youtu.be/Fi1kYuEoDDU
A QUOTE FROM SOMEBODY ELSE
“This is a season when all men expect us to be joyous. We compliment each other with the desire that we may have a “Merry Christmas.” Some Christians who are a little squeamish, do not like the word “merry.” It is a right good old Saxon word, having the joy of childhood and the mirth of manhood in it, it brings before one’s mind the old song of the waits, and the midnight peal of bells, the holly and the blazing log. I love it for its place in that most tender of all parables, where it is written, that, when the long-lost prodigal returned to his father safe and sound, “They began to be merry.” This is the season when we are expected to be happy; and my heart’s desire is, that in the highest and best sense, you who are believers may be “merry.”
—Charles Spurgeon (quoted here: https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/blog-entries/spurgeons-guidance-on-celebrating-christmas).
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Was Jesus born on December 25th? Is that important?
In Christ,
Joel Settecase
President, The Think Institute
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