Man was in mess, he was unable to please God and be right in His sight. In the Garden of Eden, God made hundreds of fruit bearing trees and told man and woman that they could eat any of the fruit except one special tree. But they could not keep this simple command! Thousands of years later at Sinai, God gave 10 commandments but even before Moses could get the physical tablets containing them, the people made an idol and broke the first commandment! There didn’t seem to be any way suitable way to remain right in God’s sight. But around thousand five hundred years later, an unexpected message arrived from an unexpected source on an unusual night! An angel appeared in glorious light and proclaimed “unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11 ESV). More angels appeared saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
Yes good will was unleashed on man and it would no longer be impossible to please God. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (Isaiah 9:2 ESV). A child was born who perfectly pleased God. God looked at this perfect Man’s righteousness and overlooked our inability to please God. We deserve death for our repeated failure to please God. But in an act of good will that we humans did not deserve, God decided that He would personally step into the mess that we had gotten ourselves into. This child was none other than the one and only Son of God! He was born only to die at the premature age of 33 years. When He died a gruesome death on the cross, God put the entire mess of the world on His Son Jesus. The good will of God was accomplished.
Man had to only believe on His Son to get right in the sight of God! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV). Can this really be true? Does it not sound too good to be true? Why would anyone pay such a costly price for you and me? Are we so valuable that God should pay such a great price for us? Yes, God loves us so much that even though we are messed up and helpless, He wants to be in a relationship with us. And all that He asks of us is to believe on His Son Jesus!
If you have believed on His Son, He goes one step further and makes you His child and a brother (or sister) to His dearly beloved Son! “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1 ESV). From an outcast unable to connect to God we are transformed to His child through the good will that came to earth on the first Christmas.
When we accept this unexpected and unspeakable good will of God, is it not necessary that we respond in good will to God? Shall we not cleanse our lives from the mess that we were living till now? Shall we not look to Jesus for inspiration to live just as He lived and pleased God? Shall we not forgive those who hurt us just as God has forgiven us freely even though we killed His Son Jesus? Shall we not love our neighbours and do them no harm just as God has loved us? Since God is a holy God who cannot see evil, shall we not live a holy life? This good will between God and man is commonly known as GRACE.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Timothy 2:11-14 ESV). This Christmas may we give up our own useless ways of getting right with God and be transformed by the good will or the grace of God.
Understand the truth 