Dear Christian friends:

Some years ago there was a Sunday School Christmas Program from Concordia Publishing House (CPH) called, "Love Came Down At Christmas."

That, in my opinion, really sums up what we are, during this Advent Season, preparing for. We are preparing our hearts to receive again this amazing love of God, which comes to us through the birth of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus, Himself, summed up this love of God when he told Nicodemus, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," (John 3:16)


In order to become prepared for this amazing love of God we need to give attention to whom He loved. Jesus says, "God so loved the world." By this word, "world," Jesus means all the people born since Adam and Eve until now, and all those who will be born until the end of the world.

As Jesus told Nicodemus, we are all born as "sinners." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." "Flesh" means "sinful, rebellious, hateful, filled with enmity, selfish, depraved etc." That's how we also are by birth and nature.

It is hard for us to accept this and confess this and to believe that we are so bad that we deserve God's anger and eternal punishment rather than His love. Only the Holy Spirit through God's Word can enable us to believe this ugly truth about our nature.

That's why we have the season of Advent, so that our pastor can help us believe and repent. The purple paraments are meant to remind us that Advent is a season for us to honestly examine our heart's and lives on the basis of God's law, and know our sinfulness and repent, and then resolve to do better.

Therefore, in order to be prepared for God's amazing love, which comes down at Christmas we need to know and believe the ugly truth about us. Secondly, we need to consider what God's love caused Him to give up.

Jesus says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." God gave His dear Son to become a man; to be born of a Virgin, and conceived by the Holy Spirit! The Son, who is equal with the Father in glory and power, who with the Father in glory and power, who with the Father created the heaven and earth, agrees with His Father's love to give up His glory and become a humble man-servant to suffer and die in order to save sinners! Amazing love!

Our Savior needed to be true God, equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, so that He could obey God's law in our place, and also so He could suffer God's just punishment, which sin deserves, and do that for the "world", all people.

That should really humble us to realize that we are so bad and helpless that only God Himself could help us. In order to be truly prepared for God's love, which comes down at Christmas, we also need to have a short look at what God's amazing love accomplished.

Jesus says, "Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Instead of everlasting punishment, which we by the law deserve, we can now have everlasting life by God's grace, which we do not deserve!

We will be hearing more about this wonderful accomplishment of God's love on Christmas Day and the Sundays following as we hear the Good News and sing those beautiful Christmas Carols. But during this Advent Season let us prepare our hearts and minds to receive and better appreciate the love that comes down at Christmas.

Amen.