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The Point of Christmas (Ryan Whitaker Smith)




 When the angel visits Joseph to tell him that the unborn child carried by Mary is not the product of an illicit romance but rather the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, one crucial detail of this revelation is in the stated purpose of this miracle. The angel even tells Joseph what the baby’s name should be! The child will be called Jesus, a derivation of Joshua, which means “God saves.” 

This is why the Son of God becomes incarnate—to save sinners. 

This is the whole point of Christianity, and thus the whole point of Christmas. Jesus did not come primarily to set a good example, though he certainly did that. And he did not come to give us solid ethics teaching, though he did that too. He didn’t even come primarily to perform signs and wonders, though he undoubtedly did many. 

The primary reason for the incarnation was that God might justify sinners through Christ’s sinless life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection.

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