"JESUS IS BORN !" SO WHAT ?

Millions  of  Christians  get  all  excited  every  year  when  they  celebrate  the  birth  of  Christ,  but  do  they  really  know  why?  Why  is  it  important  that  Christ  came  to  humanity,   lived  here,   and  was  arrested,  tortured  and  crucified?  So  what?  Spartacus  was  arrested  and  crucified  by  the  Romans?   Why  shouldn't  I  regard  that  as  Spartacus  having  been  crucified  for  me  and  my  salvation?  Why  was  what  happened  to  Christ  significant?

Though  millions  of  Christians,  Catholic  and  non-Catholic,  proclaim  that  "Christ  died  for  our  sins,"   their  brains  stop  there.  And  because  their  brains  don't  get  past  that  point, they  really  don't  understand  their  Faith  --  at  all,  not  one  jot;  not  one  tittle.  And  because  they  can't  do  so,  I  believe  that  very,  very  few  Christians  today  would  suffer  or  die  for  their  faith,  and  in  fact  will  abandon  the  Faith  for  more  convenient  exercises  in  The  Great  Falling  Away,  which  I  believe  in happening  as  I type  this.

So,  what  do  we  mean  when  we  say  that  "Christ  died  for  our  sins?"

This ...

God  is  "extremely"  everything  that  He  is.  Among  other  things,  He  has  an  extreme  sense  of  justice.   So,  when  the  Old  Testament  portrays  Him  as  a  nasty  God  of  Vengeance,  it  is  accurately  portraying  God.  When  God  sees  us  down  here  paying  hypocritical  lip  service  to  his  law,  He  becomes  filled  with  blood-curdling  --  blood-curdling  --  rage.  Bible  students  are  astonished  at  some  of  the  Scriptural  portrayals  of  God's  rage.  E.g.,  "I,  in  my  turn,  will  laugh  at  your  doom.  I  will  mock  when  terror  overtakes  you ..."  Proverbs  1:26.

But,  God  is  also  extremely  a  God  of  Extreme  Love.  And  the  God  of  Extreme  Love,  even  while  He  is  mindful  of  His  blood-curdling  rage  at  us  for  our  sin-proneness  and  sins,   simple   loves  the  holy  heck  out  of  each  of  us  --  He  loves  us  like  crazy!  And  so  He  did  something  startling ...

The  perfect  God  of  Justice  and  Love, Whom  we  can  neither  prove  nor  disprove  because  of  His  ineffability,   asked  for  a  divine  volunteer  to  pay  the  extraordinary  price  exacted  by  God's  Own  extreme  Perfect  Justice  for  our  sins  --  the  suffering  and  death  of  the  Lawmaker,  God.

The  beloved  God  the  Son,  filled  with  love,    immediately  threw  up  his  hand  and  said,  "I  WILL!  I'LL  PAY  THE  PRICE!"  or  words  to  that  effect.

And  God  the  Father  answered  with  something  like,  "MY  BELOVED  SON,  I  HEREBY  ACCEPT  YOUR  LOVING  OFFER,  AND  SO  I  DOOM  YOU  TO  ENDURE  HORRIBLE   TORTURE  AND  DEATH  FOR  THE  SINS  OF  ALL  WHO  ACCEPT  YOUR  SACRIFICE  BY  THEIR  FAITH."

And  so  now,  we  have  the  grace  conveying  the  benefit  of  Christ's  sacrifice  --  spiritual  power  and  salvation  --  if  you  accept  it,  in  the  current  time  of  love,   access  to  which  will  continue  until  what  the  Bible  calls  "The  Day"  --  the  last  day,  which  I  believe  is  closing  in  on  us  with  great  rapidity.

Once  The  Day  comes,  however,  things  will  change  in  a  snap.  Suddenly,  as  God  closes  down  The  World,   those  still  living  in  a  damned  state  will  feel  extremely  hopeless  and  lost  in  their  damned  state  --  perhaps  well  portrayed  in  the  Sistine  Channel  painting of  a  damned  soul  being  pulled  down  to  Hell ...

The  saved  will  nonetheless  remain  engraced,   married  as  it  were  to  the  loving  sacrifice  of  God  the  Son  --  thus  the  importance  of  faith.

Because  Spartacus  and  and  other  mere  humans who  were  sacrificed  were  "creatures  of  Original  Sin,"  their  sacrifice  was  unimpressive  to  God  as  far  as  the  salvation  of  Man  is  concerned.

Because  Jesus  is  God  Himself,  and  because  His  innocence,  like  everything  else  about  God,  is  extreme  and  rooted  in  God's  perfection,  when  Jesus  offers  to  suffer  and  die  as  a  sacrifice  substituted  in  by  God  as  the  penalty  for  our  sins,   it  is  effective  in  persuading  God  to  save  us.

If ...

...if  we  "sign  the  check";  if  we  simply  say, by  our  faith  in  the truth  of  God's  promise,   "Yes.  I  accept,"  to  the  offer  of  salvation  by  the  merit  of  Christ's  sacrifice.

Now,  our  sinful  state  is  complete.  Without  grace,  we  can't  even  see  the  offer  of  salvation  through  Christ.  The  grace  of  the  cross  solves  the  problem,  by  raising  each  of  us  up  to  a  level  of  equanimity,  so  that  we  can  choose,  "Yes!"  in  response  to  God's  offer.