Here’s the good news. God made a way for His goodness and justice to meet. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to be born, to live the perfect life that met God’s perfect standard, and then to die on a cross in your place, as your substitute, taking your punishment. Then Jesus rose from the dead and defeated death. Simply put, we broke the law, and Jesus is the only one who can pay our fine. If we repent (turn from sin), humble ourselves before God, stop making excuses to justify ourselves, and trust in Christ like we would trust in a parachute to save us from a deadly drop out of a plane, God promises this: that He will consider your fine paid, forgive you, grant you the free gift of eternal life, and come to live in your heart through the Holy Spirit and make you a new person with new desires to serve Him. You don’t just believe in a parachute, you put it on. The Bible says, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:14). One day, whether it be fifty years from now, next week, or tonight, every one of us will have to jump out of an airplane called life through a door called death into a place called eternity, and if your parachute isn’t on, you will perish. At any moment, each one of us is just a heartbeat away from going through that door.
This Christmas, ponder the question that Jesus asked His disciples in Mark 8:27: "Who do people say that I am?" Who do you say Jesus Christ is? There are only two world religions, and they both revolve around this question. The first one, the religion of human achievement, says that Jesus was a good man, a prophet, a myth, a good moral teacher, a good example, and so on, and says that your own "good works" such as church activity or membership, charity work, religious rituals, observances, etc., will get you to heaven. The second says that Jesus is God, and that He came to make salvation possible for you. Jesus Himself claimed to be God (John 5:18, 8:58, 10:30, etc.), and He is the promised Messiah predicted in the Old Testament (Isaiah 9:6, 53; Psalm 22, etc.). The Bible says that His death and resurrection are completely sufficient to save you (Romans 8:1, 10:9-10, 2 Corinthians 5:21). To say that we need to add to His sacrifice by "working" our way to heaven is the ultimate insult to God, because on the cross Jesus said, "It is finished." If Christ is truly in you, you will do good works from a thankful heart because you are forgiven, not as an attempt to be forgiven. True Christianity is a relationship with Christ, not "religion."
The Bible says that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:30). When you die, there is no second chance, only judgment (Hebrews 9:27). The Bible reveals that Jesus Himself will be the Judge (John 5:22). These are extremely sobering words, but they are true. If you reject the gift of God’s Son and die in your sins, God will give you justice and you will end up in hell forever. Hell is a place of eternal separation from God. Think of all He has blessed you with here on earth - the ability to see, to breathe, to eat, etc. In hell, even the smallest blessings and mercies from God you enjoy here on earth will be gone. It’s not God’s will that you go there. God has given you a conscience to warn you of future punishment; and Jesus warns so much about hell in the Bible (Matthew 24:51, 25:46, Mark 9:43-48) because He doesn’t want to have to send you there (2 Peter 3:9). Would you sell one of your eyes for a million dollars? How about both for fifty million? I’m sure you wouldn’t, because your eyes are precious to you. Yet your eyes are merely the windows of your soul. If you wouldn’t sell your eyes at any price, what must your soul be worth? It is utterly without price.
The reason Christ came in a manger was so you could come to the foot of a blood-stained cross and find grace, mercy, and eternal life instead. That is the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), His name is the only name that can save us (Acts 4:12), and He is the only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). If you aren’t trusting the Savior, you are condemned already (John 3:18) and God’s wrath abides on you (John 3:36), so I would ask you to seriously consider what you’ve read here. If you have any unfinished business with God, take care of it in the privacy of your own heart before your head hits the pillow tonight. This isn’t an attempt to get you to join a church or some hypocritical request for money. It is the gospel truth. Ten out of ten people die, and there is nothing more important than your eternal salvation. Think about it this way: if you were driving down a road toward a thousand foot cliff in a car with faulty brakes, wouldn’t you want someone to warn you of the danger, jump in the car and grab you, and pull you to safety? I pray that wherever you are this Christmas season, you are trusting in God’s ultimate gift to humanity: the Lord Jesus Christ.