Receive Your Free Gift Today

Hello Church Family: Have you ever received a “free gift” that was not free? I can remember when I was an avid cereal eater, Frankenberry was my favorite, I would read the back of the box and be enticed to send off via mail a request for the free gift advertised. But, upon reading the fine print for this fine free plastic gift, that every boy wanted, I had to buy five more boxes of that cereal, cut the box tops off to prove I bought them and then send them all in with $3.00 for return postage and handling. That was such a killer of joy as a young boy. Are there any gifts that are still absolutely free? Yes! The greatest gift ever given is completely free and He was given on Christmas morning, the Son of God incarnate, Jesus the Christ.

The Son of God incarnate comes on Christmas morning as our completely free, no strings attached, no purchase necessary, gift given by our creator God. Why did He come? Two reasons:

First, we have a really big problem. We are told and we experience daily Romans 5:12, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” In the garden in Genesis 2-3, God chose Adam as the representative for all humanity. Unfortunately, Adam did not do what God told him to do and Adam sinned. Adam’s sin was credited to every human being’s soul account. This is called the imputation of sin and results in everyone since Adam actively sinning except one, Jesus Christ. If you say, this makes no sense, then keep reading. This was all God’s design and is the second reason for the incarnation of the Son of God.

Second, The Son of God put on flesh to give us the free gift of His own righteousness(Romans 5:12-21). In the same way that Adam’s sin was credited to our account, God sent His Son to put on flesh as Jesus Christ on Christmas morning to live a perfect, holy, righteous life so that all His perfect holiness would be credited (imputed) to our spiritual account. This is the great gift of Christmas, God’s righteousness coming to over-ride the imputation of sin from Adam with the imputation of righteousness from Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Merry Christmas.

This once in a lifetime gift of the Son of God’s righteousness credited to your account is absolutely free. With this gift you are declared by God Himself as Holy and righteous. This free gift of Christ’s righteousness is only available through His abundance of grace. This means there is no payment for this free gift because there is no way you could pay the price. You cannot do any work to earn this gift because you would have to be God to do the work. This gift is completely free, in fact we are told that this free gift is abounding in free-ness, it is hyper-free (Romans 5:12-21). What do you do with a hyper-free gift that is abounding in free-ness… you simply receive it.

On Christmas morning this is what we celebrate. The free gift of the Son of God incarnate coming to destroy Adam’s curse of sin upon us through the work of Jesus Christ. All of Jesus’ righteousness is available for you. Receive your free gift?

Romans 5:17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.