Christmas Should Humble Us

Christmas is wonderful. The lights, the decorations, the music, the cookies, the nativity scenes, all of it. And in the nativity scenes, a baby. A baby who was the High King of Heaven. In a feeding trough. It’s a shocking picture, really, when you think about the humility of Christ. To step down from the literal throne of Heaven itself, take on our humanity, and enter our world as an infant born into poverty among an oppressed people is hands down the most extreme display of humility in all of history. Nothing else comes close.

“He made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!” – Philippians 2:7-8

The fact that God would go to such extreme measures to save us clearly shows that his love is more extreme than we can comprehend. But that’s not all it shows. The fact that such extreme measures were necessary to save us shows that our sin is much more serious than we like to believe.

Christmas shows us more than Christ’s humility—it also shows us our own.

Christmas is a celebration reminding us that we could not save ourselves. We could not climb up to God on a ladder of good works. We could not satisfy his righteousness and justice with a regiment of payments or pious rituals or penance for our failures. When God’s perfect standard is broken, God’s perfect justice must fall. How else could it be perfect justice? But the glory of salvation is that Jesus took on our humanity on purpose so that the justice we deserve could fall on him and he could offer us full forgiveness and his own life that never ends. That’s why he came to earth. That’s why we celebrate his coming every December.

Christmas is a rescue story. Jesus is the One who comes to rescue, and we are the ones being rescued. Being rescued is a reason for joy, certainly, but not a reason for pride. When the bells ring for Christmas, they ring out loud and clear our deep and desperate need for a Saviour. There’s no sense pretending otherwise. This is a humbling holiday, but that doesn’t need to stop us from celebrating: God knew our need. He did not wait for us to reach up to him. He came down to us and gave us exactly what we needed:

“Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you” – Luke 2:11

Ring the bells with humility. And ring them with joy!