SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR

When our children were growing up, Christmas celebrations included gifts under the tree that appeared Christmas morning. During the season, the kids would make lists of their desired presents, mostly based on the recently advertised toys. But rarely did they receive something on their list. As parents, we took delight in finding the perfect gift for each child. I once overheard our second oldest tell his younger siblings not to waste their time making lists. The gifts they would receive were always far better than the ones for which they wished!

Our Father’s Perfect Gift

Our heavenly Father sent us the perfect gift, the gift of His only Son. Some had wished the promised Messiah would come as a king, saving them from their enemies. But our heavenly Father knew we lived in darkness, so He sent the perfect gift, Jesus, who would bring light into the darkness. When Jesus started His earthly ministry He declared, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Jesus, our perfect gift, lived a perfect life while on earth. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus lived a sinless life so that after His death and resurrection, His righteousness could be credited to the accounts of all believers, by grace through faith. That God would send a gift that would provide a way to change our filthy rags into the very righteousness of His sinless Son is a gift better than anything we could imagine.

Not only did God send the gift of Jesus’ birth and His sinless life on earth, but He also sent the gift of His death. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, we received the promise of eternal life. Jesus told us plainly, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). Jesus died in the place of His people, taking the punishment for our sin. Three days later He rose from the dead, evidence that He overcame all sin up to and including death. Paul told us clearly that we will be raised with Jesus, “Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence” (2 Cor. 4:14). The very moment after our death, our souls will “immediately return to God who gave them: the souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness are received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God” (Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 32:1).

The Gift of Eternity

The great statesman, Winston Churchill, planned his own funeral service. The service was held at St. Paul’s cathedral and included Churchill’s hand-picked hymns and a beautifully written liturgy. At the end of the service, hidden from view, two buglers played from opposite sides of the cathedral dome. The first bugler played the traditional “Taps” to signal the end of the day. This was immediately followed by the second bugler playing “Reveille,” indicating the dawn of a new day. It was an appropriate reminder to those in attendance that while death means “Good night” on earth, it is immediately followed by “Good morning” in heaven for all believers. Our souls will awaken in union with Christ, waiting for His return when they will be united with new bodies to inherit the new heaven and new earth.

In his letter to the Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul addressed the confusion about the future resurrection of believers, he pointed to Christ’s own resurrection as the assurance that those who follow Him will also be raised from the dead. “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-53). All this from God’s perfect gift, His Son, who was born of a virgin, lived the sinless life that we cannot, so that we can be cloaked in His righteousness, died bearing all our sins on the cross, and rose, conquering death, to sit at the right hand of God the Father. And we will have joy in His presence eternally. ^“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15).

Photo by Kolby Milton on Unsplash