One of the
wonderful gifts that we have because Christ came into our world is the gift of
access to God. “Therefore,
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this
grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1-2, ESV, my emphasis). Access to God has both
universal and exclusive qualities. Access has been made possible for all
people, but it is exclusive to those “justified
by faith.”
The
universal nature of God’s plan is wondrously brought out in many of the Gospel accounts that we associate with the Christmas
story. For instance, the “Wise Men” or “Magi” were from the East, they were Gentiles
(non-Jews) from a pagan land and yet they were drawn to the hope of the
Messiah. “They came to Jerusalem and
asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in
the east and have come to worship him” (Matt. 2:1b-2). The hope
of salvation (access to God) led them to undertake their long journey and when
they found the Christ child, they were not disappointed. “They were overjoyed” and upon finally seeing Jesus, “they bowed down
and worshiped him” (2:10-11).
That access
to God would be made possible for all people was at the heart of Simeon’s song
of praise sung after he himself saw the Christ child. “For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the
sight of all people, a light for
revelation to the Gentiles and
for glory to your people Israel” (Lk. 2:30-32, my emphasis). No wonder
the “Wise Men” came! The light of Christ has come, may we too bow down and adore
Him!
The
shepherds in the fields watching their flocks were considered religiously
unclean because of their work and were looked down upon among their own people.
They were essentially outsiders even though they were on the inside. The
message of Christ’s birth brought by the angel of the Lord, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been
born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11), first came to the outsiders,
shepherds, unclean in a unlikely place.
God was
saying something very powerful in these first stories, something that will be
said repeatedly in Jesus’ ministry in words and actions. Jesus is a friend of
sinners (Matt. 11:19). God desires all people to come to know Him (Jn.
3:16; 2 Pet. 3:9). God didn’t send His Son for good people, he came for
all people. The barriers have been torn down, access to God has been made
possible for all people, all who will recognize their need and come to God
through Jesus Christ. “For there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1
Tim. 2:5). “O Come, Let Us Adore Him!”
So what does
this gift of access mean for the believer? For one, it means you have a
constant friend in Jesus, you’re never alone, you can call upon Him. Listen to
God’s invitation and promise to you. “Call
to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do
not know” (Jer. 33:3). Prayer opens for us a whole new and beautiful view
of life.
The year is
1940, four siblings – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie – are among the
children evacuated from London during WWII to escape the Blitz. They are sent
to the countryside to live with professor Digory Kirke. While the four children
explore the house, Lucy climbs into the wardrobe and discovers that inside is a
magical forest in a land called Narnia, a land far from the very real bombs
dropping in London. So begins C. S. Lewis’s story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In your prayer closet, your
spiritual wardrobe, your quiet place, you can call upon God the Father who has
created this vast universe, who ushers you into a place far more wonderful,
beautiful and real than Narnia. “O Come, Let Us Adore Him!”
The believer
has access to God. This is a liberating and life-changing truth but it also
means that you are responsible to the God who created you. As Baptists we have long
cherished the teaching of the priesthood of the believer, that every human
being is responsible before God and can respond to God directly without any
human mediator. No church, institution or human being can mediate your
relationship before God. You have been given a great gift, the gift of freedom,
the gift of access to God’s grace in Christ. How tragic it would be to throw it
all away through neglect or apathy. “O Come, Let Us Adore Him!”
In the
Chronicles of Narnia, after Lucy returns from Narnia that first time, she tells
her siblings joyfully what she has discovered although at first they don’t
believe. But she can’t keep the story of Narnia a secret. As believers, we too
cannot keep what we know a secret. We want all people to know that access to
God is now possible, the way to the kingdom of heaven has been opened! You too can
embrace the Christ of Christmas and by doing so gain entrance into the kingdom
of heaven! “O Come, Let Us Adore Him, Christ the Lord!”
“For His
Glory!”
Pastor Joe
