#becauseoflove

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” - Galatians 2:20

It is so hard to declare that we are beaten and in the end, we failed. Our human nature is so cruel and prideful that failures are so hard to declare. We think that as much as possible, we want to stand our ground and pridefully hold on to what we stand instead of declaring that we are dependent, that we failed, and that we need a Savior. However, when we are in Christ and we understand His salvation, all of these prideful stands will be let go. Our life will turn around and like Paul, we will then declare that we no longer live, it is Christ that lives in us. 

What Paul did was actually a very hard thing to do. Given all the restrictions that can be because of our pride and ego as a human, it would’ve been so hard to deny our own selves. However, Paul still denied himself and declared that he was crucified with Christ and he no longer lives. It was Christ who lived in him and the life he lived in the body is a life he lived by faith in the Son of God. Now, not everyone can do and declare that. We are restricted and hindered by our human nature– thinking that we are awesome and that we can do anything if we just put our minds to it. 

However, we have to understand that we are not mighty enough to save ourselves, we are not even powerful enough to give someone life, or we are not even responsible enough to someone’s go-to. Basically, we are dependent and we just hate that we are dependent. However, we really have to understand that we are indeed dependent on God. Our salvation belongs to Him and fully depends on Him. That is why Paul has the strength to declare that he no longer lived because he fully understands that he needs God and that there’s nothing in him that needs to be proud of. We are all sinful, and we all need salvation. 

Thus, we have to understand that we need Christ, and we should let go of all our pride and declare that once we received Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were crucified with Him and that we no longer live. It is Christ that lives in us now. So, we must always put into our minds that we have to understand that we need a Savior. We are not good, we are not mighty, we are not powerful. We can never ever save ourselves from our evil doings, only God can do that. Therefore, let us declare that we need Christ, and as we celebrate Christmas, may we remember that He came to save us because we need Him and His main reason is that He loves us so much.

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“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” - John 3:17

As we celebrate Christmas to remind us that Christ is the reason for the season, we will then understand that God died for us and to save us. However, a lot of us think that God is like a teacher who brings sticks to punish all his students. God is not like that at all. He came to save us and not to condemn us. Our verse today is proof and a declaration of Jesus that He was not sent by the Father to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. If John 3:16 is such a good verse to remind us that God loves the world, so He saved it through Christ and everyone who believes in Him will be saved, then the following verse which is our verse today focuses more on explaining that it was because of love. 

Love was the reason why God saved us. He is just so loving, and His love for us is unconditional. We are the reason why Christ died, we are the reason why He suffered and forsaken and it was all because of love. God just loves us so much that He doesn’t want us to suffer. We deserve everything we will receive. We deserve condemnation, we deserve punishment, and we deserve our sufferings because we are sinful. However, God still chose to save us because He is loving and forgiving. So, we may not see Him as someone who wants to punish us, but we must see Him as our God who loves us and who will save us from our sins. 

So, we must always put in our minds that the God who made the heavens and the earth, decided to save us even if there’s no reason to save us. Our God came into the world, became a baby, and suffered in this cruel world to save us. He did not come to condemn us or to punish us, although we are deserving of it, He came to save us and make sure that we will rise with Him when He will resurrect. 

Therefore, let us not forget who we celebrate this Christmas and we must not forget that we ought to be thankful. May we never forget the goodness and grace of God that was acted and fulfilled by Christ. Indeed, He did not come into the world to condemn us, but to save us from our sins. We don’t deserve His salvation and His grace, but still, God chose to save us and forgive us even if we do not deserve it.

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