The Reality of Christmas: He Gave His Only Begotten Son

Passage: John 3:13-18

In 1970 in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “One word of truth outweighs the whole world.”

John 3:16 is one of those truths, a truth that outweighs the whole world, a truth that silences a million lies, a truth that answers the hardest questions and erases the deepest fears, a truth that turns the world upside down.

There have been many great revelations of truth in this world of ours but none so great as this. There have been many great visitations by God in the past but none so great as the incarnation.

Last week we considered from this great text:

The Revelation of Christmas                  For God so loved the world

This week we consider:

The Reality of Christmas                        that He gave His only begotten Son

Forbes magazine once a year publishes a list of the wealthiest people in the world.  You know the names, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet.  But the only reason those men head the list is because of a serious oversight on the part of the Forbes researchers.  There is someone who makes those men look like homeless guys.

God is the richest person in the entire universe.  He not only owns the cattle on a thousand hills, but He owns the hills, the earth and everything in it.  He not only owns more than everyone else, He owns everyone else and He owns everything they own (John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, p. 89ff).

Psalm 100:3 It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

When you create something it is yours, so everyone and everything is His.  We are just trustees or stewards.

Have you ever noticed what the NT says about the wealth of the richest person in the universe?  You don’t find much mention of all of God’s stuff.  He doesn’t talk about His cool toys and all the latest things He has made.  His wealth is not described in terms of what He has created or what He owns.

The wealth of God is described in terms of His glory which He has had from all eternity and long before He made anything.

Philippians 4:19 My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the supreme visible expression and display of the vastness and infinite extravagance of God’s wealth.  In Christ we see the unsurpassing display of the riches of the glory of all of God’s attributes.

In Christ we see the riches of God’s love and kindness, His mercy and grace, His justice and righteousness.  Jesus is the lavish display of God’s great love and mercy.  Jesus is the extravagance of God where we see His infinite wealth and power and mercy and love.

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us.

Ephesians 2:7 [God loved us] … so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.