A Christmas kind of grace

Text: Titus 3:4–7

“But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us…”

I will confess that I have always found Easter much easier to get excited about than Christmas. Easter is the absolute prime time for the Christian Church around the world and it’s really the centre of our faith and the reason we call ourselves Christians.

We remember the night when Jesus was betrayed and instituted the Lord’s Supper for the first time, the Sacrament that we hold so dear as Lutherans. We take the suffering and death of Christ seriously and we’re very intentional about treating Good Friday with respect and solemnity. And, of course, we celebrate the glorious resurrection and the victory over death on Easter Sunday.

From a spiritual standpoint, Christmas, more so than Easter, can suffer from being drowned by everything that goes on around it. We end up simplifying the Christmas message down to the roles in the nativity play and the order of events as we retell the story. As a result, Easter tends to be a moment of much deeper spiritual reflection than Christmas. Sometimes it can almost feel as if Christmas is for the kids while Easter is for the adults.

Now, you obviously can’t have Easter without Christmas—Jesus must first be born before he can give his life for us and then rise again. Both special events roll around every single year and so one of the things we should desire most is to have our eyes opened to something new each time. I know I’ve certainly found myself praying that prayer on the odd Christmas or Easter during my life, and many of you have experienced double or even triple the number of Easters and Christmases than I have!

At Christmas, we change up the children’s drama each year to try and keep things fresh, but that only does so much—it’s still the same narrative underneath, which is a good thing. We don’t have to have a major realisation or life-changing moment every year, but just a slightly different angle or new discovery in the story will do.

For me, that little moment of discovery for this Christmas came from a quote from over 500 years ago. Martin Luther made some comments about our New Testament reading from Titus 3:

How could Paul have presented words conveying more love and graciousness? I venture to assert I have never read, in the entire Scriptures, words more beautifully expressive of the grace of God than these two.

Martin Luther

He is referring to the first verse of our reading today: “when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared…” (Ti. 3:4) He continues:

[These words] represent grace not only as procuring for us remission of sins, but as God ever-present with us, embracing us in his friendship, ever ready to help us and offering to do for us according to all we desire; in short, as a good and willing friend, to whom we may look for every favour and accommodation. Picture to your imagination a sincere friend and you will have an idea of God's attitude toward you in the person of Christ, though a very imperfect representation of his superabundant grace.

Martin Luther

When we think about the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins is the first thing that should come to mind. We can sometimes confuse grace and mercy, though.

God withholds the punishment we deserve for our sin. This is true, but it’s not a particularly friendly-sounding God. It portrays him only as a powerful judge who almost wants to punish us, but luckily decides against it. It might be easy for us to come away with that picture of God at Easter time, particularly if you attend a Good Friday service and then miss Sunday because you’ve already hit the road for the long weekend.

The thing is, technically, that is mercy and not grace. Mercy is when we are not given what we do deserve. Grace, though, is when we are given what we do not deserve.

God’s mercy is one of his greatest attributes, but he is only merciful because he is gracious.

At Christmas, then, the grace of God is evident in what he gives us, and Paul says that it’s not because of righteous things we have done. At Christmas, God showed us his grace by giving us himself free of charge and without qualification. When our Lord Jesus was born into the world, God’s kindness and love appeared. 

Here, we have a God who is so full of grace that he chooses to meet us at ground level at just the right time in history. We are utterly powerless to control the timeline—God determined everything that led up to Jesus’ birth and has orchestrated everything since. He has carefully planned everything out so that each of us will one day be with him in glory when all things are complete.

So, God’s grace is evident in his willingness to come to us in Jesus. He is also gracious in providing us multiple ways to receive Jesus for ourselves, even as he is ascended and remains at God’s right hand. One of the ways he has provided for us to receive Jesus is in Baptism: 

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:5b–7

God could have just saved us in a generalised kind of way in a “one size fits all” solution. The same salvation is available to all of us, but God personalises it and tailors it for every individual. He does this through the gift of Baptism.

In Baptism, you, as an individual person, are reborn and renewed by God himself through his Spirit. As the water was poured over you, so was his Holy Spirit, and he continues to live in and through you.

By the Spirit, God is closer to each of us than he has ever been before. In the Old Testament, God appeared in clouds, fire, and burning bushes. He was hard to catch, only being physically present for limited periods.

At Christmas, God came much closer by arriving in the world as a human being. Through Jesus, God walked, talked, and ate among us human beings. Even then, though, God’s presence was limited to one human body. As a human being, Jesus was limited to time and space just as we are.

Now, Jesus is even closer to each of us than he was at Christmas. That’s really what we are celebrating—that God chooses to come to be with us. Then, it was in a physical human body. Now, he lives in each of us and is ever-present.

Because Christ, who was born in Bethlehem on a cold winter’s night, now lives in each of us through his Spirit, we share in his sonship. God welcomes us as his own children purely out of his grace, all because he had the grace to come down to meet us in the first place.

Let that be the message you hear this Christmas—that God, out of his deep love and kindness, gives you Christ. That same God is still loving and kind towards you, shown by the fact that you are still justified, still forgiven, and still blessed by his presence with you.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus, who came to be with us at Christmas and remains in each of us through his Spirit to this day. Amen.