The new-Born k ing

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

[ JOHN 3:16 ]

Since I grew up in a non-Christian, Asian family, I didn’t celebrate Christmas as a child. But once when I was young, my siblings and I, together with a few neighbourhood kids, decided to have a Christmas gift exchange. I don’t know where we got the idea—maybe from all the TV shows we’d been watching. We put our names into a bag, and each of us picked the name of someone to buy a present for. We decided we liked this tradition. We didn’t yet realise the perfect gift had been given to us 2,000 years ago by God our Creator. Charles Wesley captured this in his hymn “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” He wrote of Jesus, “Light and life to all He brings, / Risen with healing in His wings.”

The Bible tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (JOHN 3:16). Why did God give us his Son, and what does that mean for us? As Wesley wrote, “Born to raise the sons of earth, / Born to give them second birth.”

As a teenager, I heard about Jesus—the one born to give us “second birth”—and believed in Him as my Saviour. Christmas is special to me now because I understand its meaning—it’s a celebration of God’s perfect gift, Jesus Christ. God isn’t a mystical force out there; He’s a personal God who extends His love to people of all nations and socioeconomic classes. And this personal God expressed His love for me by dying for me. “Glory to the new-born King!” POH

FANG CHIA

REFLECT: What Christmas traditions do you celebrate? How might they remind you of Jesus birth?

PRAY: Dear God, thank You for showing us that to love is to give.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Silent night! Holy night! Son of God, love’s pure light, Radiant beams from Thy holy face With the dawn of redeeming grace— Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

SILENT NIGHT

Truly He taught us to love one another His law is love and His gospel is peace Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother And in His name all oppression shall cease Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, Let all within us praise His holy name.

O HOLY NIGHT

Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King: peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

Joyful, all ye nations, rise, join the triumph of the skies; with th’angelic hosts proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING

10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,

‘I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.’

13 And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’

And again he says,

‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.