by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Jesus was born to bring about our salvation and reconciliation with God by means of His death and resurrection. He was born to provide a pardon for sin on condition of repentance of sin and baptism into union with Him, which begins a walk of fellowship with Him (Acts 2:37-41; Romans 6:1-23). So, one cannot honor the birth of Jesus (the reason He came to earth) if one ignores the death, resurrection, ascension, and call of Jesus to a reconciled and holy life of service in Him (Romans 12:1-3).<\/p>\n
One misses the point of His birth and incarnation if it does not bring us to the cross of Jesus for forgiveness and reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:17f). God is not at all interested in a yearly tip of the hat to practically distort the reason for His birth and the story of it if the daily cross of service to Him is missing. There is no way that an arbitrarily selected birthday party for Jesus brings any pleasure to God. The birth was joyous because it meant that the means of salvation from sin had arrived. Still, if the soul is not saved through His death, resurrection, ascension, and call of the gospel, then a lost soul means that He was born and died in vain<\/strong>\u00a0as far as that person is concerned, yearly party notwithstanding.<\/p>\n Perhaps the Spirit did not give us a date for the birth of Jesus because He knew we would take the birthday and separate it from the cross (the message of the cross is what saves (I Corinthians 1:18f), not a mere celebration of His birth). Let Earth receive the\u00a0King<\/strong> daily. If He is not just as special every day as our King, then there is no honor. To truly honor the king, we will honor the call of the King to a reconciled and daily life of holy living and holy service. That will be a daily living sacrifice that is acceptable to the Lord. It is not about a yearly seasonal celebration of a baby but of daily joy and commitment to the One Who loved us and gave His life for us, expecting that we are crucified with Him and raised with Him.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Jesus was born to bring about our salvation and reconciliation with God by means of His death and resurrection. He was born to provide a pardon for sin on condition of repentance of sin and baptism into union with Him, which begins a walk of fellowship with Him (Acts 2:37-41; Romans…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[988,288,73,941,47],"class_list":["post-82143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-birth","tag-christmas","tag-jesus","tag-purpose","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2034,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-baptism-make-jesus-sacrifice-insufficient-for-our-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":82143,"position":0},"title":"Does baptism make Jesus’ sacrifice insufficient for our salvation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Baptism is a representation of us being born into Christ.\u00a0 It is something every Christian should do.\u00a0 It is not something one should do to be saved.\u00a0 Putting baptism as a requirement for salvation makes Jesus\u2019 sacrifice not enough for our salvation and with this, I disagree. Answer: It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63920,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/saved-from-the-wrath-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":82143,"position":1},"title":"Saved from the Wrath of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer To be saved from the wrath of God is generally equated in Scripture with being saved from judgment. It is set opposite of eternal life. For example, Jesus said, \"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64320,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-birth-of-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":82143,"position":2},"title":"The Birth of Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Talking about the birth of Jesus Christ is needed at any time of year, but it seems especially fitting to do so when people are thinking in that direction. If we are not careful, we may too easily dismiss an opportunity to speak about one of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-jesus-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":82143,"position":3},"title":"Why Did Jesus Die? (Hamilton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer There are many atonement theories, and not every theory is equal. But one undeniable truth is that Jesus died to show how death is conquered through resurrection. By His death and resurrection, we are led to victory, and because of this, we can work with confidence that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64832,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/because-jesus-was-born\/","url_meta":{"origin":82143,"position":4},"title":"Because Jesus Was Born","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons\" (Galatians 4:4-5). While the Gospels of Matthew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11651,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-being-born-again-and-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":82143,"position":5},"title":"What is the difference between being born again and saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The thing that I'm trying to figure out is the difference between being born again and saved. I was told that they are the same thing, but I don't see how they are. Does the new birth save the soul? I thought the new birth causes the spirit to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}