“Don’t let Satan rob you of the joy of the season.” I read this exhortation in an advent devotional the first week of December.

How might Satan steal our joy? He takes our focus from Jesus Christ.

If the deceiver points to meager gifts, disappointing festivities, burned sugar cookies, or lonely nights, remember:

–Jesus came so we can live in the presence of God.

When my heart opened to Jesus Christ it was as if a veil lifted from my eyes and I saw Him, I knew who He was, and I was in His presence. If you too live in the presence of God, you have a salvation story uniquely yours.

Some of these stories are recorded in the Bible.

The Apostle Paul met Jesus Christ on the way to Damascus to arrest Christians who claimed Jesus was the way to God and worshiped Him. He was immersed in a great light and fell to his knees in repentance.

Zacchaeus, a hated tax collector, climbed a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus as He passed by. But Jesus saw him and invited him to fellowship.

After Jesus rose from the dead He met two disciples, who were dismayed by His crucifixion. He walked with them to the village of Emmaus. During the journey He took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. [Luke 24:27] At the evening meal in Emmaus, their eyes were opened and they recognized Him as the Messiah.

If you have not yet met Jesus, ask, “what category am I in?”

Like Paul, do you believe you are righteous and therefore do not need a savior? Are you like Zacchaeus, labeled by society as despicable and therefore beyond any hope of salvation? Or, perhaps you have acknowledged Jesus is the Son of God, like the two on the road to Emmaus, but have not made that personal connection.

The third is my experience. I celebrated the birth of Christ at Christmas without having that personal relationship with Him until one moment in time when my head knowledge became heart knowledge and I saw Jesus for who He is and walked into the presence of the living God.

Romans 5:11 tells us that we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we receive reconciliation.

–Jesus came that we may have life abundantly.

John 10:10 reads: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus is speaking, and the thief He is referencing is Satan.

The Greek word translated “abundantly” is “perissos” [pe-ris-sos]. It means superabundant–in quantity, or superior in quality; excessive, beyond measure.

I have crossed paths with brothers and sisters in Christ whom I have not seen in a while. To catch me up on all that has occurred since we last talked, they tell me they are living the “good life.” Usually, that means everything is going their way. But is this the life Jesus was talking about?

I think not. I came to a greater understanding of this Scripture during an early morning Biblical discussion with my husband, Terry, as we were drinking coffee. He stated that a good description for the work of Satan was entropy [en-truh-pee], which is a physics term. Simply put, it is a lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.

There is no comparison— life with Jesus is “excessive beyond measure in quantity and quality” while the thief’s work results in decline.

When Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we are transformed—built back into the person God created us to be.

–Jesus came to set us free.

Sin no longer has the hold it once did because God now puts His commands within our hearts and writes them on our minds. [Hebrews 10:16] Chuck Smith explains that when we are in Christ, God works from the inside out by putting His thoughts and desires in our heart.

The Law given to the Israelites to help them walk in righteousness with God worked from the outside in and consisted of a list of do’s and don’ts. Those most familiar to us are known as the 10 commandments.

          Before Christ, they are a list of “You shall nots.” “You shall not steal; you shall not covet; you shall not murder.” After Christ, the emphasis becomes “you shall.” “You shall not steal; you shall not covet; you shall not murder.”

We are freed from the bondage of sin because we are changed from the inside. And most importantly the Holy Spirit who resides in us is our teacher and helper. It’s a supernatural power rather than willpower. 

–Jesus came to give us hope and a future.

We will one day see Jesus face to face, but eternal life begins when our spirit comes alive and we experience the second birth described in John chapter 3.

Scripture tells us “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3

The Bible is a book about God and He reveals Himself within its pages. He tells us that He is our provider, our refuge, our comforter, our sustainer, our conqueror, and our strength.

How do these words on paper become our reality?

When we seek Him in all these capacities, we will find He truly is our provider, refuge, comforter, sustainer, conqueror, and strength.

The prophet Jeremiah tells us: “We will find God when we seek Him with all our heart.” [29:13.]

This is our hope. The koine Greek word for hope in the New Testament is “elpis” which indicates trust and confidence. We can confidently know God is all He says He is and will fulfill every promise He makes.

What is our future? Glorification. At the second coming of Christ believers will enter into the eternal “kingdom of God” and attain complete conformity to the image and likeness of the glorified Christ.¹

The Apostle John writes to believers in 1 John 3:2-“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

–Jesus came so we can be the masterpiece he envisions.

We are masterfully created. I am not talking about how our body works (although amazing), but our individual talent, skills, personality traits, viewpoint, and spiritual insight. All that makes us unique, one of a kind.

In Christ, we become the person God envisioned, fit for the Master’s use. Ephesian 2:10 explains— “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

We become the masterpiece God created by His hand. He uses the circumstances we go through to hone us into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-29). He gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth (John 16:13-14). The change takes place lesson by lesson as we read God’s Word and listen to Biblical teachers; conviction by conviction as the Holy Spirit reveals how to implement Scripture; and test by test as God gives us opportunity to glorify Him by our actions.

In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

I have named five reasons to rejoice, but my list is very short compared to what it might be. At the end of the gospel of John, the apostle wrote that the whole world could not contain the books that would be written if everything Jesus did was written down. This is also true of the reasons to rejoice over His birth.  

I hope you will create a list of all Jesus Christ has done, not just for humanity but you personally. This is the joy of Christmas that can never be snatched, not even by Satan.

Merry Christmas! 

©2024 Susan Cort Johnson *All Rights Reserved

Resources:

1-Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms by Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki & Cherith Fee Nordling published by InterVarsity Press.