December 23
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” Galatians 3:26-27.
Through faith alone in Christ Jesus as the Son of God and our only Savior, we become children of the heavenly Father. Faith simply takes God at His Word and puts complete trust in Him as the only true God, who promised to send a Savior and who fulfilled that promise when Jesus was born.
On the first Christmas Eve, the angel announced to the shepherds on the fields of Bethlehem, “There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” Luke 2:11. The shepherds believed the angel’s message. They accepted it as a message from God. After the multitude of angels had sung the Christmas anthem and returned to heaven, the shepherds said, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us,” Luke 2:15.
The Holy Spirit touched the hearts of the shepherds with that Word of God, and away they went to see what had come to pass. It is always the Holy Spirit who brings people to faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. To the Corinthians, the apostle Paul wrote, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit,” 1 Corinthians 12:3.
Saving faith is always a living faith. The shepherds heard, saw, and told! “They made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child . . . (They) returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen,” Luke 2:17, 20.
Saving faith is a matter of the heart and the mouth. When the apostles Peter and John were arrested in Jerusalem and forbidden by the religious leaders to speak and teach in the name of Jesus, they responded, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard,” Acts 4:20.
In the opening quotation from the Epistle to the Galatians, it becomes clear that saving faith is also worked through Holy Baptism. Paul says, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Through Holy Baptism, we are robed in the garments of Jesus’ righteousness. Remember the words of the apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins . . . For the promise is to you and to your children,” Acts 2:38-39. By faith, we accept the Good News that tells us how greatly God loves us. He sent Jesus, who suffered, died, and rose again to redeem us, and we will thank Him eternally for what He has done for us!
“Baptized into Thy name most holy,
O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
I claim a place, though weak and lowly,
Among Thy seed, Thy chosen host.
Buried with Christ and dead to sin,
The Spirit now shall live within.
My faithful God, Thou failest never,
Thy cov’nant surely will abide;
Oh, cast me not away forever,
Should I transgress it on my side!
Tho’ I have oft my soul defiled,
Do Thou forgive, restore Thy child.” Amen.