Christ and the New Year

Over the past weeks, we’ve been reflecting on Jesus Christ’s coming into the world, and what that means.

In the first of these four programs, we spent time reflecting on Jesus Christ Himself as the Gift of Gifts. He is Immanuel – God with us; and by what we call His active obedience we have a perfect righteousness – something we most certainly don’t have in ourselves, but that we can have by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as He is freely offered to us in the Gospel. When you come to Him in faith, you are united with Him, and all that is His becomes yours. That’s the Gospel – the good news. And it’s the greatest news in the whole universe! Above all else, you have forgiveness of sins in what we call His passive obedience – His enduring the wrath of God – Hell itself – for all of His people. And you have the fruit of Jesus Christ’s perfect active obedience: The righteousness that our first father, Adam, failed to attain; but that the Son and Last Adam attained is yours when you come to Him in faith.

Wow! That’s glorious good news!

In the second program in this series, we considered the world into which Jesus Christ came. In both that program and the previous one my guest was the fascinating professor of Church History at Mid- America Reformed Seminary, Pastor Dr. Alan Strange. In this program, Dr. Strange gave us a painful look at the darkness, gloom, and distress (as the prophet Isaiah puts it) of the first-century world. You can’t appreciate how the world today is different because Christ came until you get a little window on the world before Christ came.

In the third program, we opened up just a little about how the world really is different because Christ came. I urge you to listen to that program and the previous two to help you flesh out the Bible’s picture of a worldwide Kingdom under the Lordship of Jesus Christ – a Kingdom that replaces darkness, gloom, and distress with light, joy, and peace – things that begin within you individually and then work themselves out as your witness in the world You can find those programs on sermonaudio.com. Put A Visit to the Pastor’s Study in the “search” box, and that will give you full access to these programs and to the rest of our archives.

For today’s program, let’s think about Christ’s coming as we are on the threshold of a new year. Because Christ came into the world, what can we expect in the new year of our Lord – A.D. – anno domini?

Here’s a link to the complete program:

Yours in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,

Pastor Bill