What If Jesus Had Not Come?

Dear New Covenant family,

I'm still basking in the joy of this past weekend's Christmas concert! Heartfelt thanks to all who served to make the Hope of the World more near and dear to our hearts. We are so blessed by the many talents and gifts God has given our church.

A few years ago Pastor Sam Crabtree wrote a letter to Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis in which he asked this question, What would be different if Jesus had never been born? As I list some of the reasons he wrote in his letter, and tweak them and add a few of my own, consider the treasure that is contained in Bethlehem’s manger.  

If in the fullness of time God had not sent his Son, born of woman, born under the law...

• There would be no New Covenant Bible Church, for we would all be lost, alienated from the life of God and from one another, in bondage to sin and to Satan.
• If Jesus had not come into the world at Christmas, this would not be the year of our Lord 2011.
• We would never hear a single Christmas carol or Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
• No city would be named St. Paul or St. Petersburg or Corpus Christi.
• We would have never heard of the Apostles Peter, James, John and Paul; completely unknown to us would be names like Augustine, William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, John Knox, Martin Luther, Joan of Arc, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, John & Charles Wesley,  George Whitefield, Billy Graham, Elizabeth Elliot, Amy Carmichael, Corrie Ten Boom, Fanny Crosby, Alexander Solzenitzen, C.S. Lewis, Chuck Swindoll, John MacArthur, Joni Eareckson Tada, C.J. Mahaney, John Piper, or…make a list of your own.
• There would be no organizations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators, ABWE, OM, Pioneers, New Hope Uganda, Lazarus House, Wayside Cross, Riverwoods, Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College, Trinity International University, WMBI, The Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and countless others.
• We would have no such books as The Pilgrim’s Progress, Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia.
• We would never ever had heard such songs as “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” “Fairest Lord Jesus,” “It is Well with my Soul,” “Joy to the World.”
• Idioms would never have been brought into our language such as the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, or the lost sheep.
• We would not have teachings that have entered our every day speech such as turn the other cheek, go the second mile, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and love your enemies.
• The Wuaorani Indians of Ecuador would still kill white men instead of baptizing their children.
• The Arawakan Indians of the Caribbean would still be cannibals.
• Descendants of the Mayans in Chiapas, Mexico, would still sacrifice their children instead of teaching them to praise the true Creator.
• Prophecies would remain unfulfilled, the serpent would not be crushed, we would not be delivered from our sins, and God would be a liar. Death would not be conquered.
• The New Testament would never have been written and there would be no gospel to preach, no tidings of comfort and joy.
• We would not be able to rejoice in the truth of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
• We would still all be under the sentence of death and eternal condemnation, had not God sent his Son into the world so that the world through him might be saved (John 3:17).
• We would be under the power of Satan, that thief who came to steal, kill and destroy, had not Jesus come to give us life, and to give it more abundantly (John 10:10).
• We would have no hope of heaven, but only a sure and fearful prospect of hell, for “There is salvation in no one else [but Jesus], and there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
• There would be no peace on earth, for we would still all be “foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! Christ the Savior was born! And “when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7).

Thank you, Father, for giving us your Son! Thank you, Jesus, that you came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give your life a ransom for many. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for giving us the Scriptures and for opening our eyes to the gospel, so that today, in the year of our Lord 2011, we can rejoice in the astonishingly Good News of Christ’s birth, and look forward to His return!

Blessings to you,

David Sunday