By Justin Pratt, Clear Springs Baptist Church Senior Pastor
Our Bible begins with, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” setting the tone for scripture and our world. Genesis offers a creation account with foreshadowing of Christmas and redemption. Adam and Eve, created by God to steward the planet, lost their role through disobedience, surrendering it to Satan. God warned that despite Satan bruising humanity’s heel, through the ‘seed of a woman,’ He would crush his head (Genesis 3:15). This is the first prophecy of a coming Messiah to restore what the enemy broke. Though the world was God’s by creation, Satan established a counter-kingdom, making Earth a battlefield between two kingdoms. But this is not the whole story.
God was determined to win back the world at any cost, using kings, prophets and a small nation to bless the entire world. He entered humanity as Jesus Christ to reclaim it from Satan. Though it seemed Satan had won when Jesus was crucified, the resurrection proved Jesus the victor. Since Easter, Satan tries to hold onto a planet Jesus has reclaimed, but Jesus has planted light in the darkness, promising better days.
We who believe are eagerly waiting for the same Son who appeared in Bethlehem to one day return personally and visibly to this earth. When He does come at last, He will trample Satan under his feet, judge the workers of iniquity, set everything right that is currently wrong, and reign from His Father’s David’s throne in Jerusalem. That day has not yet appeared, but the signs of time tell us that it is not so far off in the distant future.
What does all of this have to do with Christmas? Revelation chapter 12 reminds us that this battle began in Bethlehem. Angels proclaimed to the shepherds in that same city that this babe, who would be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, would be the long-awaited Messiah who would bring “peace on earth and goodwill toward men.” But it’s important to realize that peace on earth meant war in heaven. At Bethlehem, God struck a blow on the enemy, and His frontline soldier was not clad in the armor of a 1st-century warrior; He was not embellished in the garments of a king and didn’t have the covering or weaponry of a battle-experienced knight. No, the frontline soldier was a tiny baby boy, born of a virgin, and only given a manger to lie in on His first night on the earth. Yet, in this tiny baby was all the strength of Deity. In those little clenched fists was the same power that framed the worlds. That innocent cry was the same voice that spoke creation into existence. The baby wrapped in rags was also the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. By perception, that Child that Mary laid in a manger looked like any other baby, but understand, that this Child is none other than the undefeated Son of God! God had begun His mission to reclaim the world, and it would happen through a little Boy that Mary and Joseph named Jesus.
We need to remind ourselves this Christmas that the Devil will not have the final word. Though he strikes many painful blows, he will not win, and he cannot win, because this battle belongs to the Lord. Be encouraged, for that sleeping Child in a manger will one day rise to battle, and no one or no nation will be able to stand against Him. If Christmas means anything to us, then let it mean this: God wins in the end!
