For release: 12/25/25
Christmas, then and now
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Content Agency
Perhaps some of the worst people to explain the real meaning of Christmas are those who claim to believe in its central message, but have trouble communicating it. Like the secularists, they try to define it on their own terms rather than let God speak for Himself.
The reason for Christmas is easy to explain, but difficult for many to understand.
Why would a Holy God offer up His only Son to sinful people who would reject and ultimately crucify Him? Part of the reason I think is that too many of us define love as what we feel for another person, a pet, a favorite restaurant or a sports team. Feelings come and go (consider divorce, a bad meal, a dead pet and several losing seasons). Human love is conditional and often based on emotion, physical appearance and sexual gratification.
God’s love is different. It is He who defines the word by His nature and actions. If His love was conditional on how we feel toward Him, or our behavior, He would have stopped loving us and wiped out the human race as He nearly did in the age of Noah (look it up if you think that was only about saving animals and plants).
1 John 4:8-10 says it best: “God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
That last part is what’s difficult to grasp for many of us sinners. That’s because the very word “sin” offends and seems from another age. Today, if we consider we have faults it is because we are “dysfunctional,” or we blame others, such as our parents. But the Scriptures tell us we are born with a sinful inclination, which it also says is why we must be born a second time through a spiritual rebirth. Think of sin as a birth defect, though a medical condition can often be repaired. Sin can’t be repaired by human effort. A Holy God must judge sin in Jesus’ sacrificial death, or He must judge it in those who refuse to repent. Otherwise, He would not be holy.
See what I mean by easy to explain, but difficult to understand?
When Donald Trump first ran for president, I asked him because of his strong support from evangelical Christians if he had ever felt the need to repent? He said no, but perhaps someday he would. Repentance is a necessary act for salvation, say the Scriptures. It’s difficult for many to do that because of pride which “goes before the fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
So go ahead as the song from the musical “Mame” says, and “Haul out the holly. … For we need a little Christmas right this very minute. Candles at the window, carols at the spinet…” But let’s not reduce the real meaning of Christmas to decorations and manger scenes on the lawn. It is far more than that. It is God becoming a Man, living a perfect life, dying in our place and rising from the dead, which was witnessed by hundreds, so that God’s justice would be satisfied and we could spend eternity with him in a sinless and forgiven place called Heaven.
Focus on that and your Christmas Day – and every day – will be merry and bright.
Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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