The Meaning of Christmas in Just 3 Minutes ...

Before time and space existed,  if you like, before the Big Bang, God existed. Because he is outside time and space, he has always existed and will always exist. He hasn't ignored us, however. Through the ages, he has revealed his character to us. He has three essential, unchangeable qualities. He is love. He is just. He is holy.

And because he is God, he is perfect love, perfect justice and perfect holiness. Perfect to the extent that he cannot not love, he cannot not be just, and he cannot not be holy. His perfect love is illustrated in another aspect of his nature. He has three dimensions, personalities if you like. These three personalities co-exist in a relationship of perfect love, so that even in his very being God's perfect love operates.

God created time and space, and he created the earth. On the earth he created life, and he could see that this was good. He created animal life, and he could see that was good too. However, he also wanted to create animal life that was like himself, made in his image. And so he created man. Man was like him not in physical appearance but in being able to share in his perfect love, justice and holiness. But the problem with love is that by its very nature it has to be a free choice by both parties. Compulsory love is not love at all, and certainly not perfect love. So man was free to reject God and that is exactly what happened. Selfishness, what we call sin, came into the world. Because of his perfect justice and perfect holiness, God could no longer dwell in the physical presence of man, and a great gulf was opened up between man and God. This was not because God was angry or wanted retribution for being rejected. It was simply that he could no more be in the presence of sin than my pet goldfish would be happy lying on my kitchen table. My goldfish can only exist in water and God can only exist in perfect love, perfect justice and perfect holiness.

But because of his perfect love, God was not going to give up on mankind. He selected a race of people, not because they were any more worthy than any other race, but because they were dispossessed wanderers, seeking a home. They were chosen for a purpose - to show the world the way home. For thousands of years God spoke to these people through their great kings, prophets and writers. The message throughout all these years was simple. The only way to be united with God once more is to be perfect but, because of sin, mankind can never be perfect. The situation is not hopeless, however. God will send a saviour to make us all perfect once more and able to be reunited with God.

In order to satisfy true justice, for things to be right and fair, our sins cannot be simply overlooked. The consequences must be faced and the consequence of sin is death - spiritual death. That is, separation from God. Man, because of his sinfulness cannot be with God and God, because of his holiness cannot be with sinful man. But God had a quite shocking plan. He decided to rip apart the perfect unity of his own being. To become a man himself and take the consequences of mankind's sin upon himself. On the cross, Jesus cried out 'My God, why have you forsaken me?' God himself, in Jesus, was torn apart from God the Father. Jesus paid the price for our sins and perfect justice was satisfied. But Jesus wasn't just a man. He was also God and so, as God has predicted through the ages, he rose up again so we can once again become perfect through accepting him. Perfect not because of any merit in us but perfect because of him.

At Christmas we remember how God came into the world, as a helpless baby. We remember why God came into the world, to reunite all mankind with himself in perfect love.