This is part of my message this morning at the local Baptist church.
Other Christian traditions bring stronger attention to the incarnation (Eastern Orthodox, RCC) or the Ascension and Second Coming (Adventist . . . and Chuck Smith). We Protestants place a lot of importance on the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Sometimes we neglect the other aspects of the finished work of Christ in order to keep the cross central, and we minimize the incarnation. Taken to the extreme, our theology might suggest it is always Easter and never Christmas. [yes . . i am playing with CS Lewis here]
Christmas time is an opportunity to focus on the Advent of God, the becoming-flesh of the Son of God who laid aside His glory and became human for our sake. If the work of Christ was only the cross, He could have done his job in 3 days. Without the incarnation, we would not understand what Jesus meant when he said "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you".
Have a very missional Christmas.
Technorati Tags: christmas
