Worldwide Christmas December 25, 2025 Devotional

JOHN 3:16 | ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

The descent of God is half the Christmas story. The reason for the descent is the other half. The second person of the Trinity did not live among us as a Jewish man, as a break from divine                     responsibility, like a king moonlighting as a peasant to see how the other half lives. Nor is the enfleshment of God, or incarnation, an experiment or a ploy. Jesus came to ransom captive Israel, to        redeem His people from their sins. He came as a savior on a rescue mission. The red poinsettias remind us of the blood that flowed on the cross. The descent was more than risky, it was a deliberate      self-offering, a self-sacrifice. In Jesus, God identifies with and goes to war against the things that diminish and destroy life itself—evil, sin, and death. The Incarnation of Christ is the joining of heaven and earth, the divine and the human and it is God's missionary journey to seek and save the lost. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, might have life eternal.

How do you describe the purpose of God's great descent?

Gracious God,

At the center of the universe and at the center of history there is love. Thank You for turning the cross into a symbol of faith, into a picture of love, and a power that defeats evil and death.

Amen.