Written by Rev (Dr) Prabhudas Koshy 

Blessed Christmas!

 

Let us rejoice for the incomparable
gift of God, the Son of God, our
Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ,
who was born for us in the little
town of Bethlehem.

May Christ be always magnified
in Gethsemane Bible-Presbyterian
Church, where the Lord has joined
us all together to serve Him.
Come, let us worship Christ,
the Newborn King.

Love in the truth,

Your Pastor

Good Tidings of Great Joy To All People!

At the birth of Jesus Christ, the angelic announcement was – “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Luke 2:10).

Who can have the great joy promised at Jesus’ birth? The angel announced that the joy is to “all the people”.

Does that mean every individual who lived on earth? Certainly not. It certainly does not mean "universal salvation". The Bible does not teach salvation of all men. In fact, the Bible tells us that some will reject Christ and His salvation, and thus be damned into eternal suffering of hell.

The joy of salvation is to all who would come to Christ by faith. He saves all sorts of people, from all sorts of backgrounds. There is no racial, national, social or gender discrimination. There may be many kinds of distinctions and discriminations in this world but none of them excludes us from the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He saves males and females, children and old folks, the rich and poor. He also saves criminals and police officers, religious hypocrites and atheists as well as Africans, Indians, Chinese, Europeans, Jews, and all alike, if they would come to Him in repentance and faith. Jesus came to give hope of salvation to sinners in every realm of life.

We praise God that our church can truly celebrate this wonderful aspect of the Christmas message. We come from many nations, races and backgrounds. Our ministries are extended to people in all sorts of situations. Let us as one people of God from everywhere, being saved from of our sins, praise our Saviour today.

We must also renew our dedication to indiscriminate preaching of the Gospel everywhere, for this is the will of God. We must dispel any unhappiness that remains in us against global Gospel outreach. We must not be like the OT prophet Jonah who was very displeased that God wanted to forgive the evildoers of Nineveh. We, as God’s people, must reflect God’s impartiality. Jonah even went so far as to say to God, who had just relented from judging the Assyrians who repented, “Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3). Would you rather die than see God’s saving work and will even reach out to exceedingly wicked evildoers who repent in our day? Remember that the Gospel birth announcement of the angels was sent to “all the people”.

Let us renew our minds and rededicate ourselves to preach the Gospel to “all men”. That will be a very appropriate and solemn way to celebrate Christmas!