*with contribution from Stacy

Christmas is the time we Christians celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Many, however, seem to forget that He didn’t remain a baby. They forget that He grew up, had disciples, taught, performed miracles, died and rose again. The fact that He came to earth as a human being is important, but what He did during His time on earth is most important. Focusing on Jesus as a baby ignores and minimizes what came after, and what came after is the most precious and amazing miracle God ever performed. 

Without Christ’s resurrection after His death on the cross, there is no salvation. It was Christ the man’s sacrifice that paid the debt owed for our crimes against a holy and just God, not Christ the baby’s sacrifice. Paul makes this clear in his first letter to the Corinithian church: 

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,… ‘But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

1 Corinthians 15.3-4, 13-14 ESV

This is one of the earliest and simplest creeds of Christianity. Yes, it is right for us to celebrate Christ Jesus coming to earth, to His creation, as a helpless baby, but let us not end the story there this Christmas season. Let us remember that we are to continually recall the rest of the story. The miracle of the death and resurrection of Christ is the greatest of all miracles.