The First Promise of Christmas

by Rev Greg Obong-Oshotse 18 December 2020

Text: Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Many people trace Christmas to a pagan festival held on 25 December, a popular holiday in the Roman Empire. It was set aside for the celebration of the winter solstice which marked the departure of winter and the return of the sun as spring and summer beckoned. The day was called “day of the birth of the unconquered sun.” The Church was said to have Christianised that day and marked it as the birthday of Jesus Christ, thinking of it as the ‘day of the birth of the and between your offspring and her unconquered Son’.

However, the true origins of Christmas go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. When Eve had yielded to Satan, and Adam to her, marking their Fall and the entrance of sin into the human realm, God pronounced judgement on each of the three characters in the drama, a drama that would find its climax in the conflict on the Cross. But, of course, before the Cross comes the Cradle. In announcing the great conflict to come, God also announced the ‘Good News’ of the coming offspring of the woman. That offspring is Jesus Christ. He will defeat Satan on the Cross to rescue fallen man. This is the first time we hear the promise of the Gospel, which begins with the incarnation. Christ must enter the world, the theatre of the drama, as a human being. He must take on flesh and come in place of Adam. That is why He comes as a baby through a virgin. That is why we celebrate Christmas.

Prayer

Thank You Lord for Christmas, our rescue from the evil one in Christ’s name, Amen.