“Sure wish Christmas would come more than once a year!”

Do you really?

“Yep, as you always say.”

You know it only came once—at Bethlehem.

“Well, yeah . .. .but . .. .”

I know what you mean, but it’s strange how we want “it” more than once. When you say that, the question becomes, “What is it that you want to happen more often? Christ’s birth?” Or . . .

“OK. You’re right. I was thinking of all of the other things.”

Right. We have a background that it’s hard to alter, isn’t it?

“We do.”

But I wasn’t saying what I said to fuss at you; I wanted to make an important point.

“What’s that?”

I’m sure you appreciate and understand the incarnation, but suppose—just suppose—it did happen more than once.

“What?”

Suppose what took place back there in Bethlehem had to be repeated.

“Then what?”

That’s the question. What it would indicate is that what God did back there so many years ago wasn’t enough—something was incomplete.

“Then the Gospel – – -“

Right. The Gospel wouldn’t be the Gospel. Like those sacrifices that had to be offered again and again, Christ’s work would not have been complete.

“And, if it weren’t once-for-all we couldn’t even be sure we were saved?”

Can’t be sure— this is all speculation, of course—but it would seem so.

I guess I don’t want Christmas to come again, after all—at least the original one!

Me either.

 

 

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

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