You Can't Earn this Gift
When God Turns the Lights On: Understanding Christmas as God's Free Gift
Christmas represents more than just a holiday celebration—it's the moment when God stepped into our darkness and turned on the lights. In a world filled with confusion, pain, and uncertainty, we often wonder where God is and whether He truly cares. The answer comes through understanding Christmas as God's great epiphany to humanity.
What Does It Mean That God "Appeared"?
The apostle Paul, writing to Titus, describes Christmas using powerful language: "When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us" (Titus 3:4-5). This word "appeared" comes from the Greek word "epiphany"—a sudden moment of clarity when something hidden becomes clear.
Think about those moments when you're struggling with a problem, and suddenly the light bulb goes off. Everything makes sense. That's an epiphany. Christmas is God's epiphany to the world—the moment when His true character became clear in the midst of our darkness.
Why Do We Struggle to See God's Goodness?
Many people wrestle with a fundamental question: If God is good, why is there so much darkness and suffering in the world? This confusion keeps people from crying out to the very One who can help them. We assume that because we live in darkness, God must be dark too.
It's like the story of a lifeguard who saved a drowning child, only to be sued by the parents who blamed him for not preventing the drowning in the first place. We often blame our rescuer instead of recognizing our need for rescue.
What Is God's True Character?
Archbishop Michael Ramsey put it perfectly: "God is Christlike, and in him is no unchristlikeness at all." If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Through Christ, we discover that God is not distant, cruel, or uncaring. Instead, He is:
Kind
Loving
Merciful
Near to us
Our Savior
This is the Christmas epiphany—Jesus is God, and God is Jesus. They have always been this way, but now, through Christ's appearance, we can see it clearly.
Is Salvation Something We Earn or Receive?
Here's where many people get confused. We live in a culture that values independence and self-reliance. We want to prove we can handle things ourselves. But salvation doesn't work that way.
Paul makes it crystal clear: God "saved us not because of righteous things that we had done, but because of his mercy" (Titus 3:5). We are not saved because we are good—we are saved because God is good.
Who We Really Are
Before we can understand God's grace, we need to understand our condition. Paul describes us as "foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures" (Titus 3:3). In other words, we don't deserve to be saved. The just thing would be for God to leave us in our darkness.
But that's not our God. Our God is kind, loving, and merciful.
How Do We Receive This Free Gift?
The passage describes salvation through "the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5-6). Notice two things happen:
Washing - Something is taken away (our sin and darkness)
Renewal - Something is built in us (new life through the Holy Spirit)
Here's the crucial point: You don't do either of these things. Many people think they need to clean themselves up before coming to God, but that's backwards. The Holy Spirit does the washing and the renewing. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together in your salvation.
What's the Difference Between Good Advice and Good News?
The Gospel isn't good advice telling you what to do—it's good news about what God has already done. As theologian John Stott said, "The Gospel is not good advice to men, but good news about Christ. It's not an invitation to us to do anything, but a declaration of what God has done in Christ for us."
What About Our Efforts and Good Works?
Grace and effort do belong together, but they must be in the right order. Dallas Willard explained it this way: "Grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earnings."
You can't earn salvation through your efforts, but once you've received the free gift of grace, you will naturally want to do good works. As Paul tells Titus, those who have trusted in God should "be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good" (Titus 3:8).
Effort won't save you, but saved people can't sit still either.
Why Does Our Response Matter?
We still live in a dark world. When Christ's light shines in you, what do you do with it? The world tells you to keep your faith private, but that's not what we're called to do.
Your faith is meant to be "profitable for everyone" (Titus 3:8). This means:
Praying for people
Serving others
Giving generously
Caring for the poor
Inviting others to see Jesus
Holding to Jesus' truth
Multiplying that truth for the world to see
Life Application
This Christmas, the challenge is simple but profound: Stop trying to earn what has already been freely given. Receive God's gift of grace—not because you deserve it, but because He is kind, loving, and merciful.
Once you've received this light, don't hide it. Let it shine brightly in your workplace, neighborhood, and relationships. Your faith isn't meant to be private—it's meant to bring light to a dark world.
Questions to Ask Yourself:
Am I still trying to earn God's love through my good works, or am I resting in His free gift of grace?
How can I let the light of Christ shine more brightly in my daily life this week?
Who in my life needs to hear the good news that God's kindness and love have appeared?
What would change in my life if I truly believed that salvation is a gift I receive, not a reward I earn?
The good news of Christmas is that in the middle of our darkness, God has turned on the lights. He has appeared as our Savior, offering us a free gift that we could never earn but can humbly receive. This Christmas, let that light shine through you to a world that desperately needs to see God's kindness and love.
