Advent Week 4: The Reality of Christ

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

John 3:5–8.

This Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Advent. If you noticed, we have not been following the traditional themes of advent in the sermon series. Instead, we’ve been asking Who is Jesus? What does his coming mean to me and to you? Our last theme is the reality of Jesus. I mentioned recently that we often live as though there is no God. And in a similar way we can imagine that Jesus is just an imaginary friend. Whether we’re thinking of Totoro or some other magical cartoon from our childhood, we treat Jesus the same way. 

The problem lies in that faith in Christ implies his reality. Jesus isn’t just an imaginary friend who makes me happy, he is a real person whose existence we all rely on. We are so far removed from the birth and life of Christ that we imagine it didn’t happen. This is why when people visit the Holy Land, it can be a super powerful experience. The things we imagined are now placed in physical space and time. We can visit Capernaum and the place the synagogue he preached once stood. We can experience the desert and the sea of Galilee. The place reminds us of the reality of Jesus. 

But we’ve also maybe heard in the grapevine things that make us doubt the text of the New Testament that tells us about Jesus. This too is a distraction. We are quite certain that these texts are not corrupted. There is strong evidence that they are certain testimonies. The authors of the gospel wouldn’t have named so many people if he didn’t want you to go talk to the eyewitnesses who had seen everything he’s telling us. When we hear about Cleopas and Simon of Cyrene, the gospel writers were saying to their audience, ‘Go talk to Cleopas and SImon if you want to know more or if you want to verify the account.’ 

But the reality of Jesus isn’t just a historical or textual exercise. It’s also  a faith exercise. We must believe in the Christ of the scriptures in order to have his benefits. And we can’t be delivered from death if Christ didn’t really rise from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15 is clear that the reality of Jesus is foundational to our faith. And this faith is like we mentioned a few weeks ago, a knowledge, conviction, and deep-rooted assurance that I have been made right with God, that I have been forgiven, and I am being saved and will be saved in the end to enter our rest. Let’s never forget the glory of Jesus and his reality, and may this Christmas season deepen our faith in the risen Christ.