Christmas can be every day by receiving the gifts God gives us in Jesus.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)”

There’s nothing wrong with all the excitement that comes from opening Christmas presents but it is amazing how quickly the excitement wears off. (Maybe that’s why they invented Boxing Day sales – so we can go shopping again, buy a whole lot more stuff and do it all over again.)

I remember Dad handing out presents, drawing it out to build anticipation. ‘And this one’s for…[long irritating pause]… Mum!’ Being the competitive family we were, my sister and I would compare who got the mostest and bestest presents. We always got the exact same amount of presents, which is rather odd now that I think about it! Anyway, it wasn’t long before the broken presents are left lying around discarded by bored kiddies who have gone off to find the next exciting thing.

Biblical Christianity isn’t like that. When someone truly comes to Jesus Christ its like coming to a Christmas tree littered with presents. But these presents are not just opened and enjoyed and then discarded for the next thing, they are constantly enjoyed forever. These are gifts that, the more we use them, the better they become.

Romans 5 is a list of benefits that come from being justified by faith. Justification by faith means to have been declared righteous by God through His gift of righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ. God endorses us as perfectly, delightfully acceptable to Him. Our sinful ‘unacceptability’ was transferred to Jesus who died in our place bearing the punishment we deserve. By having faith in Him we are declared righteous. But that’s just the first present.

As a result we get ‘peace with God’. We get all the covenant blessings that the Hebrew word ‘Shalom’ is packed full of. We are now friends with God! But there’s still another present. We have access into grace! We can tap into grace whenever we need it. Which is always. This is why Paul says we stand in that grace. But wait, there’s still more!

We rejoice in hope. We are filled with the guaranteed certainty of what lies ahead: the glory of God. Yes, nothing less than the glory of God! Experience will prove that the longing for God is sweeter than the receiving of any other treasure.

Still another present: we even get to rejoice in suffering. Not that suffering itself makes us rejoice. But now, thanks to justification by faith, our suffering has purpose. When we faithfully endure suffering it produces character and that character takes us full circle back to even more hope. What a joy that is! Our suffering contributes to our joy!

And solid hope never disappoints because, by His Spirit, God pours out His love into our hearts.