Let me share a phrase that might reframe how you think about Christmas: “I’m here because you broke something.”
That was the slogan on a t-shirt worn by an IT department at a Bible college. The rest of the school found it offensive. But if you understand the biblical meaning of Christmas, you realize it’s the most theologically accurate Christmas message you could wear.
Christmas isn’t primarily about sentimentality. It’s not about family gatherings, gift exchanges, or heartwarming feelings. At its core, Christmas is God’s intervention in human history because humanity broke something catastrophic – and only He could fix it.
The Problem Christmas Addresses
To understand why Jesus was born according to the Bible, we need to go back further than Bethlehem. We need to go back to a golden calf at the base of Mount Sinai.
In Exodus 32-33, while Moses was on the mountain receiving God’s law, the people of Israel convinced Aaron to build them an idol. They worshiped a golden calf and declared, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
God’s response was devastating:
“I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” – Exodus 32:9-10 (ESV)
Moses interceded. God forgave. But then came these words:
“I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” – Exodus 33:3 (ESV)
Here’s the problem laid bare: God is holy and we are not. Were we to be in His presence without mediation, we would be consumed. Isaiah understood this when he saw the Lord in His glory and cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).
This is the human condition. Not that we’ve made a few mistakes. Not that we need some moral improvement. We are separated from a holy God by our sin, and no amount of effort on our part can bridge that gap.
Christmas addresses this problem.
The Lesser Solution: A Shadow of Things to Come
God’s first solution was the tabernacle.
“Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” – Exodus 25:8 (ESV)
The tabernacle was where God’s presence dwelt among His people without consuming them. Through the priesthood and the sacrificial system, sinful people could approach a holy God and survive. It was God’s gracious provision for a people who otherwise had no access to Him.
But there was a problem. The author of Hebrews makes this clear:
- The law made nothing perfect (Hebrews 7:19)
- The priests themselves had to make atonement for their own sins before atoning for the people’s (Hebrews 5:3)
- The priests died and had to be replaced (Hebrews 7:23)
- The whole system was “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5)
Here’s a helpful illustration: In a famous painting, there’s an image of a pipe with French text that reads, “This is not a pipe.” The point? Of course it’s not a pipe – it’s a picture of a pipe. A picture of a thing is not the thing itself.
The earthly tabernacle was not the true tabernacle. It was a picture pointing to something greater.
The Greater Solution: The Incarnation of Christ
This brings us to the birth of Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas.
John opens his Gospel with one of the most stunning statements in all of Scripture:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1 (ESV)
And then:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14 (ESV)
That word “dwelt” is the Greek word eskēnōsen – He “pitched His tent” among us. He tabernacled among us.
Do you see the connection? God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle so that He could dwell among His people. Now, in Jesus Christ, God Himself becomes the tabernacle. Emmanuel – God with us – takes on human flesh and dwells among the very people who could not survive His presence.
The incarnation of Christ is not just God visiting earth. It’s God becoming what the tabernacle only pictured. The pattern Moses was shown on the mountain wasn’t ultimately a building – it was a Person.
This is why John writes in Revelation 21:22 about the New Jerusalem: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”
No more shadows. No more copies. The reality has arrived.
Christmas: God’s “I’m Here Because You Broke Something”
This is the gospel-centered Christmas message the world needs to hear.
We like our Christmas sentimentalized. We like clean nativity scenes with halos and kneeling wise men. We like feeling warm and cozy as we sing carols by the fire.
But Christmas is not primarily about warm feelings. It’s about God’s radical intervention because humanity was hopelessly broken.
As Paul wrote:
“Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” – Philippians 2:6-8 (ESV)
The Christ child came to die. He was, as an old hymn puts it, “born to die upon Calvary.” That’s the biblical explanation of Christmas. Not a heartwarming story – a rescue mission.
The Believer’s Hope Chest
But there’s more to the Christmas message than looking backward.
Think about what a hope chest is. Traditionally, it was a box where young women would store items in anticipation of marriage – linens, dishes, keepsakes for a future home. It was filled with things representing dreams not yet realized.
Here’s a surprising truth: God wants to participate in your hope chest. He wants to put promises in there too.
Consider Abram. God came to him and said, “I am your shield; your reward shall be very great” (Genesis 15:1). And Abram’s response? Essentially, “But Lord, I don’t have a son. What good are your promises without an heir?”
Abram had dreams. Jacob had dreams about his sons’ futures. John the Baptist had such clarity about Jesus early on – “Behold, the Lamb of God!” – but later, from prison, sent disciples to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
Even the strongest believers have moments when the hope chest feels uncertain.
But here’s what Scripture says:
“So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.” – Hebrews 6:17-19 (ESV)
Hope in Christ isn’t wishful thinking. It’s an anchor – sure and steadfast – that reaches into the very presence of God.
The sermon shared a beautiful childhood memory: a young boy desperately wanting a BB gun for Christmas. He found a wrapped box under the tree, measured it, and concluded the gun couldn’t possibly fit. Christmas morning, he opened it – and there it was, in two parts. But inside that box was more than a BB gun. It was the love of parents who sacrificed for their child’s desire.
Your hope chest as a believer works the same way. You can’t fully open it yet. You can shake the package, measure the dimensions, wonder what’s inside. But the promises of God are sure because they rest on His unchangeable character, not your circumstances.
Christmas and salvation through Jesus means your hope chest is anchored in reality – the reality of a God who keeps His promises.
Joy to the World: The Biblical Meaning
Here’s something that might surprise you: “Joy to the World” isn’t actually a Christmas song.
Isaac Watts wrote it in 1719 as a paraphrase of Psalm 98, using what he called a “Christological lens.” The Psalm anticipates the Lord coming in righteousness to judge the earth. Watts looked at that promise through New Testament eyes and responded: Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
Look at how Psalm 98 opens:
“Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.” – Psalm 98:1-2 (ESV)
This language of God’s “arm” bringing salvation points directly to Christ. Isaiah 52:10 says, “The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” And Isaiah 53:1 asks, “To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
The arm of the Lord revealed is Jesus Christ.
As Far as the Curse Is Found
One line from “Joy to the World” gets left out of some hymnals: “He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.”
Some editors removed it because there’s no direct reference to a curse in Psalm 98. But through Gospel eyes, the reference to Genesis 3 is unmistakable.
After Adam and Eve sinned, God pronounced curses:
- Pain in childbirth
- Conflict in relationships
- Thorns and thistles in the ground
- Labor by the sweat of your brow
- Death – “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return”
The curse of sin reaches everywhere. It affects everything. No corner of creation is untouched.
But here’s the glorious news:
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’ – so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” – Galatians 3:13-14 (ESV)
As far as the curse is found, Christ’s blessings flow. Wherever there is curse—and it’s everywhere – there is Christ to undo it. He conquered death in His resurrection and will ultimately abolish it through ours.
No more let sins and sorrows grow. No more thorns infesting the ground. The King has come to make things right.
The Expected Response
So what do we do with this Bible Christmas message?
Three responses emerge:
Revere the Lord for what He has done. God made promises, and He kept them. The hope chest of the Old Testament has been opened. Christ has come.
Receive Him. “Let every heart prepare Him room.” Salvation through Christ requires personal reception – not just acknowledgment of historical facts, but trust in the Person those facts reveal.
Rejoice. Joy to the world isn’t just a song – it’s the proper response to the Gospel. The curse is being undone. Death will be abolished. The King is reigning and will reign forever.
As Isaiah prophesied:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.” – Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV)
This Christmas, don’t settle for sentimentality. Settle into the staggering reality of what God has done.
He came because you broke something. And He came to fix it – completely, permanently, gloriously.
Joy to the world. The Lord has come.
This post is based on a Christmas message from the Atlantic Gospel Chapel leadership team – Doug Schorle, Ned Brown, and Alex Kremer – from Atlantic Gospel Chapel, an independent evangelical church in Atlantic, Iowa committed to faithful Bible teaching and Gospel proclamation. For more Christmas Bible teaching and expository preaching, visit Atlantic Gospel Chapel.
