It’s often said that we need to put Christ back in Christmas. And that’s said as a way to lament the fact this Christian celebration has largely been lost to the world. This is probably true, but the question is: What should we do about it?
I think, in part, what we can do is to think honestly and carefully through the theology of Christmas. What does it mean that we celebrate the birth of Jesus? What is so significant about his birth? How does Christmas help us understand who this Jesus is?
Over the next several episodes of “A Moment on the Scriptures”, I’d like to use a section of the ancient Athanasian Creed that focuses on the birth of Jesus—the incarnation—and see how that creed can help us understand what we’re celebrating on December 25.
Let’s begin with the first statement from that section of the creed.
But it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.
Admittedly, that’s a bold claim from the writers of this creed. What they have said is that in order for someone to be saved—walk in eternal life now and be welcomed into the kingdom when Jesus returns—they must believe rightly about the incarnation.
Why would they make such a statement about something like this with Jesus? This isn’t about his work on the cross. This isn’t about his resurrection from the dead. This isn’t about his own requirement that people believe and trust in him. This is about his incarnation.
I think it’s because if we believe wrongly about the incarnation, then the Jesus we are believing in is not the one shown to us through the Scriptures. It is a different Jesus. The same thing can be said for any number of things about him in general. If we started to believe that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, then the Jesus we’re believing in is not the one found in the New Testament, because that Jesus died on the cross. If we started to believe that Jesus didn’t really raise bodily from the dead, then the Jesus we’re believing in is not the one found in the New Testament, because that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. And, if we started to believe that didn’t really put on flesh through his birth, then the Jesus we’re believing in is not the one found in the New Testament, because that Jesus did put on flesh. Therefore, we would be believing in a Jesus of our own imagination, who is no real Jesus at all.
That’s why I think it is appropriate for the writers to begin where they have with this section of the creed. They are putting all their cards on the table so to speak as it relates to the incarnation.
What they are saying is, getting our thinking right about the incarnation is not about checking a box for good theology; instead, it’s about believing and trusting in the Jesus found in the New Testament—the only real Jesus who exists, the only real Jesus from whom comes life eternal.