Christmas is Over; What was the Point
Jesus is the reason for the season, but what is the reason for Jesus?
The law is only a shadown of the good thingso that are coming—not the realities themselves.p For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfectq those who draw near to worship.r 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.s 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.t 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goatsu to take away sins.v
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world,w he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;x
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scrolly—
I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”a z
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”a—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.”b He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holyc through the sacrifice of the bodyd of Jesus Christ once for all.e
Introduction
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,s so the Son of Man must be lifted up,f t 15 that everyone who believesu may have eternal life in him.”g v
16 For God so lovedw the world that he gavex his one and only Son,y that whoever believesz in him shall not perish but have eternal life.a 17 For God did not send his Son into the worldb to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.c 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned,d but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.e 19 This is the verdict: Lightf has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.g
You Can’t Have Christmas without a Tree
The Point of the Tree Lies in the Gift
The Gift on the Tree is Inevitably Followed by Something Happy and New
The law is only a shadown of the good thingso that are coming—not the realities themselves.p For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfectq those who draw near to worship.r 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.s 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.t 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goatsu to take away sins.v
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world,w he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;x
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scrolly—
I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”a z
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”a—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.”b He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holyc through the sacrifice of the bodyd of Jesus Christ once for all.e
The law is only a shadown of the good thingso that are coming—not the realities themselves.p For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfectq those who draw near to worship.r 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.s 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.t 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goatsu to take away sins.v
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world,w he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;x
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scrolly—
I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”a z
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”a—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.”b He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holyc through the sacrifice of the bodyd of Jesus Christ once for all.e