Celebrating Jesus Christ's Birth

This past week I gave a lesson in Gospel Doctrine about Jesus Christ. I asked what I believe to be two very important questions.

#1 Why do we celebrate Christmas?

The answer: To celebrate Christ's birth.

#2 Who is Jesus Christ that we should celebrate His birth?

That question received a couple of surprised looks ...perhaps "aghast" looks fits better. I think they couldn't believe that I would dare ask such a thing. But I asked because so many of us just run through Christmas at Mach 10 without stopping to comprehend--and I mean truly comprehend--why we are celebrating Christmas in the first place.

So who is Jesus Christ that we should celebrate His birth?

I have a four part answer for this question.

#1 Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Jesus Christ is the only person who has ever walked, or will ever walk, the earth that has a divine and immortal father and a fair and mortal mother. We are, of course, all spirit children of our Father in Heaven but Jesus is the only one that is the literal Son of God. We celebrate the birth of our brother who is literally divine.

#2 Jesus Christ has a perfect character.

Jesus Christ's character as related by prophets in both the Middle East (Bible) and the Americas (Book of Mormon) is beyond reproach. He is loving, kind, merciful, unchanging, all powerful, creator of all, all knowing, truth, and patience. The list, of course, goes on and on. If anyone had reason to boast of His abilities it was He but that brings me to one of the most fantastic traits of all: humility. He was the most humble of men and tolerated abuse, criticism, loathing, and unfair judgement though He walked perfectly in every way. We celebrate the birth of our brother because He was perfect.

#3 Jesus Christ saved us all.

Church going people often say that they have been "saved" through Jesus Christ. But what exactly does that mean? How did Christ save us? Well there are two ways that we have need of being saved. #1 Spiritual death. #2 Physical death.

Spiritual death comes whenever we sin. When we sin we are doing things against God's will, and thus, we cannot stay close to Him. So every time we sin we move farther away from where God is. Every time we create distance between God and ourselves through sin we are dying spiritually. Christ overcame this death through the Atonement. The Atonement is when Christ paid the price for our sins. This occurred during the time Christ spent in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary. He suffered great physical and emotional pain that is so far beyond our comprehension that it is hard to wrap our minds around just how painful that could have really been. This was all on our behalf. Christ knew that the price of our sins was simply too great for us to pay ourselves. He knew we needed someone to intervene and pay the price for us. So He did. Of course, there is a stipulation. He didn't just pay the price for us and we can go on our merry way. No...The Atonement only works and He only paid the price for our sins if we are willing to repent. (For more on repentance, there is another blog I wrote specifying the exact steps needed to truly repent of our sins).

Physical death comes when we die. It means that our spirit and our body separate. (In another blog, I discussed this in depth indicating that the spirit goes to the Spirit World and the body goes into the grave). Christ overcame physical death through the resurrection. He rose after the third day of His death with a new and immortal flesh and bone body and lead the way for many others to also gain an immortal soul (spirit and immortal body). If Christ had not resurrected our spirit and body would stay separated after this life forever. We would never know the joys of having a body again like being able to taste, touch, smell, etc... But Christ did overcome death through the resurrection and we will have the opportunity to do the same.

We celebrate the birth of our brother because He saved us from spiritual and physical death.

#4 Jesus Christ is our example.

Not only did Christ save us but He also showed us the way to get back to our Heavenly Father. He was our example. He was baptized by John the Baptist though He had no need of baptism. He always followed the will of our Heavenly Father even though He had his agency to choose another way. He came to this earth and received a body, exercised faith, and chose the right...always. He loved everyone...the sinners and righteous alike. He taught us what kind of men and women we should be. We should be even as He is. He showed us the way in all things. We celebrate the birth of our brother because He is our exemplar.

We celebrate Christmas because we are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. We celebrate Jesus Christ because He is the literal Son of God, He is flawless in character, He saved us from ourselves, and He showed us what we needed to do to get back to our Heavenly Father. The "good news" and "great tidings" that the angel proclaimed was that HOPE was born that day in Bethlehem. Hope for a better world, hope that we can change our ways, hope that we can become even as Christ is, hope that we can return to our Heavenly Father someday. Jesus Christ is our hope...our only hope. We celebrate the bright and wonderful and amazing day that He came into the world! That is why we celebrate Christmas!! Always remember...never forget.