Advent Day 24: Joy

FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT – TUESDAY December 24, 2024

READ Colossians 1:13–20
Paul describes Jesus as the firstborn over all creation. Jesus rescues us from the dominion of darkness. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

REFLECT
Paul gives us an amazing picture of who the baby Jesus is. In Jesus all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

What a depiction of Christ, when we stop to consider the fullness of his glory—his birth is the height of his glory! This was true when he was born—in a stable. God became man for our salvation.

When we see Jesus as the firstborn over all creation, his birth takes on a deeper and life-altering meaning because Christ has come into the world to reconcile us to the Father! In his birth we can celebrate that our salvation has come. What joy it is to meditate on the savior of the universe coming to earth as a baby to save us from our sins and restore us to the Father through his life and death on the cross!

PRAY
Pray that you would recognize Jesus—even as a baby born in a manger, he had all the fullness of God dwelling in him. Pray that the reality of Christ’s deity would change the way you think about his birth and that you would better understand what it means that he came into the world fully God and fully man. Thank him for your salvation from sin and death that he made possible by entering this world.