When it comes to my Christmas cards, I like to try and find a very different Christmas Bible verse than all the other cards I receive. While I love all the traditional Christmas verses–the Bible verses about Christmas from the gospel accounts of the story and the prophecies from Isaiah–this year I’m looking for something that really hits home for me personally. So this Christmas, I’m going with Galatians 4:4-5.
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5, NIV)
To me, that really sums up the message of Christmas.
Short Christmas Bible Verses
If you’re looking for short Christmas Bible verses, this one is the perfect size–like a sound byte for a Christmas card or even a Christmas postcard. Yet this one sentence fills people in on several important details about why I’m celebrating Christmas and what it means to my family and me.
First, Christ came at the right time. Paul, who wrote the book of Galatians, explains that Christ came only when God said the time had fully come. He wasn’t early. (Honestly, have you ever known the Lord to be early? About anything?) And He wasn’t late. (And for the record, I’ve never known Him to be late, either.) In God’s perfect plan, He sent Jesus when it was time.
The next two phrases sum up the nature of Christ, who was both God and man. God sent Him, and He was born of a woman. Christ is the one and only perfect, sinless God-man. He was born of a woman, yet He was God. I can’t fathom it. I can’t explain it. But I trust Him, and I trust in the singularity of His dual nature.
The Best Christmas Bible Verses
I think the best Christmas Bible verses are the ones that can somehow expose the mystery of the season, giving people a glimpse of who Jesus is and exactly what He did. It is because of who He is that He was able to do what none other could. He was born under the law. (In other words, He was born with as much of a propensity for sinning as you and I.) Yet He was born to be our Redeemer. He conquered sin by living a sinless life. He was the only one who could restore the relationship between humans and God–the relationship that had been fractured, severed, and just completely broken by our sin.
And lastly, it is because of His coming at the right time, His living a sinless life, and His dying on a cross that my life is redeemed, and I am able to receive the full rights of a son. Don’t let the gender specifications bother you here. Believe me, you don’t want the full rights of a daughter–not in this context! When the apostle Paul wrote this, women had no rights. Being a daughter, unfortunately, gave you no standing, and certainly no inheritance. Women were entirely dependent on men in that day and culture. So when Paul tells the believers in Galatia that they have the full rights of sons, that is huge. They knew exactly what he was talking about. They knew he was talking about having a birthright and an inheritance. In that phrase, they understood their sonship in Christ Jesus. They had all the rights and privileges that go along with the family name. At Christmas and all year long, that’s what I’m celebrating.
Article by Faithful Provisions contributor Rebecca Ingram Powell.
Are you making your own cards this year? Are you including a verse? Please share the one you’ve chosen.
::Need message ideas for your Christmas Cards? Check out these Bible verses for cards HERE and some of my best Christmas messages for Cards HERE.
