Santa truely satisfies

a repost from my old blog: Law and Grace in an Unlikely Place

I heard a great soundbite by Nick Lannon the other day about the way we celebrate special holidays.  He said that at  Halloween everyone dresses up as evil beings and gets given candy! While at Christmas Santa is keeping a list and checking it twice. If you’ve been a naughty boy or girl Santa knows about it and no presents for you! Just a lump of coal. In this way Halloween is now more of a Christian festival than Christmas he said. This is because the God of the Bible is all about freely giving “candy” (forgiveness of sins) to evil people who don’t deserve it. We don’t get forgiveness from God because we have met some kind of standard (like Santa’s list) but because He wants to give it to us. And He has through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection for us.

All this talk of Christmas and Santa got me thinking about Christmases when I was a kid. I wasn’t a very good child and if Santa had kept his word then I would have received a lump of coal every Christmas. But you know what? I never got one. I always received presents! 

So I must respectfully disagree with you Nick; Santa is a good picture of Christianity. All the naughty children out there are threatened with the law but it cannot change their behaviour. All it can do is show them how far they fall short of Santa’s standard. But on Christmas Eve, all their sins are forgiven and because of "Santa’s" great mercy they receive what they don’t deserve – presents!

“Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham.

Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.” Galatians 3:19-22