God is Love - Christmas Eve 2025

God is Love

The Nativity of the Lord

Christmas Eve – 12/24/2025

Luke 2:1-8

Rev. Dr. Christopher W. Brademeyer

That portion from God’s holy Word for consideration this evening is our lesson from Luke chapter two with special emphasis on verses six and seven which read as follows:

     “And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”[1]

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“God is love.”[2] Those words from St. John are among the most familiar in all of Scripture. They are often quoted, printed on banners, stitched into sentimental ideas about Christmas. Yet love is not something that floats in abstraction. It is something concrete, historical, and costly. “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world.”[3] Love is no mere idea, no mere feeling, no vague goodwill toward humanity. Love is done; it is acted out. God’s love is shown when His Son, Jesus Christ, takes on human flesh, that is becomes a man to save sinners in need of redemption. This is what Christmas proclaims to the whole world. This is the cause of our joy and our celebration. And, indeed, there is no greater joy than this simple fact: God Himself became a man to become a member of our race, to save us, and to destroy the power of death and hell for all believers.

Why Does God Become Man?

                Our Christmas celebration is much more than simple recollection. It is to confess a history that encompasses every person who has ever, or will ever, exist. It is to acknowledge a great problem with our human race. It is to find hope in the most unlikely of places. The joy of Christmas is only properly understood when this is all taken into account.

                That is to say, to understand the just how important it is that Jesus Christ became a man, we must first confess the truth of the deficiency of our father Adam, the first person that God made. That is to say, to know the joy that comes with forgiveness, life, and salvation, we must first diagnose and acknowledge the problem. Adam was made perfect, that is, exactly as God intended him. Eve, who was produced from the rib of Adam, was likewise perfect. But this was short lived. Eve was tempted into doubting God, distrusting His command, and ate from a tree that promised great reward but instead brought death and despair. Adam, likewise, ignoring the command of God, did not attempt to stop his wife, and instead joined her in the transgression. This act hardly seems notable to us. After all, we are so used to people transgressing the boundary between good and evil, moral and immoral that something like taking fruit that was not properly theirs seems trivial. Indeed, if we see such an act today, we would likely write it off as youthful foolishness or too small to be upset about. Being accustomed to sin makes us numb to it. And this numbness becomes a cause for us to excuse and downplay sins, particularly those that seem small to us or that happen commonly.

                This was no mere slight or “oops,” no, it was the first crack into this perfect creation. And that crack allowed sins of every sort, despair, suffering, and death to pour through. Not only this, but it has widened into a great gulf such that only the goodness of God restrains these great terrors from totally enveloping us. That is to say, this sin of Adam’s has been handed to each of us who are descended from him, that is, all human beings. Each of us has added to this sin with our own. We excuse and downplay what we do wrong. We live in fear of both hardship and human opinion. We suffer from broken and damaged relationships amongst ourselves due to wrongs done and good things left undone. And all of this gives us guilt that cannot simply be managed away by personal improvement or trauma dumping.

                But God is love, and in His great mercy he gave a promise to Eve. One of her line, a woman, would bear a Son who would crush the head of the serpent, Satan. Though Satan would bite His heel, the death blow would still come.

                This promise did not stop there either. In every generation, God raised up prophets and priests, teachers of the people, to reiterate these promises and remind of God’s faithfulness. Abraham was called out of Ur of Chaldea. Isaac was preserved from death so that another would die in his place. Jacob gave birth to the nation of Israel. His twelve sons, and their descendants, were given the good and holy Law by Moses. These held to these until that fateful day that Gabriel the archangel visited a young virgin maid, Mary, to give to her the wondrous news that she would bear a Savior, indeed, God Himself would be born from her.

                For many generations, the human race had fractured and splintered, met sin with greater sin, violence with greater violence, suffering with despair. And into this bleak landscape filled with pitfalls of self-righteousness, cruelty, and indifference, a little boy was born into this world.

Christ the Savior

                The love of God is not inactive. It is not some vague feeling of goodwill to human beings. It is not sentimentality or simple familiarity. No, His love is powerful, active, and self-giving. It is not content to see those beloved people who are the objects and recipients of His love suffer under sin and death. And since love does not suffer the suffering of those who are beloved, God sent His Son into this world to unmake the rule of the Devil, to break the shackles of sin, and to roll back the tide of death.

                The debt of sin was satisfied, not with treasures on this earth or through some moral self-improvement on the part of sinners, but through the bloody death and innocent suffering of Jesus Christ our Lord.

                This is the great movement of history. From the beginning, God has resolved to join Himself with the human race and does so when the Son becomes incarnate in the womb of Mary. More than this, He resolved to redeem us, save us, and give us everlasting life as a free gift paid for entirely by God Himself. Broadly, everything before Christ’s birth drives to this central reality. Everything since is but commentary on this central, pivotal thing in time.

                Yes, history hinges on this great mystery, this thing that goes up past the limits of human knowing. The Almighty God, Lord and Creator of all things, is this little Boy wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. The great Architect who hung the stars and painted the skies is rocked to sleep in His mother’s arms. This Child who needs to learn to eat and speak and walk is the very Fountain of Wisdom Himself. And this is no mere show of strength or some sort of divine show of power. No, this great mystery is for you and your salvation.

Conclusion

                Love is what caused our Lord’s incarnation. Love is what led Him to being born of Mary. Love is what leads Him to the cross for your salvation. Love is why our Lord Jesus even now gives Himself to you for your forgiveness and salvation.

                Tonight, as you begin your Christmas celebration, do not lose sight of this most central of truths, simple though it may seem: Christ is born a Baby in Bethlehem, He becomes a man to suffer so that you can have the everlasting blessings that come in forgiveness. He delivers Himself to you through His Word, your baptism into Christ, and in His holy Supper so that this salvation would be made personally yours. Merry Christmas.

In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] Luke 2:6-7 King James Version. All other quotations are from the English Standard Version.

[2] John 4:8

[3] John 4:9