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Santa Christ
Do
You Believe in a Santa Christ?
FROM NATHAN W. BINGHAM
In Sinclair Ferguson’s book, In Christ Alone, he shares the sad
reality that many Christians have a Christology that is more informed by
Santa Claus than Scripture.
For them, the message of the
incarnation has been so twisted or diluted that they have in fact created for
themselves a savior who is nothing more than a Santa Christ.
As you prayerfully read Sinclair Ferguson’s words, ask yourself
the following question this Christmas season: “Do I believe in a
Santa Christ?”
1. A Pelagian Jesus is a
Santa Christ
Santa Christ is sometimes a Pelagian Jesus. Like Santa, he simply
asks us whether we have been good.
More exactly, since the
assumption is that we are all naturally good, Santa Christ asks us whether we
have been “good enough.”
So just as Christmas
dinner is simply the better dinner we really deserve, Jesus becomes a kind of
added bonus who makes a good life even better.
He is not seen as the
Savior of helpless sinners.
2. A Semi-Pelagian
Jesus is a Santa Christ
Or Santa Christ may be a Semi-Pelagian Jesus — a slightly more
sophisticated Jesus who, Santa-like, gives gifts to those who have already done
the best they could!
Thus, Jesus’ hand, like
Santa’s sack, opens only when we can give an upper-percentile answer to the
none-too-weighty probe, “Have you done your best this year?”
The only difference from
medieval theology here is that we do not use its Latin phraseology: facere
quod in se est (to do what one is capable of doing on one’s
own, or, in common parlance, “Heaven helps those who help themselves”).
3. A Mystical
Jesus is a Santa Christ
Then again, Santa Christ may be a mystical Jesus, who, like Santa
Claus, is important because of the good experiences we have when we think about
him, irrespective of his historical reality.
It doesn’t really matter
whether the story is true or not; the important thing is the spirit of Santa
Christ.
For that matter, while
it would spoil things to tell the children this, everyone can make up his or
her own Santa Christ. As long as we have the right spirit of Santa Christ, all
is well.
But Jesus is not to be identified with Santa Claus; worldly
thinking — however much it employs Jesus-language — is not to be confused with
biblical truth.
Who is
the Biblical Christ of Christmas?
The Scriptures systematically strip away the veneer that covers
the real truth of the Christmas story.
Jesus did not come to add to
our comforts. He did not come to help those who were already helping themselves
or to fill life with more pleasant experiences.
He came on a deliverance
mission, to save sinners, and to do so He had to destroy the works of the Devil
(Matthew 1:21; 1 John 3:8b).
· Those
whose lives were bound up with the events of the first Christmas did not find
His coming an easy and pleasurable experience.
· Mary
and Joseph’s lives were turned upside down.
· The
shepherds’ night was frighteningly interrupted, and their futures potentially
radically changed.
· The
magi faced all kinds of inconvenience and family separation.
· Our
Lord Himself, conceived before wedlock, born probably in a cave, would spend
His early days as a refugee from the bloodthirsty and vindictive Herod (Matthew 2:13-21).
There is, therefore, an element in the Gospel narratives that
stresses that the coming of Jesus is a disturbing event of the deepest
proportions.
It had to be thus, for He did
not come merely to add something extra to life, but to deal with our spiritual
insolvency and the debt of our sin.
He was
not conceived in the womb of Mary for those who have done their best, but for
those who know that their best is “like
filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) — far
from good enough — and that in their flesh there dwells no good thing (Romans 7:18).
He was not sent to be the
source of good experiences, but to suffer the pangs of hell in order to be
our Savior.
Adapted from In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson.
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