CHRISTMAS 2025 — HE IS NOT STANDING THERE WITH A CLIPBOARD
God is not hovering over your life with a checklist—pen poised, brow furrowed, waiting for you to fail. He is not measuring your steps to see where you stumble so He can sigh in disappointment.
Christmas settles that question forever.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel”—which is, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Not God against us. Not God tolerating us. God with us.
He is in our corner.
This has always been the way of God.
Abraham did not earn righteousness by flawless obedience; he believed the promise—“And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
Moses did not stand before Pharaoh in personal adequacy, but with God’s presence—“Certainly I will be with you” (Exodus 3:12).
David was not chosen because of perfection, but because God looked past appearances and set His heart upon him (1 Samuel 16:7).
John the Baptist did not make himself great; he simply pointed away from himself—“He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
In essence, that is all they did. They trusted. They received. They stood where God placed them and believed that He was faithful.
Do you want to be in on the greatest work in the world? Then do not begin by striving; begin by receiving. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). The kingdom of God does not advance by clenched fists, but by open hands.
Do you want to be thought of as Abraham was—God’s friend? You can be. Do you want to stand before God as David did—beloved, forgiven, restored? You can be. Do you want to live with the clarity of Moses, the courage of John, the nearness they all knew? You can—because none of it was earned. It was given.
And do you want to be thought of as Jesus is—righteous before God?
Here is the Gospel’s scandalous beauty: you can be. Not by imitation, but by imputation. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). His righteousness is not a reward; it is a gift. Not loaned, not temporary, not fragile—given.
God is not standing there with a clipboard. He is standing with outstretched arms. He is not waiting to catch you doing something wrong; He has already caught you in Christ. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). Christmas answers that question with flesh and blood.
God with us.
God for us.
God in our corner.
Love Him. Receive Him. Step into what He has already done. That is how Abraham walked, how David stood, how Moses endured, how John rejoiced—and how you may live as well.
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Lord Jesus, thank You that You are not distant or disappointed, but near and gracious. Teach us to stop striving and start receiving; to trust Your righteousness instead of our own. Let us live as those who know You are with us, and for us, always. Amen.
BDD
