We must change the way we think. We must change the way we have been living. Many Christians believe that simply accepting the fact that Jesus is the Savior who came to redeem sins is enough to guarantee entrance into heaven. Perhaps next year we may organize Christmas better—with improved music, drama, and presentations. There is no doubt about the church’s ability to produce great programs. Yet our spirit must be different from that of the majority. People may think we are strange—let them. Because we are not celebrating with joy alone—we are weeping. We weep first because we are not yet perfect—our lives are still in disorder. Jesus came to transform us, but our character remains corrupt. We weep second because there are still so many souls unsaved. That is what truly matters.
We must not assume that we are already believers. Faith is not merely a mental activity; faith is not simply agreeing with a fact or nodding with our minds. Faith is acting upon what we acknowledge as truth. If we believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior, then first, we must attend to our own salvation—our disordered lives must be continually transformed. He paid a high price for our salvation, but that does not automatically grant us heaven. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Scripture states plainly that those who do not do the will of the Father will be rejected. Second, we must attend to Him as our Master. When we say, “Lord Jesus, I believe in You,” the Lord may reply, “Do you truly believe in Me? Then follow in My steps.”
The long journey of His struggle toward perfection—that is the path we must walk. Many people stop at Bethlehem—and even there, they stop at the wrong point. They celebrate the birth of Jesus with excitement and emotion, but never continue the journey with Him. How tragic it is that so many Christians think they already have faith, think they already believe, think they are already saved—yet their faith is only a fantasy, an illusion.
Suppose we believe that Jesus came two thousand years ago and that He promised to be with us. In that case, we must experience Him daily, through the ongoing process of becoming more like Him—bearing testimony, becoming corpus delicti, living evidence of His truth, and truly fulfilling the unfinished mission, for this salvation must reach the ends of the earth.
As we reflect on this truth, we will begin to experience transformation. But that change cannot happen instantly—it requires a long process. It is not enough to know the truth intellectually. Even when we hear a sermon and understand it immediately, we still must walk through a long journey of genuine devotion, day by day, step by step.
This is the true journey of following the Lord. Imagine if our enthusiasm lasted only during Christmas; we would stop there. But if we understand the long struggle of Jesus—from His birth to the cross—and follow in His footsteps, then we can begin to truly understand what it means to live as children of God, this cannot be fully explained in words, but each of us can experience it personally: the awareness of being a child of God, and the burden that comes with it—the same burden that Jesus Himself carried.
Jesus must become the subject of Christmas—not the object. That means He must be the Master, the One for whom we live. He is the reason for our existence. Here we must submit to the covenant we have with Him: that He has bought us at a fully paid price. To reject this truth is to reject redemption itself. For Jesus did not come merely to stop in Bethlehem—He went all the way to the cross to purchase us. He redeemed us not by His birth, but by His death. He is the King who controls and reigns over our lives. If we truly submit to Him as King, then we must walk in His way. We can no longer walk by our own path.