Look around and you will see the lights, the gifts, the countdown, and the nativity scenes displayed.  Each morning, as I walk from where I sleep to the kitchen, I pass a Christmas calendar, one made of tiny pockets.  This cloth calendar was gifted to me years ago by my aunt Carol, my mother’s sister.  Religiously, each November, the calendar is hung with care on the pantry door, and then each December morning, the tiny cloth mouse is moved forward, one day at a time, marking off the days until Christmas morning.  It is a fun activity, one that our daughter once commanded but now, one that has been designated to me.  Today, the tiny mouse was moved to number twenty-two, meaning that we are only three days away from Christmas.

It’s a fact—Christmas is coming!

With Christmas coming, the idea of coveting may not be foremost in our minds; however, to help us understand the Law of God and the Grace of God, the Spirit gave the apostle Paul this analogy, one that I caution us to read slowly.  Methodically interpret each phrase (meaning this:  Read from semi-colon to semi-colon).

We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because our old sin-nature is married to our unrighteous behavior.  To help explain, allow me to ask a strange question:  Who influences our buying decisions or our choices?  Quite possibly, we might claim:  “We do; it is our decision to purchase whatever we decide to buy, and it is our decision to choose whatever we want.”  However, is it really—our decision?

• Do we really—have power over our own selfish nature?
• Do we really—have control over what we want, over what we wish to do or not to do?
• Do we really—have self-control over the words we speak or over the stoppage of the words we should speak or choose not to speak?

If we are human, then we are born with two natures:  A nature to sin & A nature to be convicted by our sin.

It has been said:  We are all slaves to something, so be sure to choose wisely.

To the person who remains lost to God, then his slavery resides in the sin he commits, but to the person who had been found through Christ, then he has become a bondservant to God.

The death of Christ became our death to the old self, so that by His life, He became our life.  In Paul’s comparison of our old life before Christ and our new life in Jesus, the Law, the Commandments, identifies our sin but never releases us from our sin.  Yet Christ Jesus Died Unto Sin!  Through His shed blood on the cross and through His death, humanity has been set free.

JESUS PAID THE PENALTY OF THE LAW.

Thus, I repeat:  Christmas is coming!

• Do our eyes focus on the lights and the beauty of the season—OR—Do our eyes see the Light of Life and the beauty of the reason for the season?
• Do our schedules focus on the parties and events we get to attend—OR—Do our eyes focus on the Star of David, the One who came as a babe in a manger, the One who came to set us free?
• Are the final days leading to Christmas filled with shopping and with the purchasing of gifts—OR—Are the last three days leading to the twenty-fifth of December filled with the Gift of God, with the Person of the Holy Trinity?

Consider what the Bible speaks about the choices we make, the words we speak, and the One we are to serve.  Our behavior has been sinful since our conception, so it is incapable of satisfying the requirement established by the Law of God, but Christ died for our sin.