Jesus Brings Life

By Will Heydel

A few months ago, I secluded myself in the mountains of Montana with fourteen other men for a spiritual retreat. At the Missoula airport, I was standing in line waiting to go through security. In front of me, there was a younger mom holding one of the cutest toddlers I have ever seen. The toddler locked eyes with me, and I said, “Hi!” with a big smile. Little did I know, her reaction would impact me so much—and I had just spent six days gazing at the scenic landscapes of the Montana mountains, trees, rivers, and hills. I was and am grateful for that time. But simply put, that smile was one of the best things I had seen that day.

As adorable as that toddler was and as stunning as Montana is, I walked away feeling alive, renewed, and with a deeper admiration for Jesus because of who He is and what He has done. What has Jesus done? He didn’t come just to be admired as a baby; He came to be the Savior who would suffer, die, and rise again to rescue us from sin and offer us eternal life. The prophet Isaiah foresaw this happening long before it occurred.

Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains….he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities…and we are healed by his wounds.
—Isaiah 53:4–5

The birth of Christ was just the beginning. It is why we celebrate Christmas, but there is more. God’s plan was gloriously fulfilled. Through the death of Christ, abundant and eternal life becomes available to all who believe. This is why He is most worthy of our admiration. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).

When we say that “Jesus brings life!” we are not saying that He merely patched up our brokenness. We are saying that He has brought us into a new covenant relationship with the God of the universe. This was and is a relational rescue! The writer of Hebrews puts it plainly:

Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
—Hebrews 9:15

As I beheld the awe and wonder of Trapper’s Peak in Montana and the image of God in the face of a happy toddler, I found myself admiring Jesus for who He is, what He has done for me, and for the love of God demonstrated in it all. The light of the manger guides us to the shadow of the cross and beyond it, to the brilliance of the empty tomb. This is the fullness of Christmas: not just that Jesus came but that He came to save and to bring us true fullness of life.