Only Three Words By R. Scott Rodin

The Words That Change Everything

Many words and phrases carry Christmas messages. Whether sacred or secular, they conjure memories from the whimsical to the holy. The Christmas season is filled with them.

• Joy to the World
• Santa Claus is Coming to Town
• Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. Silent Night
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• White Christmas
• Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
• Hark, the Harold Angels Sing

These Christmas themes are nostalgic and heartwarming, a welcome relief from the relentless words and images depicting the increasing madness of the world we celebrate this Christmas.

One Phrase

Amidst the breadth of Christmas words, I want to suggest there is one phrase that transcends all others. Not only this Christmas season but from the dawn until Christ’s return. It marked the single most important event in human history. It is a simple phrase with cosmic consequences. Isaiah prophesied it first. An angel with Mary confirmed it, and its promise consoled Joseph.

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, God with us.”

Isaiah 7:14

Three words. Those three powerful words. On the hinges the fate of the world. If we believe them, if we have the radical faith to believe that Christmas marks the unthinkable, audacious idea that the God of the universe, the creator and sustainer of all things, actually came to earth and bore our flesh, our brokenness, our fear, our pride, our shallowness, our fickleness, our doubts, our shame, all of it, if we believe it, if we can even begin to comprehend it, if we will let it seep deep into our spirit, then those three words will change us forever.

The One

Unimaginable. Incomprehensible. What no god in the pantheon of lesser gods or the idols worshiped worldwide has ever even pondered. What god who dares to call himself god, who seeks to intimidate people with his power, who demands our worship would ever stoop to such a level? No god. No god known to man across the ages, in any religion, belief system, or sacred structure unearthed, has ever done such a thing. And because of that, they are genuinely no god.

Only the Almighty God we know through Jesus Christ has the capacity within himself to remain fully God and yet do this astonishing thing. Only a God who is unrestrained, omnipotent, totally and fully sovereign, and almighty could, within his capability, without changing anything about who he is, desire and design to allow himself to be born of a virgin in a stable. And that moment changed the very nature of what it means to be alive.

Are You Ready?

We are about to celebrate that moment. We are about to have the greatest party the world has ever known. The birth of the king of Kings and Lord of lords. The birth of Immanuel, the celebration of God with us. Are we ready?

The reality of those three words will transform us from the inside out. Have we let them? The enemy will not relent at Christmas but will work to heap on us the same fear, anxiety, or discouragement we’ve struggled with all year.  Anger, bitterness, sin, and shame still clutch us as we try to find meaning in this sacred season. Will we let these three words overwhelm them all? What could we possibly fear if we believe God is with us? What anxiety can vex us? What discouragement can burden our spirit? What anger can remain in our hearts, or bitterness rot our souls? What past sin can haunt us, or shame overshadow us?

Romans 8:35-39 tells us that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing. No power on earth or in hell can render impotent the implications of God with us.

Linger at the Manger

I pray that you linger at the manger these last few quiet days. As Brennan Manning reminds us, we are all shipwrecked at the stable, holding on to dear life as we come to the manger. And what we find there, shining bright, yet humble and quiet in the context of a world gone mad, is the little child that encompasses the three words that change everything for all time—God with us.

Let it change you this Christmas. And through you, let it change all those around you. After all, what other message of Christmas would cause us to go to a mountaintop and shout it at the top of our lungs? What other carol, stanza, or movie line would wash over us with such overwhelming joy that we would run out and tell the world what we’ve been told? What other news is so good, transforming, and overwhelming that we want everyone we know and love to hear?

God With Us

Only these words. Only this message. Only this moment that turns the world upside down. Embrace it for yourself this Christmas, and do not shrink back from the life-transforming power of its message. The words are simple. Yet their reality will topple kingdoms, undo strongholds, overcome darkness, and defeat death. It’s all there, everything our heart and soul longs for. The deepest desires of our very being. The purpose for which we were created, the reason we live, and the basis for our hope. All of our past, present, and future, everything we have been, will be or could be. All of it is wrapped up, all of it is summed up, and all of it is focused on this one night in this one stable in this one baby, expressed in these three words: God with us.

Merry Christmas!

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R. Scott Rodin is the Senior Consultant/Chief Strategy Officer for The Focus Group. Over the past thirty-eight years, Scott Rodin has helped hundreds of organizations improve their effectiveness in leadership, fund development, strategic planning, and board development. His books and articles have been translated into over twenty languages, and he has taught and consulted with ministries across five continents. He also serves as a Senior Fellow of the Association of Biblical Higher Education and as board chair for ChinaSource.