Making Room For Christ
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An angel of the Lord announced, in the language of Luke 2:10, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Angels always seem glad to banish the fear of men who are earnestly seeking the Lord as is evidenced at the end of our Saviour’s earthly ministry when at His resurrection, heavenly messengers declared to the women who came to His tomb, “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen.” (Matthew 28:5-6).
The angel’s message at the birth of Jesus should have been hailed far and wide by men everywhere as the best news that had ever come to a world lost in sin and darkness. How sad, therefore, to read that, at his birth “there was no room for them (Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Saviour, and Joseph) in the inn” (Luke 2:7). He came unto His own (creation) and His own (people) received Him not! This had been long foretold by the prophet Isaiah who has said, “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is desposed and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our grief, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.”
No room at the inn? There was also no room in the hearts of His own people.
While the majority were indifferent to His claims, there were those who did believe on Him, and receiving Him, they received the power (or right) to become the sons of God (John 1:12). They were known as His disciples and were to be found almost always in His company during the three and one half years of His public ministry. Surely there was plenty of room in their hearts and thoughts for the blessed Son of God!
Our Lord had been telling His disciples of that most important ministry that He had come into the world to perform—to die upon the cross and to arise from the dead (Matthew 17:22, 23). The Apostle Paul later made it clear that these two great facts formed the very foundation of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4). Their minds seemed to be occupied, however, with other thoughts. These were expressed in a question which they addressed to Jesus in the first verse of chapter 8, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?” They were so concerned about themselves and their own prominence that they failed to grasp the significance of the marvelous truth which the Lord had been expounding. No room for Him and His wonderful word in their thoughts! Another instance of neglect on their part is seen in the 13th chapter of John’s Gospel where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and wiped them with the towel of servitude with which He had girded Himself. They had overlooked this common courtesy toward Him when He came into the house. What remarkable humiliation upon the part of Him, who knew that He was “come from God, and that He went to God.”
At the cross of Calvary, less room was found for the Saviour than at any other time and place. Earth had no room for Him as He was there suspended above its cruel surface. Heaven, for the time being, had no room for Him so that He cried out in a great soul agony, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Why art Thou so far from helping Me and from the words of My roaring? On man’s part this all represents hideous sin. From the divine viewpoint it proves that “He bare our sins in His own body, on the tree” so that God, in His holiness and wrath against that sin, turned His back, even upon His own Son, who was being made a curse for us. “It hath pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” said Isaiah. “When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin (by accepting Him as Saviour) He shall see His seed and shall prolong His days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”
There was no room for the body of Jesus in the cemetery. No grave lot had been provided. He had to be buried in a “borrowed tomb!”
Thank God, there was not enough room to hold Him in the grave, when He who had laid down His life, took it up again—when He who died, came forth from the grave in glorious resurrection.
His apostles went forth preaching this triumph over sin, death and hell to multitudes everywhere. Many believed their word and proved the Gospel of Christ is “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (gentile) Romans 1:16. Other multitudes turned away in unbelief and refused to come to Christ.
What about the great throngs today? His birthday is celebrated everywhere. But is His presence recognized? Do we join the shepherds of old in worshipping Him who was “God manifest in the flesh?” Do we bring our gold, frankincense, and myrrh as did the wise men of long ago? Their gold testified to His deity. The frankincense spoke of the perfection of His devotion to the Father which ascended during His entire earthly career, as a sweet smelling savour to God. The myrrh, used in the burial of the dead, prophesied the efficacy of His work of atonement on the cross.
One of the saddest pictures in the Bible is to see the Lord standing outside the door of the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:20. Think of the Son of God having to knock for admission! Outside, when He should have been within, ruling and filling the interior with the glory of His welcome presence.
Sad? Yes, but glad! For He said, “if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” What glorious fellowship! A table spread and He, the guest of honor! Or should He not be the Host and we the guests?
Gifts at Christmastime? Let us give them gladly in the real spirit of Christmas, but let us not fail to receive that greatest of all gifts—eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” He loved us and gave Himself for us.” “Who loved meand gave Himself for me.”
Have you made room for Christ? If not, will you not join in the happy prayer,
Into my heart, into my heart,
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus
Come in today, come in to stay
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.
A few bowed their knees at His birth. Multitudes have bowed before Him, recognizing His lordship from that day to this. The glorious consummation is coming when “every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.” Let us bow in happy adoration, while we may, and not wait until, although eternally lost, we shall have to bow in subjection to the authority of Him to Whom all judgment has been committed. Let us find room for Christ now while still on Earth that He may find room for us in heaven above.