“I wear the chain I forged in life…. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”
Jacob Marley
The quote cited above, of course, is from Charles Dickens’ beloved story, A Christmas Carol – a story reassuring us that, regardless of how much we’ve messed up here on planet earth, there is hope still. Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s business partner in life, now “dead these seven years,” returns to show the hateful, miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge the judgment that awaits him should he not change his ways. The “chains” of bitterness Marley “forged in life” now imprison him for all eternity.
But, as the fates would have it, Scrooge was given a final chance to change his ways. The opportunity given to Scrooge, offered via three benevolent spirits, to avoid altogether the judgment that had fallen upon his friend was completely unsolicited, unwanted and undeserved.
Yet it came.
We all know how the story ends. Scrooge is changed. The bitterness that filled his heart, like the heart of Dr. Seuss’ Grinch, was transformed, filled with love, kindness and graciousness.
Through Jeremiah the prophet (not the bullfrog), God warns mankind, “The heart (of mankind) is deceitful, and desperately sick…” In other words, we, like Scrooge, have a fatal flaw (sin), and are in desperate need of help and hope.
That help and hope has come through Christ Jesus.
In his powerful hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, the 16th century reformer, Martin Luther, wrote,
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.
Were the right man not on our side, the man of God’s own choosing.
You ask who that may be – Christ Jesus, it is he!
Like Scrooge, we have a chance for redemption. Unlike Scrooge, that redemption is in no way dependent on our own human effort. In short, the Bible says, regardless of how many “prize turkeys in the window we purchase for the Cratchit family,” we can never be “good enough” to merit redemption in Christ. And this is why Christ came to earth to die by Roman execution and rise from the dead three days later. It is faith in his life & death & resurrection that makes us “good/righteous enough” to stand blameless before a holy God.
Paul, author of most of the New Testament, knew a thing or two about feeling hopelessly lost. “What a wretched man I am!” he wrote. He continued,
Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Oh, the love of God in his Son, Jesus Christ.
Elsewhere, Paul wrote,
Scrooge woke up on Christmas morning a brand new man. A man redeemed. A man saved from eternal judgment.
According to God, we have that same opportunity. Except for real…
…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
For those who may mistakenly think they are beyond redemption, or for those who’ve already professed faith in Christ but, because of some life error(s), feel as though God could never again love, restore & use them:
No matter where you are in life – there is no mistake God can’t correct, no mess God can’t clean up, no knot God can’t untie, no sin God can’t forgive. The power of our mistakes pale in comparison to the redemptive power of the Cross.
“It’s Christmas Day!” said Scrooge to himself. “I haven’t missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can!”
Christ came the first time as a humble Servant. He’ll come next time as a righteous Judge. For now, if you’ve never honestly investigated the claims of Christ, you haven’t “missed it.” Christ settled our account before a Holy God not “all in one night,” but all in a single moment.
This is what Christ meant when, on the cross – just before his final breath, he said, “It is finished.”
What Christ finished – is our new beginning.
Soli Deo Gloria & Merry Christmas, Nick