By: Shane James O’Neill
3 min read
All of Creation Waiting
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. John 1:9
We’re told that Jesus came at the fullness of time. Prophecy and promise were building through the ages until the Word became flesh. It’s crazy to think that all of creation had been waiting for this Son of Man, the true Adam. Then… when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son. He came to know us in our exile, to find us in our hurt and hopelessness.
The true Light, who gives light to everyone, came into the world.
Hung on a Tree
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. John 1:10
You know how the story goes. We were so exiled from ourselves that we didn’t know our Savior, so exiled from Goodness that we needed to imprison Him and steal His breath, least He expose us. All of creation waited for its Savior… only to watch Him hang on a tree.
We want truth on our terms, not at the fullness of God’s timing, but at the convenience of our timing.
What does it look like to wait for His timing?
We look at pornography and gratify ourselves because we want pleasure on our own terms.
Related: Purity in the Face of Defeat
Lust offers us salvation on our own time. And the voice of lust is always speaking: Feeling lonely? here’s a constant companion. Feeling sad? here’s instant happiness. Feeling hurt? this will make the pain go away. Feeling bored? I’ll entertain you. Feeling rejected? I’ll never leave you. Can’t sleep? Let me tuck you in. Tired of waiting for a woman of God? You know where to find me. Does your wife not understand you? I do. You can have me however you want me, whenever you want me, as many times as you want me.
Dehumanized desire. Unrestrained lust. Intimacy without relationship.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. John 3:20
The Word Became Flesh
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Christmas: The time when we celebrate the Word made flesh.
This Christmas, as you wait for the 25th, let yourself feel the longing and hurt of your own exile. Even as you fail, feel it. As you see that tree, decorated, adorned with lights and gifts, remember the Light of the world giving Himself as a gift upon a different tree, a tree adorned with His body. Let your longing for salvation build until that day when the Savior was born, surrounded by shepherds and sheep.
He came to save, and we killed the Lord of Glory. You know what’s crazy? He let us. It was part of His plan to know us, to save us, to find us in our exile. As much as we hate it, for us to be fully known He needed to fully suffer.
That kind of Savior is worth waiting for. He makes purity worth pursuing. Jesus became as we are so that we might become as He is.
But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:13
This Christmas-Advent, as you celebrate and wait for Him, learn to wait for a purity that remains.
Instead of worshiping the lust of the flesh, give yourself to the Word who became flesh.
This Christmas, celebrate the Savior by letting Him know you and continue to save you.
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Shane James O’Neill is the Editorial Director for Proven Men Ministries. He is currently working on a graduate degree in apologetics at Liberty University’s Rawling School of Divinity.