Derek Thomas writes in a sermon on Isaiah 53, Christianity, my friends, is not a self-help religion. It’s not about how to try and get better and living by a moral code and trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. That’s not Christianity. Christianity is about the provision of a sovereign God of a Mediator who stands in our room and stead to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves–to bear our sins in His own body upon the tree–to bear it’s curse to the full. To shed His blood for us; to die for us; to expiate the wrath of God for us that we might have the joy, the overwhelming privilege of being called “sons of God” and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him even as He is.

My friends, this Christmas, let me ask you, “Is that your hope?” Are you saying this morning, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling. Naked come to Thee for dress, helpless look to Thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me Savior, or I die.” Surely He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows.