The Gift We Didn’t Deserve: Understanding God’s Grace Through Christmas

Remaining in the spirit of Christmas and reflecting on the goodness of God, I am continually reminded that no matter the challenges we face, especially during the Christmas season, God’s grace has never failed us, it still remains. Romans 6:23 reminds us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I think Christmas confronts us with a paradox: the most extraordinary gift in human history arrived in the most ordinary way imaginable. No palace. No parade. Instead, God chose obscurity, humility, and vulnerability. At Christmas, heaven didn’t send us advice, rules, or another list of expectations. Heaven sent us grace. Grace wrapped in flesh. Grace laid in a manger. Grace offered freely to a world that didn’t deserve it.

Grace Begins Where Merit Ends

Romans 6:23 makes a clear distinction between what we earn and what we receive. Sin pays wages of death, separation, and spiritual emptiness. Grace, on the other hand, is a gift. And a gift, by definition, cannot be deserved.

This truth dismantles the human instinct to perform for approval. Many people live believing God is impressed by effort, consistency, or religious activity. Christmas shatters that illusion. Jesus did not come because humanity finally got it right, He came because we couldn’t.

Grace is not God lowering His standards; it is God extending His mercy. Grace does not meet us at our best; it meets us at our need.

This has profound implications for leadership. When we understand grace, we stop leading from superiority and start leading from humility. We become leaders who give others room to grow, fail, learn, and be restored, because that is exactly what God has done for us.

This posture of grace-centered leadership is foundational to the message titled; How God Chooses Leaders at Inspiring Biblical Leadership.

The Manger Reveals the Measure of God’s Love

The incarnation is not merely a theological concept, it is a revelation of God’s heart. The manger tells us how far God was willing to go to reach us. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ~Romans 5:8 God did not wait for repentance before sending His Son. He sent His Son to produce repentance. He did not require moral reform before extending love. He extended love to bring about transformation.

The manger reveals a God who moves toward brokenness rather than away from it. If you ever doubt God’s love, look at where He chose to be born. Christmas reminds us that love is not proven by comfort, but by proximity. God entered our mess, our pain, our limitations. He stepped into time so eternity could touch broken lives.

Salvation Wrapped in Swaddling Clothes

Christmas is not sentimental, it is strategic. Jesus was not born simply to inspire humanity, but to redeem it. “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” ~Matthew 1:21 From this passage in scripture we can clearly see that from His first birth, Jesus was moving toward the cross. The wood of the manger points to the wood of Calvary. The swaddling clothes foreshadow the burial cloths. Christmas is the beginning of God’s rescue mission.

The world celebrates the birth of a baby, but heaven celebrated the arrival of a Savior. This matters because salvation is not self-improvement; it is holy intervention. Humanity did not need better behavior; we needed a Savior. And Christmas declares that God Himself stepped into the story to accomplish what we never could.

Grace That Transforms, Not Excuses

One of the great misunderstandings about grace is that it permits sin. Scripture teaches the opposite. For the grace of God has appeared… teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.” ~Titus 2:11–12 Grace doesn’t excuse sin; it breaks sin’s power. It forgives, restores, and then reshapes us. Christmas grace does not leave us where it finds us, it leads us into new life. Grace does not make sin acceptable; it makes holiness attainable.” 

This transforming grace changes how we speak, forgive, serve, and lead. It creates integrity, not hypocrisy. It produces fruit, not just confession. Grace trains us to live differently because we have been loved deeply. This daily, lived-out faith is central to the teachings at Inspiring Biblical Leadership, faith beyond Sunday, grace beyond Christmas.

Why This Gift Still Matters Today

In a culture obsessed with achievement, image, and self-promotion, grace remains radically countercultural. It tells us we are loved before we are successful, valued before we are useful, and accepted before we are perfected. Christmas grace speaks to the exhausted leader, the discouraged believer, and the searching skeptic alike. Grace reminds us that our worth is settled by God, not negotiated by performance. This truth frees us to lead without fear, love without conditions, and forgive without keeping score. It invites us to stop striving and start abiding.

Receiving the Gift

A gift can be offered, admired, even celebrated, but it only transforms when it is received. The Bible tells us in John 1:12; "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.” Receiving Christ means surrendering self-reliance and embracing grace. It is not merely intellectual agreement; it is relational trust. Christmas invites every heart to move from observation to participation. I see it this way Grace becomes personal when faith opens the hands of the heart.

Final Reflection: Grace Has a Name

The greatest gift of Christmas is not tradition, nostalgia, or emotion. It is Jesus; God’s grace made visible, tangible, and eternal. The gift we didn’t deserve became the grace we couldn’t live without. May this Christmas not simply be celebrated, but received, lived, and shared.