Category Archives: Reading Guide

¹⁷ Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. ¹⁸ And all these things are from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as if God were imploring you through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ He made the one who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf, in order that we could become the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

“December 6”^[1] by Paul David Tripp

That baby in the manger came as our ultimate substitute.
Everything he would do, he would do on our behalf, for our salvation.

For once I was excited to go to Spanish class. Word had gotten out that our regular Spanish teacher was sick, and we would have a substitute. I had also heard something about the substitute: she wasn’t a Spanish teacher. I thought I had hit the jackpot. We would probably do nothing in class and would surely be assigned no homework. For the first time in my life, I rushed to Spanish class.

My apologies to any substitutes who may read this, but I grew up expecting very little from the substitute teachers who filled in for our regular instructors. They tended to be unprepared (probably because they were called at the last minute) and not very knowledgeable (probably because they were filling outside of their area of expertise), and because of these things, they were often nervous and ill at ease.

The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus came as our substitute, but in hearing that, you can throw out all experiences you have had with substitute teachers. Jesus came as the ultimate substitute to stand in our place, but he came to live infinitely better than any of us could ever live on our own. One of the ways the Bible talks about this is to call Jesus the “second Adam.” It is a provocative title, worth examining.

The first Adam was created by God and placed in a perfect world, in perfect relationship with God. Adam literally had it all: no earthly needs unmet and no separation between him and God. But in an act of outrageous rebellion against God, he took his life into his own hands, stepped outside God’s boundaries, and did exactly what God had warned him not to do. He had it all, but he miserably failed, and when he did, sin, sickness, and suffering entered the world. Like fine china thrown on the pavement, the perfection of the world shattered. Adam now lived under God’s judgment, and the world groaned in brokenness.

What the world cried out for was a substitute, but not any substitute would do. This substitute needed to be special in every way, so that he would not fail the test as the first Adam had. He had to be perfect in righteousness and mighty in power, or he too would fail. No one on earth could meet the requirements, so God sent the only One who was up to the task, the only One who would not succumb to the pressure and fail the test. God sent the one person whom he knew was qualified to be the second Adam: his Son.

Everything Jesus did, from the first moment of his birth until his ascension to the right hand of his Father, he did as our substitute. What he did in every situation, location, and relationship, he did in our place. Every decision he made, every temptation he faced, every trial or moment of suffering he endured, was on our behalf. But this is vital to understand: he never failed one single test. He faced all the ravages of life in this fallen world without sinning in any way. He was the perfect substitute. And because Jesus was the perfect substitute, on the cross he made the perfectly acceptable sacrifice, and because he did, he satisfied God’s requirement, and the penalty for our sin was lifted. Jesus, the second Adam, is our first and only hope in life and death. Because of his substitution we are redeemed. God sent One in our place who would do infinitely better than we could ever do, because our salvation depended upon it. The Christmas story is the most glorious stand-in story ever!

^[1] Paul David Tripp, Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017).

² The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
³ You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
⁴ For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
⁵ For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:2-7

“Sermon on Christmas”[1] by Augustine of Hippo

He, through whom time was made, was made in time; and He, older by eternity than the world itself, was younger in age than many of His servants in the world.

He, who made man, was made man; He was given existence by a mother whom He brought into existence; He was carried in hands which He formed; He nursed at breasts which He filled; He cried like a babe in the manger in speechless infancy – this Word without which human eloquence is speechless!

Application & Challenge

For some people, the Christmas season is full – full of family, friends, joy, activity, and so on. But, for others, it feels empty. If we have the hope that comes from faith in Jesus, we know what it is to have “walked in darkness” and the hope that comes from having “seen a great light” – we know what it is to receive “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10).

Pick at least one of the following ways to reach out to those who need the Light shined in their lives:

• Send a Christmas card with a hand-written note to someone who needs some encouragement or who may be feeling alone. Include a Bible verse to point them to Jesus.
• Call or text someone who has lost a loved one over the past year. Let them know you love them and that Jesus loves them, too. If they feel like sharing, listen more than you talk.

[1] St. Augustine, Thomas Comerford Lawler (translator, editor), Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany (The Newman Press: Mahwah, NJ, 1952).

¹⁶ And he will turn many of the sons of Israel

to the Lord their God.

¹⁷ And he will go on before him

in the spirit and power of Elijah,

to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,

and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous,

to prepare for the Lord a people made ready.”

Luke 1:16-17

“Prepare the Way” ^[1] by John Piper

What John the Baptist did for Israel, Advent can do for us. Don’t let Christmas find you unprepared. I mean spiritually unprepared. Its joy and impact will be so much greater if you are ready!

That you might be prepared…

First, meditate on the fact that we need a Savior. Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight. It will not have its intended effect until we feel desperately the need for a Savior. Let these short Advent meditations help awaken in you a bittersweet sense of need for the Savior.

Second, engage in sober self-examination. Advent is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter. “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23–24) Let every heart prepare him room… by cleaning house.

Third, build God-centered anticipation and expectancy and excitement into your home—especially for the children. If you are excited about Christ, they will be too. If you can only make Christmas exciting with material things, how will the children get a thirst for God? Bend the efforts of your imagination to make the wonder of the King’s arrival visible for the children. Fourth, be much in the Scriptures, and memorize the great passages! “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord!” (Jeremiah 23:29) Gather ‘round that fire this Advent season. It is warm. It is sparkling with colors of grace. It is healing for a thousand hurts. It is light for dark nights.

^[1] John Piper, Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent 2013 (Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2013).

⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:45

“What Advent is All About”^[1] by John Piper

Christmas is about the coming of Christ into the world. It’s about the Son of God, who existed eternally with the Father as “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,” taking on human nature and becoming man (Hebrews 1:3).

It’s about the virgin birth of a child conceived miraculously by the Holy Spirit so that he is the Son of God, not the way you and I are sons of God, but in an utterly unique way (Luke 1:35).

It’s about the coming of a man named Jesus in whom “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

It’s about the coming of the “fullness of time” that had been prophesied by the prophets of old that a ruler would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); and a child would be born called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6); and a Messiah, an anointed one, a shoot from the stem of Jesse, a Son of David, a King, would come (Isaiah 11:1–4; Zechariah 9:9).

And, according to Mark 10:45, Christmas is about the coming of the Son of Man who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” These words in Mark 10:45, as a brief expression of Christmas, are what I hope God will fix in your mind and heart this Advent. Open your heart to receive the best present imaginable: Jesus giving himself to die for you and to serve you all the rest of eternity. Receive this. Turn away from self-help and sin. Become like little children. Trust him. Trust him. Trust him with your life.

^[1] John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014).

¹⁴ Then Yahweh God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
you will be cursed
more than any domesticated animal
and more than any wild animal.
On your belly you shall go
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put hostility
between you and between the woman,
and between your offspring and between her offspring;
he will strike you on the head,
and you will strike him on the heel.”

Genesis 3:14-15

¹² Because of this, just as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned. ¹³ For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not charged to one’s account when there is no law. ¹⁴ But death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who is to come. ¹⁵ But the gift is not like the trespass, for if by the trespass of the one, the many died, by much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, multiply to the many. ¹⁶ And the gift is not as through the one who sinned, for on the one hand, judgment from the one sin led to condemnation, but the gift, from many trespasses, led to justification. ¹⁷ For if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ Consequently therefore, as through one trespass came condemnation to all people, so also through one righteous deed came justification of life to all people. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ Now the law came in as a side issue, in order that the trespass could increase, but where sin increased, grace was present in greater abundance, ²¹ so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:12-21

“A Very Old Promise”[1] by David Platt

Back in Genesis 3, before sin had stained God’s good creation, Adam and Eve enjoyed fellowship with God in the garden. The first couple was free to enjoy God, and they were given dominion over His creation. However, Satan (through the serpent) deceived Eve into eating from the only tree that God had declared off limits. Adam went along with his wife and disobeyed God, and this led to God’s curse on creation. In today’s reading God declared that there would be war between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman. Yet, in the midst of this devastation, God gave a hope-filled promise: Eve’s offspring would “bruise” the serpent’s head and ultimately prevail.

Sin and death continued to reign long after Eve and her children died, and it looked as if God’s promise in Genesis 3 was in jeopardy. Even Israel’s greatest heroes of the faith could not overcome sin completely. But things were about to change with the birth of Christ. As a great, great, great grandchild of Eve, He would fulfill God’s long-standing promise. The head of the serpent would soon be crushed through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Application & Challenge

If you are in Christ, you are familiar with promises made in Scripture that give hope. But there are many who do not know Him. Some say that it is judging to discern whether or not a person is saved or lost, but it could mean the difference between eternal life or death – if someone shares the gospel with them.

Think of one person who you think does not know Jesus or might not know Him that you will see in within the next few days.

• First, pray for them and ask God to show Himself to them through His Word and save them.
• Then, pray for God to provide someone to share His gospel with the person.
• Finally, thank God that He has sent you to share the gospel with them and ask Him to provide an opportunity and courage to share Him with them!

[1] David Platt, To Us a Son is Given: A Daily Reading Guide for Advent (Birmingham, AL: Radical, Inc., 2017), 21-22.

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace
among people with whom He is pleased!”

Luke 2:13-14

⁸ And when he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one of whom had a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. ⁹ And they were singing a new song, saying,

“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because You were slaughtered,
and bought people for God by Your blood
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
¹⁰ and made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”

Revelation 5:8-10

“December 1”^[1] by Paul David Tripp

The angels sang because the everlasting Father had come
to extend arms of redeeming grace to all who would give their hearts to him.

It is a wonderful, mysterious, hard-to-grasp, and beyond-the-scope-of-our-normal-reasoning story. But when you get it, when you come to fully understand the purpose and implications of this story, you will sing too. This story’s amazing plot wasn’t written when Mary got pregnant or when prophets began foretelling it or when God announced it after the disastrous rebellion of Adam and Eve. This story is so miraculous in every way that it could have only come out of the mind of God in eternity before the foundations of the earth were laid down by his mighty hand. It points to the divine imagination and screams the power of the divine hand. No man could write this plot and if he did, no man could expedite what he had written. This story is itself an argument for the existence of God and is a portrait of his holy character.

The beautiful world that God had created was now broken and groaning—the direct result of the rebellion of the ones God had made in his own image and had placed his guiding and providing love upon. The evidence of its brokenness was everywhere, from the inner recesses of the hearts of people, to violence and corruption of government, to the existence of plagues and diseases. Sure, there was beauty still to be seen, but the whole world groaned under the weight of its brokenness. It would have been just for God to stay his distance, to let the world quake and groan. It would have been a just response to the arrogant rebellion that brought this brokenness on the world. But in one of the gorgeous mysteries of God’s sovereign grace, he looked on his broken, rebellious world with eyes of mercy.

Yes, God would act decisively, and his actions would be what he had planned in the beginning, but they would be a stunning surprise to every mere mortal. His response would not be condemnation and judgment. His response would not be a meting out of justice. Rather, his response would be intervention and rescue. He would do in grace what the law could never do. He would do in grace what we could never do for ourselves. He would do what philosophers could never conceive, what leaders could never strategize, and what poets could never imagine. He would offer the only thing that would ever address the need and solve the problem. He, himself, would become the greatest, most costly, most transformational gift ever.

God would take on human flesh and invade his sin-broken world with his wisdom, power, glory, and grace. But he wouldn’t descend to a palace. Instead, the Lord Almighty, the Creator, the sovereign King over all things would humble himself and take on the form of servant; he would live on our behalf the life we could have never lived, he would willingly die the death that you and I deserve to die, and he would rise from his tomb as the conqueror of sin and death. He would suffer every single day of his life so that he could, with his life, give grace to rebels, extend love to those who would deny his existence, impart wisdom to those who think they know better, and extend forgiveness to everyone who seeks him. His coming stands as an affirmation that he will not relent, he will not be satisfied until sin and suffering are no more and we are like him, dwelling with him in unity, peace, and harmony forever and ever. It is true that you just can’t write this stuff! The majesty of the patient and forgiving love of this story defies words. The implications of this birth are not only transformational to the cosmos, but also eternal in their extent. This is the story of Jesus, born in a barn in Bethlehem. The Messiah the earth cried for now cries to be held by Mary and will soon cry in torment of the cross of salvation. He came to suffer because he came to save. The angels sang because finally hope had come. Don’t you want to join them?

^[1] Paul David Tripp, Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017).