“It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”

That’s the tagline of Christmas in the West. It fills our songs, Christmas cards, movies, and decorations. It is a cultural staple for the final two months of the year. Everything builds to the crescendo of Christmas, and our inclination is that such a celebration is good.

But why?

Why does Christmas have so much energy and celebration?

Maybe a better question is why do we deem Christmas worthy of such celebration?

One might expect the 4th of July to be the most celebrated holiday in the United States, but I don’t think it is coincidental that it is actually Christmas. Nor is it coincidental that Christmas is monikered “the most wonderful time of the year.”

Christmas, of course, celebrates the incarnational birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. His birth was foretold by the prophets (Isaiah 9:6–7), and the New Testament contains two narratives of His birth (Matthew 1:18–25; Luke 1:26–38; 2:1–21). This event is the reason for the celebration of Christmas. Without the birth of Christ, there is no Christmas.

In the West, however, there is also a non-religious celebration of Christmas. This is what piques my interest this year.

I find it interesting that our biggest cultural event, that is universally acknowledged and celebrated by the religious and non-religious alike, is Christmas — the arrival of the Christ Child, the one who redeems and restores (Isaiah 11), the one who suffers and serves (Isaiah 52–53), the one who brings good news (Isaiah 61:1–11; Mark 1:15; Luke 4:16–21), the one who makes all things new (Isaiah 65:17–25; Revelation 21:1–8).

Why would this holiday be the cultural holiday of holidays in the United States for the religious and non-religious?

John tells his readers that there is a distinction between those who confess Jesus as the Christ and those who do not confess Jesus as the Christ (1 John 2:18–27; 4:1–5:13; 2 John 7–11), so why would Christians and non-Christians proclaim that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year?

I think this speaks to the hard-wiring of humanity. The 4th Century theologian Augustin said “for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”¹

In a similar vein, the 16th Century reformer John Calvin discussed the sensus divinitatis, which refers to the inner, default understanding of God that every human has. According to Calvin (an many others), humanity is hardwired to believe that there is a God, and every person already knows something about Him.² This is the sensus divinitatis.

In the Bible, we find passages like “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge” (Psalm 19:1–2 HCSB). Creation attests to the knowledge of God.

Furthermore, in Romans 1:15–32, Paul writes how he is eager to share the gospel of Jesus with the Romans because it is the power of God to save, and this salvation is necessary because humans, though they posses knowledge of God through the sensus divinitatis, have suppressed this truth in favor of lesser lies.³

The Apostle Paul, and subsequent Christian leaders like Augustin, Calvin, and B.B. Warfield talked about how humanity has this inner sense that propels us to search for God.⁴ Christmas celebrates the moment in time our search should lead us to: the birth of Christ in a manger in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven is what gives us access to what our hearts long for: God Himself. This is why Paul tells the Athenian philosophers “He [God] is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).

So, it is not surprising to me that Christmas is the holiday of holidays in the United States. It is not surprising to me that it is universally recognized in the US as “the most wonderful time of the year.” It is not surprising to me that people feel a sense of wonder and “magic” in the air. None of this is surprising to me because Christmas celebrates the birth of the incarnate Son of God, who came to take away the sins of the world and to save the world from the curse of sin. He is the One whom we are hardwired to believe in, the one creation groans for (Romans 8:19–25). All of creation proclaims His glory, and the sensus divinitatis, which is common to all humanity, instills within us this sense that He is more meaningful than anything else.

Our hearts are restless for Him.

Come, Lord Jesus.

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours from Get More Ministries, and, as always,

Happy Bibleing!

Footnotes

1.  Augustine of Hippo, “The Confessions of St. Augustin,” in The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustin with a Sketch of His Life and Work, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. J. G. Pilkington, vol. 1 of A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 45. ↩︎
2. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge; Accordance electronic ed. (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), Book First, chapters 3–4. Calvin does not use the term sensus divinitatis here, but the content of these chapters details the concept. ↩︎
3. Again, Paul does not use the term sensus divinitatis. The term was coined by theologians in order to easily refer to what Paul is talking about — that is, the default inner knowledge of God within every human. ↩︎
4. “Nobody doubts — or nobody ought to doubt — that men are by nature religious and will have a religion in any event. The sensus divinitatis implanted in us-to employ Calvin’s phrases — functions inevitably as a semen religionis.” (italics mine)
   B. B. Warfield, Mysticism and Christianity, Select Works of B. B. Warfield; Accordance electronic ed. (Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 1999), paragraph 497. ↩︎