Christmas Day as we experience it, and the roller-coaster preceding it, have evolved into a festival that is part cultural, part commercial, and part Christian. This is true throughout the Western world, from Santiago to Seoul, from Helsinki to Hobart. And especially here in Sydney.
At the centre of our celebrations stands a season of generosity toward family and friends, and a cultural festival of goodwill to all. It’s a feel-good season for most, a time of giving and receiving, eating and drinking, and enjoying what blessings we can find in an ever-changing world.
But Christmas Day also invites us all into a moment of holy astonishment. Christmas Day announces a breathtaking theological claim: as St Paul reminds us, with the arrival of Jesus in our world, “the grace of God has appeared” (Titus 2:11) – tangible, thrilling, transforming grace.
Paul’s teaching in Titus 2:11–14 is one of the most concise and profound summaries of the meaning of the incarnation of the Son of God: why the eternal Word “took on flesh,” what this has accomplished in the world, and what it has the power to shape in us as the grace of God does its transforming work.
When interpreted through the lens of the manger of Bethlehem, as recounted in Luke’s Gospel, these verses remind us that Christmas is both an event and an invitation: it is an event rooted in history and celebrated around the world, and it is an astonishing invitation to personal and social transformation.
Paul begins with the declaration that “the grace of God has appeared.” The phrase suggests a sudden unveiling, a dawning, a clear light breaking into the darkness. This is what Christmas is all about. This is why light is so deeply embedded in our Christmas traditions. Grace is no abstract divine attribute about which ivory-tower theologians like to chatter.
Nor is grace a distant promise whispered by ancient prophets. In Jesus Christ, grace is tangible, embodied, able to be universally experienced. The helpless baby wrapped in swaddling cloths is the revelation of divine favour, the overflowing kindness of God who has stepped into human history. This is why Paul says “the grace of God has appeared” (v. 11a).
As we come to understand and experience this grace, Bethlehem no longer symbolises mere wishful thinking. It is no longer a myth that makes our grandparents feel good. It represents a theological revolution in the world that reaches and touches each of us. And it is good news – the very best of good news. In the appearance of Jesus, the invisible God becomes visible. Divine love becomes tangible. Grace now has a human face.
Paul tells us that this “appearing” brings salvation to all people (v. 11b). The birth of Jesus is not a private gift to a select group but a universal announcement that salvation, in its fullness, is within the reach of all. The angels’ announcement to the shepherds, among the least and last of Jewish society, anticipated the expansive scope of this salvation. Jesus was born for Jewish and Gentile people, slave and free, poor and rich, grieving and joyful, for the “righteous” and the “sinful.”
At its best, Christmas resists every attempt at tribalism and exclusion. In the stable, the God who created all comes to redeem all. The wide reach of salvation is not a denial of human sin, but a declaration that no sin is too deep, no biography too stained, no heart too hardened or flippant for the grace that has appeared.
Yet salvation is not the only effect of this appearing. Grace trains us. The grace revealed in the cradle is not permissive tolerance but transformative power. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to say yes to self-control, uprightness, and godliness (v. 12). It has an essential ethical dimension.
Christmas is not merely an annual reminder of what God has done but an ongoing invitation to live according to different values in light of it. In the Christ child, God has initiated a new humanity marked by hope-filled obedience, and God invites us to follow the Way of Jesus.
This is a crucial counterbalance to the common cultural view of Christmas as escapism or nostalgia. The biblical Christmas is not about escaping reality but entering it truthfully. Grace does not leave us unchanged: it forms us into the likeness of the One who appeared. The incarnation is a gift and a summons.
If we choose to receive the grace that has appeared, God begins the work of personal transformation, and we step up as apprentices to Jesus, learning to embody the character of Christ in our relationships, ambitions, and desires. Paul grounds this ethical transformation in eschatological hope. We live in “the present age,” but we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (v. 13).
Our celebration of Christmas rightly looks back to the first appearing of Christ in humility. But it also looks forward to the second appearing of Christ in glory. Bethlehem is the pledge of Calvary, and Calvary is the path to resurrection, ascension, and the promised return of the One who came in grace to Bethlehem. On Christmas morning, we remember the birth of Jesus, and we anticipate his coming kingdom. The manger points toward the throne.
This forward-looking dimension of Christmas guards us against romanticising the past. Christ came, and Christ will come again. The first coming assures us that God keeps promises; the second coming reminds us that history is heading toward fulfilment. Christmas is a season of joy precisely because it is also a season of hope. In a world marked by conflict, injustice, and profound sorrow, the birth of Jesus is a guarantee that evil does not have the final word. The grace that has appeared will culminate in the glory that is to come.
Paul’s words then move us from cosmic scope to personal engagement: he says, Christ “gave himself for us” (v. 14a). The grandeur of the incarnation is matched by its intimacy. The Son of God is born not only to reveal God, but to redeem humanity. The rough wood of the manger foreshadows the rough wood of the cross. The child who lies so vulnerable in Bethlehem’s manger will also hang, more vulnerable still, on Calvary’s cross. His appearing brings salvation because his sacrifice secures it. This is pure grace.
Christmas is radiant with joy because it is illuminated by the shadow of a cross and an empty tomb that transform our sorrow into joy. The purpose of this divine self-giving love is twofold: “to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify a people for himself” (v. 14b). The redemption found through Jesus is liberation from the penalty, the power and, ultimately, the presence of sin.
Christmas proclaims freedom for all who consciously follow Jesus. It’s a freedom in community: we belong to God, we join his beloved community, and we are cherished, transformed, and sent into the world with good news.
To those burdened by guilt, Christmas Day announces salvation. To those weary of temptation, it promises transformation. To those anxious about the future, it assures hope. To those lonely or forgotten, it declares belonging. To those who are complacent, it stirs zeal.
The grace that has appeared in Christ is a present reality. His birth means that God is with us, in our flesh, in our frailty, in our world. His life means that God is for us. His cross means that God has saved us. His resurrection means that God renews us. The promise of his return reminds us that God will complete what he has begun.
So let Christmas Day be more than festivity. Let it be an encounter with grace that has appeared, still appears, and will appear again. Let us stand before the manger with humility, gratitude, and joyful obedience. Let us live in the present age with hearts trained by grace. And let us look with longing for the blessed hope, when the child who came in humility will come again in glory.
For the grace of God has indeed appeared, for us and for our salvation. Thanks be to God, and a Merry Christmas to you all.
Sermon 841 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Christmas Day 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
Image source: Bec Parsons/Getty Images (SBS).
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