The good news of Christmas is linked to Christ’s birth, and Christ’s birth is explained in Galatians 4:4-7. Figuratively speaking, God’s calendar had a day with a big star on it-when the time was right for Christ to be sent forth into this world. Jesus was born when Rome was conquering and ruling the known world. The Roman Empire built roads that connected cities, towns, and military bases. These roads allowed the Gospel of Salvation to be taken all over Europe. Travel was safer than it had been earlier, a mail system was in place, and a common language existed. There was open idolatry, spiritism, and demon worship. The religious establishment was almost completely corrupt. With the absence of war, many people were rediscovering art, literature, and philosophy, and they were asking questions. All of this was part of God’s perfect, divine plan.

It was always God’s plan for Christ to be born, live among us, die for our sins, and rise again. Revelation 13:8 calls Him “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This means that before there was a planet called Earth and a garden called Eden, before there was a couple known as Adam and Eve who ate of the forbidden fruit, God knew that humanity would blow it. He had a plan. His Son would come to earth and be born in a manger, live a perfect life, and die on the cross for the sins of the world.