Imagine, if you will, a world without Christmas. Suppose that God looked at His creation rebelling against Him, and chose not to save us from ourselves.

• What if He only tolerated us — like, say, a stray dog that you feed, yet don’t consider as a pet — but didn’t love us?
• What if He didn’t want a relationship with us?
• What if He was not willing to become a human and sacrifice Himself for our sake?
• What if He said “Nyah, too much trouble. They’re not worth it.”?

How would our lives be different?

Note: For this article, I am not focussing on all the good that would be missing if not for Christians who founded schools, hospitals and charities in Jesus’ name. Nor am I talking about the the foundational effect that the Bible has had on our culture, art, science, and law. And I’m not emphasizing the respect for life that grows from respect for God, and that results in protections for the vulnerable: children, women, sick, weak, poor, elderly, minorities. Entire books have been written on these topics ¹.

Instead, I am focussed not so much on “What if the Bible or Christianity didn’t exist?” but on “What if God didn’t love us?”

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If God Didn’t Love Us….

There would still be what is sometimes called “common grace”. God would still keep the world spinning: gravity, seasons, sun/moon/stars. But we would have only that creation to tell us about God. There would be no Bible, no Ten Commandments, no Golden Rule. Everything in the Bible is God communicating with us, revealing Himself to us. If He didn’t care, He wouldn’t bother to do so.

…Hey, at least there would be no anti-Semitism, because there would be no Jews. God would not call Abraham to be the father of a nation “in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3). There would be no need to prepare a lineage and birthplace for the Savior if no savior was ever going to come.

God would still be righteous, and right and wrong would still follow His standards. We would still be created in His image (Romans 1:20). The urge to worship would still be wired into us, as it is today in even the most pagan of places. We would just worship the wrong things. After all, people without God have been doing so since the beginning of time (Romans 1:22-23, 25). We might even still sometimes choose to do right and reap its benefits. But those benefits would end when our lives did.

There would still be sin, and its consequences (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23a [without 6:23b!]). After all, it would still be God’s world; we would still owe Him our full allegiance; and we would still fail to give it. Therefore, there would still be pain and corruption, conflict and pride, hatred and wars. In fact, such things would be much, much worse. There would be nothing to hold that sin at bay; it would be even more pervasive than it is now. An example of pre-Christian humanity off-track in its evil can be found in Genesis, just before Noah and the Flood:

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.

Genesis 6:5, 13

There would be no hope of anything ever changing. We would always be slaves to that sin, unable to do otherwise. Our alienation from God would be un-bridgeable. No amount of good deeds can ever counteract our sin to reconcile our relationship with Him. Death would be filled with despair and terror, because it would mean facing Him and His judgment with no possible defense to present.

There would be no purpose. Nothing would give meaning to our lives, since everything would be temporary, with no future. Suffering would be just that; there would be nothing redemptive beyond the pain. There would be no Heaven to look forward to (at least not one where we would have any access!)

I don’t want to live in a world like that.

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But He DOES Love Us!!

Thank God (very literally!), I don’t have to. That nightmare is not reality.

He does love us. He does want a relationship with us. He was willing to become a man and sacrifice Himself to make that relationship possible.

Hope is available. Our lives do have purpose, a purpose that extends beyond the grave. What we do matters, because we will live forever. That forever can be with God, if we choose.

All because that baby in the manger was a loving God coming to our rescue!

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

…I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for … there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:16

P.S. For some music to celebrate this gift, here are reminders that because of that Holy Night, we can have Joy to the World. And we all say Hallelujah!

Merry Christmas!

1. Two of those are “What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?” and “What If The Bible Had Never Been Written?“, both by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe.