Fear prompted people to stand for hours in long lines hoping to get a flu shot. Fortunately, the crisis was averted when additional supplies of the vaccine came to light. However, the fear of death was genuine as the people concluded that there was no help to be found.

It is interesting that a tiny virus should cause such fear when a greater danger is most often ignored-the presence of sin. No vaccine exists that can free us from sin and its consequences, death and hell. Surveys reveal that many people don't believe that hell exists. Why would people fear the flu virus but not be afraid of hell? Jesus said, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28). The prospects of God's judgment are truly frightening, but many ignore them.

The Christmas message declares, however, that we need not fear sin, death, or hell. God sent His Son to be born of a woman in order that He would redeem us from these enemies. While the Christ-child was still in His mother's womb, Zacharias rejoiced in the birth of the Messiah, that "being delivered from the hand of our enemies, [we] might serve Him without fear" (Luke 1:74).

Jesus is not like a flu shot that makes us immune to sin and death, for we still experience them in our lives. Jesus came to destroy death by keeping God's law perfectly and by sacrificing His life to pay the penalty of sin, which is death. Christmas marks a high point in God's work in rescuing the world. Even before Jesus was born Zacharias rejoiced in his Savior: "Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David"(Luke 1:68-69).

Christmas is a time for rejoicing in God's mercy toward sinners. By coming in human flesh, Jesus reveals God's love for all people. He wants all people to hear the Christmas message and believe that He is their Savior. God's Word states, "[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).

No medicine in the world will destroy death. No operations can remove it. No chemotherapy can attack it. "The wages of sin [remains] death" (Romans 6:23), but Jesus is the cure for both sin and death, as Isaiah wrote, "By His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). That healing "has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10).

Christmas means that fear need not be part of our life. Jesus said, "My peace I give to you -- let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). Jesus is the Prince of Peace who drives out fear, and through His advent at Christmas He leaves in His wake the blessed gift of eternal life.