No one likes to talk about cancer.

I lost both my parents to the killer as well as numerous friends. My wife and I are now praying for several who are fighting for their lives against it. We hate it, but we talk about it virtually every time we get together with those who are dealing with it, partly because you can’t ignore the “elephant in the room” and partly because you will never defeat it by ignoring it!

I am not sure what I would think if someone told me that they had symptoms of cancer but figured it would go away if they ignored it.

I expect that we would all like to find a cure for cancer! How happy we would be if someone brought the dread disease to a forever end. Would the nation and the world not rejoice?

Imagine how the public announcement might be made. A spokesman for the cure’s creator might stand before a microphone bathed in lights and say something like this,

“I bring you joyful news which is available to everyone! We are now providing a life-saving treatment for all known strains of cancer!”  

Would such an announcement not be thrilling? How would cancer be viewed following such an announcement? Would anyone have reason to ignore it then?

If you witnessed such an announcement, would you not call any friend you knew who was dealing with cancer to ask if they heard the message, and if so, when they would seek treatment?

But let us shift now to the message of the angel that first Christmas as he spoke to the shepherds in the field near Bethlehem:

“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” (Luke 2:10, 11, NKJV).

The source of joy was not that a baby was born, but that a SAVIOR was born! And the clear implication of that message was that mankind stands in desperate need of a Savior! In other words, we are in deep trouble from which we cannot escape on our own.

Thus, the need for a Savior, just as one suffering the ravages of cancer needs a cure.

Knowing there are cures for many cancers, it would make no sense to ignore signs of the disease, and the same applies to the signs of sinfulness.

There is a sad and tragic parallel between ignoring signs of cancer and  ignoring signs of sin. Cancer symptoms ought not be ignored because the disease is potentially fatal. Signs of sinfulness also ought not be ignored because the consequences of sin are infinitely worse than those of cancer.

Cancer kills people physically, but sin kills people spiritually and eternally. Jesus, quoted in Matthew 25:41, says to those who do not love Him enough to turn from their sin,

“depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

People just don’t want to talk about or deal with sin. It makes them uncomfortable. Christmases come and go year after year. We celebrate Christ’s birth, but there is not a word about why He came!

Isn’t that strange? No one wants to talk about why He came, because He came to deal with our sin!

In our hearts we know that death is not really the end of us. We will exist somewhere forever, but we will be separated from those we know and love that we have left behind. And so it is that spiritual death is also separation, separation from God which will last forever if we do not settle the sin problem with Him while we have the opportunity. Mankind is so separated from God right now that many scoff at the idea of His existence; but the evidence of His being is abundantly clear.

Most people choose to ignore it because they love their sin. Bad choice!

You probably know some of the symptoms of cancer, and you may have regular check-ups to see whether any other signs show up in the tests. It makes sense. If you have cancer, you want treatment as soon as possible.

There are some who believe that with the growing percentage of people developing cancer there will come a time when everyone will contract it at some point in their lives. Cheery thought, that! But if there were a 100% cure, we would look at it quite differently. We would fear the diagnosis far less because we know it will be cured.

And so it ought to be with our sin! There is a cure!

There was a time when the proposition that people are basically good appeared to be reasonable. However, the cultural collapse we are witnessing in America as well as the events on the world’s stage ought to disabuse anyone of that notion. It is quite difficult to imagine anyone now saying that mankind is primarily good.

We live in markedly bad times, and mankind’s willingness to carry out unspeakable acts of barbarism on the streets, in the schools, and in the homes, exposes the fact of mankind’s depravity. World events only underscore this reality. We are not good! When we do good things, it is for selfish reasons; therefore deeds, which are good in themselves, are rendered sinful after all.

My point is this: if it is foolish to ignore symptoms of cancer, then it is infinitely worse to ignore the symptoms of sin, and you do have the symptoms, don’t you? Tragically, but honestly, we all do!

The Bible states that we are all contaminated by sin:

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23).

This is but one of many texts that declares our guilt. All the pain, all the violence, all the suffering, and all the dying are the consequences of sin. If you long for a cure for cancer, you should much more long for a cure for sin!

And again, there is a cure!

But before I get to it, I am reminded of the comments of the superintendent of my church’s day school, which enrolled around seven hundred students. He told of a public-school teacher who came with a group to tour the school. Following the tour, she turned to him and commented,

“I like the product you are putting out, but I don’t like the methods you use to achieve it.” 

That is like saying, “I love this cake, but I don’t like the recipe!” 

Sorry, without the recipe you don’t get the cake!

Without the methods and policies of that school, they would not turn out the quality of students they did.

If you are seeking a helpful message for life and peace, I challenge you to find a better one than the message of the Gospel! It may appear strange at first, but it is the only way.

I ask you to hear me out, for while I have been necessarily negative up to now, (The first step in solving a problem is to accurately and honestly define it), I now turn to the positive solution. You see, unlike cancer that may or may not be curable, there is a cure for sin, and it is one hundred percent effective!

It is that cure that is the heart of the real joy of Christmas!

One of the most striking characteristics of the Bible is the unity of its message. From its earliest pages it addresses the crisis that is mankind’s condition (which we are witnessing and suffering from on every hand) and promises a remedy. In the early pages of the first book of the Bible, in Genesis 3:15, using somewhat cryptic terms, the Bible promises that the enemy of mankind will one day be destroyed. God, speaking to Satan, promised that in the future, a Son of Eve “shall bruise your head.”

Approximately four thousand years later, following multiple Old Testament references to this coming One who was called the Son of Man, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God, and a variety of other names, we find His arrival “in the flesh.” He was gloriously announced to shepherds in the Judean wilderness, and the redemption and salvation of mankind began in earnest.

The events which began unfolding that day we now celebrate as Christmas. But we ought not get stuck at that point in the timeline. Our culture is very content to celebrate His birth two thousand years ago, but it is also determined to leave Him a child. Such a drama would do us no good whatever.

It was not Christ in a manger who saves us, but Christ the Man on a bloody cross thirty-three years later suffering the penalty for your sin and mine!

Everything Christ accomplished while on earth and on the cross could fill hundreds of pages; however, what is important to this article is that He successfully dealt with sin and removed its consequences from all who come to Him in faith.

In simplest terms, a person, honest with himself, knows that he has a problem inherent to who he is: he repeatedly does wrong and desires to do wrong. The Scriptures call this trait, “sin,” and advises us that it separates us from God who is holy and sinless.

It emphasizes that our sin will ultimately separate us eternally from Him in Hell if we do not turn from it in repentance.

Our problem? We like our sin! It pleases for a time, and, well, everybody does it, so it can’t be all that bad, right?

Wrong! It is not “everybody” who determines our destinies, but God! And He is the source of all that is truly good and beneficial, so to alienate Him is to ultimately lose all that is good.

But He leaves the choice with you. Genuine love cannot and will not coerce the one loved; so He paid our bill, told us the truth, warning about the results of our sin. He spelled out the destiny that awaits those who trust in Him, which is to be with Him in “the fullness of joy,” and of those who reject Him, which is the place absent all good things, filled with torments, known as Hell.

If we hold onto our sin, we cannot have Him! Seems like an easy choice to me!

This is the ignored part of the Christmas message. A baby in a manger is non-threatening. The God-man hanging on a cross, paying for your sin and mine who says, “Repent of your sin and trust in Me,” is quite another thing.

It is so hard to turn from sin! And so, many will not.

But what about you? It’s either God and Heaven or sin and Hell.

The choice is yours!

Why not receive the entire message of that first Christmas and come by faith to the manger to find, and accept, the Lord who came to “save us from our sins”?