The Bible tells us that Mary knew she needed a Saviour. And in the weeks after Jesus was born, a man called Simeon declared (as He saw Jesus), that He had seen God’s salvation. Indeed, it seems like almost everyone recorded in the Christmas story knew that Jesus was the Saviour of the world. But King Herod didn’t want it to be true. And so as it turned out, neither did the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day. But their hard hearts didn’t change the reality of what had happened, that God had sent Jesus into this world to pay for our sin.

Today, we are each left with the same choice as we hear the many carols that declare Jesus is the Saviour of the World — do we believe that to be true, or do we hope that it isn’t. It’s a choice that our eternal life hangs on.