Video game producers don't play games. Today's New York Times is reporting that Ken Kutaragi, the father of Sony's PlayStation console, will no longer run the video game unit's day-to-day affairs. The move comes just a few weeks after PlayStation 3 hit the market following a year of technical problems and delays. Reviews of the new product have been mixed. As has Mr. Kutaragi's status at Sony.

If we measure ourselves by others, we can usually find someone who's having a harder time than we are. Criminals in the news make us feel better about our own morality. But if we measure ourselves by our attitudes and not just our actions, and if we judge ourselves in the light of God's holiness, we realize quickly that we are not the moral creatures we appear to be. Why does the fact of our fallen nature deserve notice as we enter this Christmas season?

Because Advent is the antidote to our condition. The Incarnation is the chemotherapy which cures the malignancy of our souls. Why? How?

Remember how things were before Jesus entered the human race. The Jewish people were doing their best to observe the 613 laws their rabbis taught them to follow. They made regular, even daily sacrifices to atone for their failures and sins. The Gentiles had no such access to God's word and worship, and were even more lost in their fallen condition. We were a race without help or hope.

Then Jesus stepped into the story. The Creator visited his creation. It had always been the Father's plan for his Son to come to our fallen planet, to die that we might live. Because Jesus committed no sin of his own, he owed no debt to the Holy God. As a result, his death could pay the penalty we deserved. He could substitute for us, satisfying the demands of justice while offering us the mercy of God's grace.

Now his Holy Spirit is ready to create the character of God's Son in God's children. He is working to manifest the marks of Jesus in our lives: his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). He does not want to make us better people--he wants to make us new people. If you have surrendered this Friday morning to his control, the Spirit is doing that work in you now.

Because of Christmas, you and I can experience the presence of Christ in our souls. And we can be the presence of Christ in our world. This is the gift, and the promise, of God.

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