When you give agift at Christmas, for a birthday, or at any other time, you want to givesomething that the other person needs or will enjoy. You want to give somethingspecial that he or she doesn’t already have. So you think carefully, do someresearch, and pick what you hope will be the perfect gift.

The Today Show website provides a detailed holiday gift guide for any occasion, for any person, and for many interests. For instance, if you choose a Christmas gift for Mom, it recommends a Bamboo Bathtub Caddy Tray, a Mama Bear necklace, or a bottle of Domenica Fiore Extra Virgin Olive Oil, among other things. It assures you that your mother will really love these gifts and will really use them, too. (Would she?) If you choose a birthday gift for a child, the website recommends a Squoosh-O's Galaxy D.I.Y. Stress Ball Kit, a KD Kids Rescue Runts Husky Plush Dog, or the New York Times Bestseller book called "The Mysterious Benedict Society," by Trenton Lee Stewart. Are you convinced? Do these ideas sound like good recommendations? Are they the perfect gifts?

Though thegifts that the Today Show recommends may work for some people, none ofthese gifts compare to the gift that God has given to the world. His gift aloneis the one and only perfect gift for at least four reasons. Do you know whatthis gift is? Have you received it as your own?

The most necessary gift

For a gift tobe perfect, it should be necessary; it should meet a need of some kind. Yetsome gifts aren’t necessary at all. For example, who needs a jellybean scented iPhone case or a chia pet? At the same time, othergifts are necessary because they meet real needs. Diapers for babies, new pantsfor growing boys, and a gift card to Target for Mom and Dad – though gifts likethese meet real needs, they still do not qualify as the most necessary gift ofall.

Every personshares a common need that is even more important than food or water. We allneed a close relationship with God. You need a close relationship with Godbecause he is the Ruler over everything. Psalm 97:9 says, “You, LORD, are mosthigh above all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.”

You need aclose relationship with God because you have failed to reflect his glory.Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This isa serious problem because reflecting the glory of God is the reason that hemade you.

According toGenesis 1:26, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to ourlikeness.’” God made you to show his goodness and to demonstrate his love, tosay what he would say and to do what he would do. But you have failed to bethis kind of person. You have said hurtful or dishonest words and you have donehurtful and unloving things to other people.

You need a close relationship with God because your failures to reflect the goodness of God have separated from him. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

You need aclose relationship with God because death will take you away from him forever.Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” Wages are something youearn, and death is what you earn because of your sin. Death is a conceptwhich describes the way that everything decays and deteriorates over time,including the quality of your life in this world. This process culminatescompletely when you finally die.

Revelation20:14 says, “Death and Hades [will be] cast into the Lake of Fire.” Thisteaches that at some point in the future, you will stand before God to bejudged for the life that you lived. Because you have sinned, you will betransferred to the temporary place where dead people go called Hades to apermanent place called the Lake of Fire. This terrible experience will go onforever and you will be permanently separated from God with no hope for return.

You need aclose relationship with God because you can do nothing to meet this need on yourown. Isaiah 64:6 says, “We are all like an unclean thing, and all ourrighteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and ouriniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” When you do good things, thegood things you do are no better than bandages removed from one bodily woundand placed onto another.

Just as movinga bandage from one wound to another is not a sanitary practice, good works donot heal your problem of sin. They make your problem worse instead because yoursinfulness contaminates the good things you do. Your sins make you wither awaylike a leaf fallen from a tree and blown away into the distant horizon, neverto be seen again. Do you need this gift from God?

The most expensive gift

Some gifts arevery expensive. A diamond ring, a Ferrari, season tickets to your favorite stadium,or a piece of art by an acclaimed master artist will cost a fortune, but onegift is costlier than any other. It is the gift of God. What is this gift?  Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace you have beensaved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Thegift of God is the kind of salvation that is “by grace through faith.”

In other words,this gift is the kind of salvation that God gives you and you receive. It is notthe kind of gift that you can earn or work for in any way. Romans 6:23 says, “Thewages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus ourLord.” You have earned death for yourself forever because of your sin, but Godoffers an alternative. He offers a gift that is more expensive than anything atall. This gift is eternal life and it cost the life of Jesus Christ the Lord.

Jesus is God,yet he is also a man. He will judge the world someday, yet he also lived a lifelike you and I do. As a human being, he never sinned, and he always said anddid the right thing. Unlike you, he never once failed. He never fell short ofthe glory of God. He never failed to reveal the goodness and love of Godthrough his thoughts, words and actions.

As the perfect,innocent and powerful Son of God, Jesus died a cruel death. He chose to becomeguilty for your sins and to die your death in your place. He lived the lifethat you must live, and he died the death that you must die, and he did thisperfectly. There is no costlier gift than this, than the Son of God, the judgeof all mankind, suffering the consequences for the judgment you deserve toreceive.

Consider the story of John Griffin, who wasthe father of an 8-year-old boy during the 20’s and 30’s. John loved his sondearly. He was a normal little boy who frequently asked to go to work with hisfather. One day John granted his wish. John was bridge conductor on theMississippi River who was responsible to raise the bridge for boats to gothrough and to lower the bridge so that trains could pass over. His son was captivatedby the gears and machinery at the bridge station. On that day, as John and hislittle boy ate lunch on the bank of the river, he realized that the MemphisBelle train, carrying 300 passengers, would be crossing the bridge in 3 minutes– but the bridge was not lowered. Leaving his son on the shore, he movedquickly up the stairs to pull the lever and lower the bridge for the train.Before he did this, he realized to his chagrin that his son had climbed up thebridge and had fallen between the gears. John could hear the train coming roaringdown the track. He frantically considered ways to rescue his son and lower thebridge, but he knew he had to choose between both options. Knowing that thetrain carried 300 passengers, he chose to save their lives instead of his son.At the last moment, he turned his head and lowered the bridge just in time forthe train to pass, crushing his son in the gears. As the train whizzed by insafety, John saw a man reading his newspaper, a woman drinking her tea, andanother talking to his wife. No one realized that price that he had paid tomeet their need.

Jesus did not come into this world only to do good things and toteach good things. He did not come only to show us an example of how to live orto give us good feelings at Christmastime. He came to do something far moreserious and costly. He came to take your place in death. Every human death is atragedy, but the death of Jesus Christ is the most tragic death of all becausehe died as a completely innocent and perfect person. He shed his blood,relinquished his life, and ruined his reputation for you.

No religion, no worldview, no other god, and no philosophy of lifeand existence offers you a gift like this – in which the judge takes your placeand does everything necessary to take on the consequences for your sin and togive you his goodness instead. That is why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truthand the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Noother way can totally restore your relationship with God today and forever.Have you received this gift from God?

The most enduring gift

No matter whatgifts you give or receive this Christmas, and no matter how expensive ordurable those gifts may be, they will all come to an end someday (Matt 6:19-21).They will rust. The batteries will run out. They will break down, wear out orexpire. Someone may steal them, they may lose their value, or they may growobsolete over time.

But there isone gift that never ends, and that is the gift of eternal life. Eternal life isGod’s way of describing a new relationship with him. Jesus himself called thisbeing “born again” (John 3:7). Have you been born again? The gift of eternallife is not something that God gives to you as the result of some good worksthat you do or some rules that you follow. It is something that he gives, justas he gives you physical life as a human being. All of life is a gift and youcan do nothing to earn it.

You did notearn your right to be alive today, and you will cannot earn your right to aclose relationship with God. And that is why God calls eternal life a gift (Rom6:23). You don’t earn a gift. You receive a gift that someone else hasworked to provide for you. Jesus did the work. He lived the perfect life youneed to live but can’t. He died the death that you deserve to die forever. Andhe offers to hand over to you all that he has done in your place so that youcan have a close relationship with God forever.

By doing this,God now offers to you the perfect righteousness of Christ. If you receive thisgift from him, it is as though God will open the books of heaven and writebeside the record of your personal record of sins, “Paid in Full.” He will zeroout your account and you will have no more death to die. What’s more, he willwrite onto your record, “The Righteousness of Christ.” So when God looks at youin judgment, he will see the goodness of Jesus and not the badness of your sin.

This gift ofeternal life is more than a restored relationship with God. It is a restoredrelationship that lasts forever. When you take this gift from God by faith, heplaces you as a beloved child into his spiritual family forever and he willnever change his mind. Eternal life is a permanent gift that never ends andnever wears out. It will never disappear, and it will never go away. Romans8:38-39 says, “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities norpowers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor anyother created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which isin Christ Jesus our Lord.” Have you received this gift of eternal life?

The most unwanted gift

There is noother gift so necessary, there is no other gift so costly, and there is noother gift so enduring as the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Yeteven so, there is no other gift so unwanted. Romans 3:11 says, “There is nonewho understands; there is none who seeks after God.”

You would assume that no one would reject this gift from God. You would expect that everyone would want to receive it. After all, when Apple unveils a new iPhone or Nintendo releases a new game system, people line up outside, through the night, in frigid temperatures to get their hands on these things as soon as possible, even though these phones will fail to satisfy them in the end and will become obsolete over time. Sadly we do not respond to the gift of God this way. Instead, we respond like a young child who receives a crocheted sweater from Grandma at Christmas. We look at it for a second and throw it to the side, looking for something else more exciting.

Is God workingin your heart? Is he pointing out the problem of your sin? Is he showing youthat the good things you do are not good enough? Is he making you aware of yourfuture moment before the throne of God for judgment? Is he warning you aboutyour future death and separation from him forever?

If so, then youneed to receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ alone. You needto take what he is offering. To receive an ordinary gift, you need to reach outyour hands and open the wrapping. But to receive this gift from God, you needto change your mind in two important ways.

First, you mustturn away from any other deity, religion, or belief system and whatever elseyou may be relying upon. You must admit that you are a sinner who does not havea real relationship with God and who will be condemned by him at the futurejudgment. To turn away from these things and to acknowledge your sinfulness isto repent. Will you change your mind like this today? Acts 16:30 says,“God … commands all men everywhere to repent.”

As you turnaway from other beliefs and acknowledge your sin, you must turn towards Jesusalone as your God and Savior instead. It is not enough to believe in God (Jam2:19). You must believe in Jesus as your God and Savior. This means thatyou will trust in him to remove your guilt for sin and you will receive thegift of his good standing before God as your own. Acts 16:31 says, “Believe onthe Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” John 3:16 says, “God so lovedthe world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in himshould not perish but have everlasting life.” And Romans 10:13 says, “Whoevercalls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Have youreceived this gift of eternal life from God? Have you changed your mind aboutother religious beliefs and the awfulness of your sin? Have you turned to JesusChrist alone as your God and Savior? Have you received forgiveness from sinsand eternal life forever in a close relationship with God? If you, you shoulddo so today. This gift of God is more necessary, costly, and enduring than anyother gift you will ever receive. Don’t let it go unopened.