He shall be Peace! (Micah 5)

 If you want to get warm, you must stand by the fire; if you want to be wet, you must get into the water.  If you want joy, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.  They are not the sort of prizes which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.  They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality.   (C. S. Lewis: Mere Christianity)

"He shall save His people from their sins" is the usual formulation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the word "sin" does not convey much to our minds.  We fail to associate that word with the primeval darkness and chaos --- the world before the creative word of God: Light! Be!

In the Hebrew scriptures, the initial darkness was called tohu vavohu,  "wild and waste," "the chasm," or "void,"  chaos.  That is a better description of where sin leaves us --- in darkness, in confusion, in separation from goodness and peace and joy.  But God sent His eternal Light into the darkness and gradually pushed back the chaos.  

In his great hymn of praise at the birth of John the Baptist, Zachariah says, Because of the loving-kindness of our God, wherewith the Orient from on high has visited us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1).

Zachariah's words are a better description of "sin."  They convey what sin actually does when we separate ourselves from the "the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality," in the words of C.S. Lewis.  Sin causes us to 'sit in darkness and the shadow of death," a death and darkness which gradually envelopes not only the one who sins, but all those around him.  We do not perceive that our world is gradually growing more dim and more chaotic until we find ourselves unable to escape from the prison we ourselves have created.  

Jeus, save me! When we see the Light of the World approaching, we recognize the chaos into which we have fallen, and we call to the One Who has overcome death.  "He shall be Peace" says Micah the prophet.  He will save us from the primordial darkness, fear, and chaos:  Those who were sitting in darkness have seen a great light!  Merry Christmas!