The Ghost That Still Converts Us: What A Christmas Carol Gets Right—and Wrong—About Redemption
Every December, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol returns to our cultural imagination. We watch Ebenezer Scrooge transform from a miserly, isolated man muttering “humbug” at every mention of Christmas, into a joyful, generous soul who embodies the so-called “Christmas spirit.” It’s a heart-warming story. But for the Christian, there’s an obvious problem: the “redemption” Scrooge finds does not come through Christ. It comes through sentiment.
Yet Dickens’ story, almost accidentally, contains a deeper truth—one that Scripture makes explicit. Redemption requires a confrontation with our mortality. No one seeks salvation until they see the grave before them.
Scrooge’s Christmas Eve journey mirrors this biblical reality far more closely than the sentimental ending suggests.
When the Dead Warn the Living—And It Still Isn’t Enough
Scrooge’s first supernatural visitor is his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley—chained, tormented, and desperate to warn him. But even this terrifying sight leaves Scrooge unmoved.
Scripture explains why.
Jesus gives us the account of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31). The rich man, now in torment, pleads that someone be sent from the dead to warn his brothers. Abraham’s answer is stunning:
“If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.”That is precisely Scrooge’s response. No matter how horrifying Marley’s bondage, Scrooge is not changed. The sins and mortality of others cannot redeem a man. Conviction must become personal.
The Ghost of Christmas Past and the Gospel of Felt Needs
The next spirit shows Scrooge his lost joys, early innocence, and gradual moral decline. This is sentimentality masquerading as salvation. Churches often fall into the same trap—offering a “felt needs” gospel: Look how your life once was; look how happy you could be again.
But nostalgia cannot regenerate a soul either.The addict does not need a reminder of who he used to be. He needs the truth of what he is: a sinner in need of grace. Scrooge sees his past, but he is not redeemed by it. No one is.
The Ghost of Christmas Present and the Religion of Self-Improvement
Then comes the Ghost of Christmas Present—my favorite scene in the story. This spirit exposes the misery of the world, the suffering of others, and the ugliness of Scrooge’s own life. His final revelation—the children Ignorance and Want—feels like a prophetic warning.
Yet even this doesn’t redeem Scrooge.
In our day, many conservative thinkers play this same role. Jordan Peterson, for instance, brilliantly diagnoses cultural decay and teaches the disciplines that make life bearable again. And for that, I’m grateful.
But the ghost of “present wisdom” can only take someone so far. It may improve habits, but it cannot resurrect a dead heart. It does not answer the ultimate question: What happens when you die?
Self-improvement is not salvation. Good rules are not redemption. A man must behold his eternal need—not merely his temporal misery.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come: The One That Finally Converts
Only one spirit gets through to Scrooge: the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
Why?
Because this spirit confronts him with the one truth no man can evade forever: you will die.
Scrooge trembles at the sight of his tombstone. He stalls. He hesitates. He doesn’t want to look. No one does.
Scripture meets us in that fear:
“It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” — Hebrews 9:27
Every redeemed man in history has been confronted with this truth. No one flees to Christ until he sees the just judgment awaiting him. It is not sentiment that saves; it is not nostalgia; it is not self-help; it is not the “Christmas spirit.”
It is the terrible clarity that sin has earned death—and that death leads to judgment.
Jesus’ parable in Luke 12:16–21 makes the point with surgical precision. The rich man who built bigger barns assumed he had years ahead. God’s response: “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you.”
Scrooge and that rich man share the same fatal delusion: a refusal to face their own mortality.
Once Scrooge sees his end, he changes. Dickens gets the mechanism right—even if he gets the solution wrong.
What Dickens Missed—and What We Must Not
In Dickens’ version, Scrooge finds redemption by embracing the “spirit of Christmas” and rediscovering human kindness.
But in reality, only Jesus Christ redeems. Only His blood satisfies justice. Only His resurrection offers the hope that overcomes the grave, the Ghost revealed.
Still, Dickens gives us an evangelistic gift: a cultural story that already knows a man must face death before he can be changed.
So, this Christmas, let that truth drive your conversations. Your neighbor does not need mere seasonal cheer. He needs redemption. And redemption requires proclaiming both mortality and judgment—so that grace becomes more than a holiday sentiment.
Merry Christmas—and God bless us, every one.
