“Listen again: ‘For to you is born a Savior, Christ the Lord, at Bethlehem in the town of David.’ See there what the gospel is: a joyous sermon concerning Christ, our Savior. He who preaches him properly, preaches the gospel and nothing but joy. What greater joy may a heart know than that Christ is given him as his very own? He does not just say: ‘Christ is born,’ but he appropriates Christ’s birth for us and says: ‘Your Savior.’ Thus the gospel does not merely teach the story and accounts of Christ, but personalizes them and gives them to all who believe in it, which is also (as mentioned above) the right and real nature of the gospel. … If there were something else to preach, then the evangelical angel and angelic evangelist would have touched on it.”

Martin Luther. “Sermon on the Gospel for Christmas Eve.” Luther’s Works. Volume 52. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974, page 21.