The Second Sunday after Christmas
January 3, 2015
Galatians 4:4-7
“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (NIV1984)
Dear fellow heirs of our heavenly Father’s eternal riches,
Keep it simple. For the most part I am a relatively simple person. When it comes to food I much prefer a hamburger, French fries and a chocolate malt to pheasant under glass. When it comes to automobiles I am much more comfortable with points, plugs and condensers then I am with injectors, sensors and computer modules. I’ll take Windows over DOS commands any day of the week. And when it comes to relaxation sitting in a boat in the middle of a lake or sitting on the deck of our family’s lakehouse admiring the glory of God’s Creation is just my cup of tea. Keep it simple and I’ll be happy. Make it too complex and I begin to feel uncomfortable.
Do you ever feel that way, my friends? Do you ever feel that life just gets too complicated sometimes? Now I, of course, realize that there are times and there are situations, which are simply complicated. We can’t avoid or deny that. If you run your own business, or work the soil, or teach in a school, or have children—especially teenagers— living in your home you can expect to deal with some very complicated situations. But doesn’t that make you appreciate even more the simple things in life?
Chalk it up to the fact that I am a simple person at heart if you want to, but all too often I think people go out of their way to make religion far more complicated than it needs to be. That is why I love the Lord’s parables. Jesus was able to take deep theological truths and put them into the simplest pictures: the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31); the working of the Holy Spirit is like the blowing of the wind (John 3:7-8); the great day of judgment will be like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31ff).
The sermon text that we have before us this morning, my friends, is one of my all times personal favorites because it is yet another example of how the Lord our God can take deep theological truths and put them in words that are so simple that even I can understand them. For that reason I’d like us to study this portion of holy Scripture under the very simple theme of: God Sent His Son.
Why was Jesus born when He was? Wouldn’t it have been advantageous if Jesus had come into this world when both He and His followers had access to things such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, cell phones and frequent flier miles? All such questions are answered when Scripture very simply tells us that God sent His Son “when the time had fully come.” When we look at the history of this world it becomes very easy for us to see that the “timing” of Jesus’ birth was simply perfect. From all of eternity God knew that once He had allowed the Romans to conquer that particular area of the world there would be relative peace throughout the land, there would be relative safe and easy travel by both land and by sea, and there would be a common language throughout the empire. So “when the time had fully come,” when absolutely everything was simply perfect— God sent His Son!
The beautiful simplicity of our text continues when the apostle Paul tells us that God sent His Son “born of a woman.” Notice how Scripture does not go into a long detailed dissertation to try to logically explain to us the miracle of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. We are simply told that God became a man. The Creator of all things slept in a cradle. The Almighty was born as a helpless human baby. God sent His Son “born of a woman.”
This awesome truth is then heightened even more when Paul says, “God sent his Son, born of a woman born under law.” God has a twofold requirement for anyone who wants to live with Him in His heavenly home. First, they must possess perfect righteousness and holiness. “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Second, they must be completely free from all sin. Both of those requirements certainly exclude me— and they certainly exclude you as well as every other human being from living with God in His heavenly Home.
That’s why God sent His Son “born of a woman, born under law.” Even though Jesus is the Divine Author of the Law and is not subject to it, even though Jesus is absolutely perfect in every single way He willingly placed Himself under the rules and regulations of the Law so that He might live the perfect life which we are completely incapable of living. Now think about that for a moment, my friends. In thought, in word and in deed Jesus never once broke even one of the Commandments. As a child, as a teenager, as an adult Jesus lived an impeccable perfect life. Not even Jesus’ most bitter enemies could find anything wrong either in Jesus’ life or in His words (see John 8:46). Is this perhaps because Jesus was never tempted to sin? Is this perhaps because Jesus never had to face the things you and I face today? Hardly. In the book of Hebrews we are told, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are— and yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
The simple fact that Jesus lived a perfect life under the Law as our substitute also had a very simple purpose: God sent His Son “to redeem those under law.” The picture, which Paul paints with those simple words, my friends, can literally take a lifetime to truly understand and personally appropriate. The picture is this: by nature we are all born slaves to sin and slaves to the Law of God. This means that the Almighty God of heaven and earth fully expects us to keep without faltering the righteous requirements which He has set before us. But whether it is the natural law which is inscribed on everyone’s heart (see Romans 2:12-16) or whether it is the revealed Law summarized for us in the Ten Commandments the simple fact of the matter is that we have not kept God’s Law nor can we do so! The consequence for not keeping God’s Law perfectly is swift and simple: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). That’s where Paul’s picture begins, but thankfully that’s not where Paul’s picture ends.
If left to ourselves, if left on our own we would all end up paying the penalty for our own sins by enduring an eternity of suffering in hell. But God sent His Son “born under law to redeem those under law.“ Very literally what Paul is saying here is that Jesus Christ has set us free from the slavery to sin and Jesus has set us free from the curse of the law. And how did Jesus do this without violating the perfect justice of God which demands payment in full for all of our sins? In chapter three of his letter to the Galatians Paul gives us the answer to this all-important question. He writes, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: `Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree'” (3:13). (Pointing to the cross) The price that God willingly paid to redeem us was nothing less than the holy precious blood of His only begotten Son. Yes, my friends, as we continue to gaze into the manger at Bethlehem we simply can not lose sight of the fact that God sent His Son into our world knowing that He would be “crushed for our iniquities.” As we continue to gaze into the manger at Bethlehem we simply can not lose sight of the fact that God sent His Son into our world with the full realization that one day His tiny little hands and His tiny little feet would be “pierced for our transgressions.”
“God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under Law, to redeem those under law.” Such simple words for such eternally important truths! And yet, the awe and the wonder of it all does not stop there, does it. The simple fact of the matter is that God sent His Son so that you and I could be adopted as the sons and daughters of God. Paul says, “God sent his Son…that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out `Abba, father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
Does it get any simpler than this? Purely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ we are the dearly beloved adopted children of the one and only true God. Purely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ God the Holy Spirit has given us both the power and the privilege to call upon God as confidently and as freely as dear children call out “Daddy!” Purely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ we have been guaranteed an inheritance that neither Bill Gates nor Warren Buffet nor Mark Zuckerberg nor all of them combined could ever fathom of handing down to their heirs. Our inheritance centers on an eternity of living in the glorious presence of the Triune God Himself, an eternity of enjoying the incomparable riches of heaven. All of this is ours, my friends, simply because— God sent His Son!
So much for Christmas being over! When we know that Christmas is the celebration of when God sent His Son to be our Savior Christmas simply can not be a once a year event. Every single day is to be a day when you and I live in the light of those gloriously simple words: God sent His Son! And just exactly what does it mean to live in the light of those words? Let me highlight just three things. First, living in the light of the words “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law” means that we recognize the immeasurable value that God places upon each and every one of us. What greater source of self-worth and self-respect can there be than to know that God loves us so much that He was willing to come into our world as our true Brother to live a perfect life as our substitute, to die an innocent death to pay for our sins and to physically rise from the dead on the third day all so that we could live in His heavenly home? So if you ever begin to feel worthless, if Satan ever directly or indirectly through other people tries to convince you that you are not good for anything, remember the cradle, remember the cross, remember Paul’s simple words: God sent His Son!— for you!
Secondly, living in the light of the words “God sent his Son…to redeem those under law” means that we daily strive with the help of God to make sure that we don’t allow ourselves to become tangled up again in a web of sin. “Just try it…Only this one time…Nobody will ever know.” Whenever you hear words such as that remember the price that God paid to redeem you from your slavery to sin. Can anything this world has to offer be worth forfeiting our eternal heavenly inheritance and being drowned in the lake of eternal fire when purely by the grace of God we know that God sent His Son to redeem us?
And finally, living in the light of the words “God sent his Son…that we might receive the full rights of sons” means that we will not begin to think for even a moment that what we do or do not have when it comes to the material things of this world is in any way the most important thing of all. The happiest most content people I have ever known lived a little hand built coral-rock house with no color television, no satellite dish, no cable, no personal computer, no fancy new car, no diversified stock portfolio, no exotic vacations. They truly and honestly lived as sojourners here on this earth because they truly and honestly believed that God sent His Son so that they could live with Him in His eternal heavenly mansion!
“God sent His Son.” Such simple words! Such profound meaning! Remember them! Live by them! Rejoice in them!
To God be the glory!
Amen
