GAL: 4:4-7 8/16/08 CHRISTMAS
Did you know that there are many people through out our land that don’t know the true origins of Christmas? What I mean by that is many folks don’t realize that the birth of Christ is really what its about. And even those of us that do know the true meaning of Christmas tend to forget it amidst all of the shopping, and gift giving, and family get togethers with all the good eating etc. let me say that we don’t really know for certain what day the Lord was born, but we do know for certain that He was born, so we recognize Dec. 25 as a time to remember His birth.
So today I want to talk a little on what Christmas is.
The Galatians also needed a reminder about the significance and meaning of Christmas.
Now the word Christmas is not in the bible anywhere, but The Galatians were turning from the Gospel of the grace of God to the bondage of the law.
Paul wrote to the Galatians to remind them of the significance of what Christ had done for them when he came to the earth.
Galatians 4:4 4But when the fulness of the time was come,{At the time determined by God, God the Father sent forth God the Son, born of a woman, born under the Law. Mary was a Jewish woman.} God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, -5To redeem them that were under the law, {Jews} that we {everybody} might receive the adoption of sons.
6And because ye are *sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. {This cry of Abba, Father reveals deep emotion coming from the indwelling Holy Spirit.} 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
What is Christmas really all about?
I. ITS ABOUT THE ADVENT OF THE SAVIOUR
In these verses we see some very important things about Jesus Christ and his coming to earth.
a) First we see his Divine Origin---there was an event that took place before the birth of Christ in the manger, even before the conception of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
It was the sending forth of Christ from God the Father.
We’re told in Gal.4:4 "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son". Christ had always existed with the Father. Jesus the Christ was born.
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." When was the beginning?
Billions of years back of creation. He already was; He comes out of eternity to meet us. He did not begin. “In the beginning was the Word”—He was already there when the beginning was.
As a man Jesus prayed to the Father, John 17:5 5And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Christ had always existed in perfect loving fellowship with God the Father. One day at the precise time, God sent him forth. It was Gods plan even before there was a world.
1st pet.1: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
Jesus made a conscious choice to be sent.
Philippians 2: 5-8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:* 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto *not until death, even the death of the cross.
In love for humanity the Father sent the Son, & in love for the Father and humanity Jesus willingly went.
Jesus willingly and obediently and lovingly left a place of glory and sinless ness, and ceaseless worship and perfection, and unbroken fellowship with the Father. From the bosom of the Father, to the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Imagine all the fullness of the Godhead was dwelling inside this young virgin.
· This is his divine origin.
And then His full humanity---"made of a woman"
The previous statement "God sent forth His Son" could be said of no other man in the history of the world.
The next statement, "made of a woman" is true of all men. While Jesus was fully divine in origin, he was likewise fully human. He entered the world just as you and I entered the world. He was born of a woman. He was a man. He was Mary’s son. He hungered, and thirsted, and ate, and drank, and worked, and played, and laughed, and wept, and hurt, and bled, and prayed, and lived, and died as a man.
Jesus’ most frequent title for himself was "Son of Man". He used it to stress his full humanity. After all, it was the seed of the woman, a man that would crush the head of the serpent, the devil. Gen.3: 15 He became a man.
Then also we see from this verse:
that although he was God’s son he subjected himself to God’s law. In fact, when he began to teach he made clear that he had not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.
He said in matt. 5:17 17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil And that he did perfectly. He fulfilled it, not only outwardly, but perfectly obeying God’s law from the heart. This couldn’t be said of no other man who has ever lived.
Christmas is about the advent of the Saviour.
He lowered himself, he condescended, He came down in order that we c0uld go up when the rapture takes place.
II. THE ACCEPTANCE OF SINNERS
Verse 5 begins with the word "to". To do what? Paul tells us why Christmas came, why he was born, why he lived under the law.
a) To redeem them that were under the law---To redeem means to set free, to purchase ones freedom. Who are "them that were under the law"?
Well, first this speaks of the Jewish people. Rom.3:1What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
What are the oracles of God? Rom.9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
"Unto them, the ISRAELITES were committed the oracles of God".
Christ came to set his own people free from the enslavement of the law. The law was given directly to them. However, all men are subject to and accountable to the law of God. Paul said of the gentiles, (Romans 2:14-15) 14For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;
ALTHOUGH THE GENTILES Were NEVER UNDER THE Mosaic Law, they are under Gods morale law, which is the 10 commandments.
PS.147:19He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 20He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.
All men are subject to God’s Moral law Jew and Gentile alike.
God’s moral law alone cannot make us righteous. Knowing the rules, and trying to keep the rules in our own power has always resulted in failure. We need something more than a written moral code. We need a change of heart.
Adam and Eve broke one law, one command, and they brought death not only to themselves but to all mankind.
Let me say that Gods law has not been done away with, Gods law is just as solid as it ever has been, the great difference is that our wonderful Lord &Savior is the only Person Who has ever completely been able to keep and fulfill Gods holy law. Therefore since we that are saved are in Christ Jesus and He’s in us we also keep Gods law through Him.
We read in Ezekiel 18: 20The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Then we read in Eph.2: 1And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins
Jesus came to set us free from the law and its curse of death and hell. How did he do it? Gal.3: 13 "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree."
He freed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Moses said in his law, "cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." He descended as low as becoming a curse.
Isaiah 53:4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He removed our curse by taking our curse as he suffered, and bled, and died on the cross.
~"Free from the law oh happy condition. Jesus hath bled and there is remission. Bruised by the fall, and cursed by the law, but grace hath redeemed us once and for all." ~
God’s curse has been once and for all removed, for all those that believe.
Why did he remove our curse?
Our text verse says in Gal.4:5--, that we {everybody} might receive the adoption of sons.
That we might receive the adoption of sons---He set us free from the curse so that he could place us in his family, so that you and I could become adopted sons & daughters of God, bearing all rights and privileges as natural sons and daughters.
1st Jn.3:1 1Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: From slavery to sonship.
The bible says in Eph.2:3 --and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Our sin is an offense to God, It is repulsive to Him.
He made possible through his death for us to be accepted as his adopted sons.
So Christmas is about the Acceptance of Sinners.
Lastly it’s about, THE ASSURANCE OF THE SPIRIT
God sent forth Jesus to redeem us. Gal.4:-- God inhabited human flesh. Phil.2:
All of that took place outside of us. Our redemption, our adoption, these are things we can know about and believe, but they all take place outside of us. We had absolutely nothing to do with it.
But God makes it real to us. He sends forth again. Once again the divine takes up residence in the human.
Gal.4:6 God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
God lives in our innermost being.
It’s a personal Christmas. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ making us alive, making us know that we are children of God for the Holy Spirit within us cries out "Abba Father".
A term used by a loving and trusting child to his or her daddy.
