12.25.2022 Galatians 4:4–7
4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, 5 in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ.
The Father Gives Us the Two Greatest Gifts We Could Ever Have This Christmas
The time has come! After all of the hype, the shopping, the music, it’s finally here. It’s Christmas! Christmas brings travel for many people. The further you have to travel, the more challenging it can be. Plane flights can be canceled. Cars can break down or get caught in bad weather. When Logan went to Germany a while back, we were concerned about a short layover in England and then whether he’d be let into Germany with their Covid restrictions. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I was very thankful when his future father in law sent me a picture of him having arrived safe and sound.
Today we celebrate the sending and arrival of a different Son, God’s Son. You could almost say it was into another dimension, much more dangerous and much longer than getting on a plane. He came into the world of flesh through the womb of a woman. God sent his Son to be born of a woman. This is different from the birth of any other child, because Jesus existed BEFORE He took on flesh. As John 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. God the Father, in cooperation with the Son, decided to send Jesus into our world. Coming through the womb of a woman is no easy task. Think about sitting on an airplane for a 15 hour flight. You can get up and stretch your legs. Think about being bound inside the womb of a woman for nine months. Think about being born in a cattle stall without any midwives or doctors or medicines on hand. We don’t like driving a few hours through wind and snow. Jesus went through so much more than this in order to enter our world and become one of us.
Jesus was born “of a woman.” Why doesn’t Paul mention Mary’s name? Maybe the Holy Spirit was guarding against what would happen with Mary within Catholicism by not naming her. But from a positive aspect, perhaps it shows us how integral women were to the salvation plan of God. God Himself chose to come into a woman’s womb to enter our world. This whole promise was made all the way back in the Garden of Eden, through a woman. Women were to be the pipeline through which life and light entered our world. Christmas comes with the blessings of pregnancy and childbirth. It’s a shame that our world doesn’t look at pregnancy and childbirth that way.
Why did the Father send the Son into our world this way? so that he would be born under the law, 5 in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. Think about this from a purely physical perspective. Jesus suddenly would bind Himself to the laws of gravity and time and space. Even though He could walk on water and float through the air, most often He’d walk and eat and sleep and drink like all of us do. He’d have to do this from birth. This was more than a 2 year project. It was a lifelong project for Jesus, from CONCEPTION.
Take it a step deeper, from a spiritual perspective. Jesus more importantly put Himself under the law that God gave to humanity and to the Jews. When a young adult has to move back in with his parents after a time, it is difficult to put himself under the rules of the parents, being home at a certain time and keeping the music down, making the bed and not leaving a mess. When an adult gets really old, his children then have to become the parents and tell their own parents what to do. They don’t often like that too much. It’s not easy. Then think of Jesus. I wouldn’t doubt for a minute that Jesus helped on a regular basis with Joseph’s carpentry work. When His parents told Him to go to bed, He had to go to bed, even when He wasn’t tired. When it came time for the Sabbath, He would go to the synagogue and study the Bible that He was an integral part of. When they demanded taxes, Jesus would pay taxes, even to a government that ended up putting Him to death unjustly. When the disciples needed their feet washed, He would put on the towel and wash them Himself. Jesus would constantly have needy people coming to Him for help and healing. His schedule was bound by the needs of those around Him, under the law of love. He did all this while limiting Himself to having human amounts of energy and strength, so He got TIRED from it all.
Think also of the INJUSTICE Jesus suffered while under the law. When the law said that Jesus had to turn the other cheek and leave justice to God, He would have to allow Himself to be spat upon and mocked and slapped in the face without any retribution on His own. He would be humbled to pray for those who called for His death and humiliated Him. Worst of all, He would end up having to go under the law of suffering and death for the sins of the world. Ultimately, He would be under the law of damnation at the wrath of God. Jesus chose to go under this law, His holy and perfect and just law.
What can we compare this to? Imagine moving to China. From what I hear it’s turning into a surveillance state. They video tape you doing everything, and if you break any type of law your social credit gets docked. They start taking away your travel privileges and you could end up in jail. During Covid they have gone so far as to weld people into their own homes so they can’t escape. I would never choose to go live there with such draconian tactics. They have shut down churches and imprisoned Muslims and Christians alike. We still have freedoms of speech and religion here in America. Why would I want to move there when I have so many freedoms here? Or who would move to Russia after what Brittany Griner had to go through for making a seemingly minor violation of the law? Yet how does that compare to the Father sending Jesus to live here, knowing what we would do to Jesus? This is what Christmas is about. when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law,
Why did the Father send the Son to do this? in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. Paul wrote this letter to Jews who grew up under the law. They didn’t think they would be real “Jews” without keeping the Law. Their whole identity revolved around their hair styles and their clothing and their rituals. Now their identity wasn’t bound to the laws they kept. It was bound to Jesus, who kept the laws for them. Jesus saved them from the law and its condemnation.
The same is true for us! Imagine being locked up in jail for life, with a death sentence when you turn 80 for a crime you actually committed. Your cellmates were dangerous. Your food wasn’t great. You were under constant threat. You had a hard time sleeping. The guards were mean as well. But what if you had an identical twin brother or sister, a good twin, who led a righteous life, lived in a beautiful mansion, who came in to visit you. During the visit he or she exchanged clothes with you, took your sentence, and set you free. You walk out with their identity, free to go, able to return to the mansion that he or she earned. He or she goes into the jail cell and rides out your sentence. That’s why Jesus came here, to take our spot, to pay the price we owed God, to set us free. He came to take our identity as sinful humans, and we get His identity as righteous and holy. At the cross He became every sinner that’s ever lived, male and female, black and white, all people of all time. He came to free us from the consequences of eternal death, from God’s wrath, and from hell. That’s the gift that starts with Christmas.
But wait! That’s not all. What good is this gift if we don’t want it or we don’t know about it? Have you ever found an old gift that you wrapped but never put under the tree years afterwards? It didn’t do any good sitting in a closet. The gift of Jesus doesn’t do any good, without the gift of the Holy Spirit to open it and put Jesus in our heart and soul. So many people live without that gift. They reject it. They don’t want it. They’d rather identify themselves with their sexuality or their jobs or their successes in life, how much money they make or what color their hair is or whether they are married or single.
This second gift is just as important as the first, because it gives us a different identity in Christ. God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ. It’s kind of interesting that the Holy Spirit “shouts” into our hearts. The literal word is “crying out.” The Holy Spirit has to speak through the noise of this world. Sometimes when I go to visit shut ins I have to ask them to turn off the TV, otherwise it will distract from our conversation. I want them to pay attention. The Holy Spirit has to cry out through the noise of this world, the distractions, the lies. People are obsessed over politics sometimes. Others are bound to their TV shows and melodramas. Fixed to their phones with the updates and likes. Many only want to listen to their feelings and their emotions, thinking what they want about God. We all are ultimately born deaf to what God has to say. But what does the Holy Spirit do? He shouts through the noise. He wakes us up, not with a nagging yell, but with a loving cry. “Repent of your sins! Turn to Christ! God loves you! He sent His Son into this world to save you and to die for you. He’s paid for you! He wants to free you from this world. Free you from death. Free you from fear! Find your identity in Him, as God’s beloved child!”
Through this miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, He takes us into the household of God through the cross of Christ, and He opens up a completely different Father than we’d ever imagine. I recall growing up I had a huge pastor at about 6’5” tall with a deep voice. He was a very intimidating man. But when I went to visit him at home with my parents years later, I saw a completely different man. He was jovial and friendly. He told some funny stories. It opened up a different side of my pastor I had never seen before. Isn’t that what the Holy Spirit does for us when He brings us to faith? He brings us into the household of God, and we see a vision of God the Father we’d never be able to see otherwise.
He’s not just a holy God who hates sinners and judges sin. He’s also a loving God who sent His Son to die for us. He loves us just as much as the Son. On Facebook I’ve seen a WELS pastor and his wife go through watching their son Finneas get treatments for cancer. It must be heartrending for them. How much more would it be for the Father not only to see Jesus suffer, but to cause Jesus to suffer as well. Why? In order to see us forgiven! What a gift! What love that comes from the Son AND the Father! So the Holy Spirit wants to give us this behind the scene look of the Father, who sends the Son to save us. He’s not only the God of the Flood and the God of Hell, He’s also the God of mercy and compassion and salvation.
This God makes it easy for us to be saved. The Holy Spirit points to what Jesus already did. You get washed with a little bit of water, God puts His name on you, bathes you in Jesus blood, and adopts you into His family. He gives you angels to protect you. He works out your life so that you can resist temptation and stay in the faith. He has Christmas happen for you time and again when Jesus comes to you personally through the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, giving you His body and blood. God does all this for you. The Holy Spirit tells us this through the word of God. Why? So that we aren’t afraid to call out to God. “Abba!” That’s the Aramaic name for “Father!”
When you adopt a pet, you might think, “Oh, this dog is so cute and cuddly! I can’t wait to take care of it.” But then you know you should take the dog for a walk. You have to clean up the dog poo. You have to clean up its vomit once in a while. You didn’t realize how much work this pet would be. You’re not too thrilled when the dog barks at anyone and everything. You start having second thoughts in hindsight. God, in His divinity, knew exactly who you’d be. He knew how much work you would cause Him, how much suffering and death and heartache, yet He chose to adopt you ANYWAY and make you His own.
In the movie The Blind Side, a big and troubled African American young man was adopted into a rich family and given a house to live in. It helped him to settle down and concentrate on school and sports, using his talents to become an all-pro football player. God has adopted us into His family. We now know we have love, forgiveness, hope and salvation. We have His protection and care. Who would dare to think that this Father wants to damn us after all He’s given for us? Who would be afraid to call Him Father? Who would call Him a selfish dictator after all of His gracious gifts? Sadly, there are many who reject that very One and hurl all kinds of insults at Him. Not us. Thanks to the gift of the Spirit, we see the love of the Father through the gift of the Son. We see God’s love this Christmas.
If you were to receive a set of keys this Christmas, you would quickly know that those keys go with something else. They go to a car or a motorcycle or a vehicle or a house. The two go hand in hand. Today, this Christmas, we celebrate two of the greatest gifts we receive from the Father. He sends His Son into the world to save the world by living under the Law and paying the price for humanity. And then He sends the Holy Spirit who brings the Son into our hearts and shows us who the Father truly is. These gifts from the Father are the greatest gifts of all. They make us forgiven. They make us family. They give us peace. They change our view of God as a loving Father, and of ourselves as loved and forgiven children. You can’t get any greater gifts than these. Cherish them this Christmas and always. Amen.
