As we have thought about the meaning of Christmas, we have said that Christmas means that God has rescued us and that God can relate to us. But there is yet another thought for us to consider concerning the meaning of Christmas. Christmas means that God has redeemed us.
Jesus came "at just the right time," for the purpose of redeeming the human race. The meaning of the word "redeem" is "to buy back." In other words, Jesus came to earth for the purpose of buying back that which had been lost from God. This was His purpose in coming, this is why he was "sent" by God (v. 4). He was sent to redeem us.
1. The price of redemption - v. 4
Jesus willingly assumed two things:
A. He assumed man’s position - "born of a woman"
When Jesus Christ was born into this world, divinity took on humanity. God took on flesh. As he walked upon this earth, He assumed the position of being a human being, who felt pain, hunger, weariness, and faced temptation. He got down on our level. He experienced everything we experience, with one important exception. Jesus never experienced sin. He lived a sinless, perfect life as a human being upon this earth.
B. He assumed man’s predicament - "born under law"
Man’s predicament is that we are under condemnation because we cannot live a life that measures up to God’s righteous standard.
"All fall short of God’s glorious standard." - Romans 3:23 (NLT)
Most people today, tragically, refuse to accept God’s assessment of their situation. They want to excuse or justify their sin, explaining it away, or trying to re-categorize their behavior.
They are about God’s law the way former Surgeon General under president Bill Clinton, Jocelyn Elders was about the law of the United States. As Jocelyn Elders left the courthouse in which her son was convicted for possession of heroin, she was asked how she felt about him breaking the law. Hers being the voice for the legalization of drugs in our society, she replied, `I don’t think he broke the law.’
Now, with all due respect to one of our former public servants, it really didn’t matter what she thought about the situation, the fact was that the courts said that her son had broken the law. Likewise, it doesn’t matter what new names people want to call sin by, or how they might refuse to admit their guilt, what counts is what the judge of all the universe has to say.
God says that all fall short, except Jesus. Jesus alone, lived a life that fully measured up to the righteous standard required by God.
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." - Matthew 5:17 (KJV)
Jesus lived a life that fulfilled all the requirements of God recorded in the law and in the writings of the prophets. He did what we could never do - He lived a perfect, sinless life. Nevertheless, He willingly assumed our predicament as His own.
Though He knew no sin, Jesus willing suffered our punishment in our place, so that we might be right with God, so that we might be "bought back" and belong to God.
In the fullness of time - at just the right time - Jesus Christ came to purchase we who were under the Law, we who were trying hard to obey it, but were powerless to do so.
He did this, not only by living a perfect life (doing for us what we could never do), but by also offering Himself as a perfect sacrifice (again doing for us what we could never do). You see, the price we were condemned to pay was so great, it requires an eternity’s worth of suffering in order for the penalty for our sin to be fully paid. But because of who Jesus was - God in the flesh - He was able to endure an eternity’s worth of suffering in only a short span of three hours on the cross.
Before he laid down His life, Jesus declared, "It is finished," which meant that he had completed the work He was sent to perform. He had fully paid the price for the sins of the world. Three days after His death on the cross, He was raised from the dead as evidence of the fact that the fact that the penalty for sin had been fully paid and that it was now possible for men and women, boys and girls, to belong to God!
An old story is told about a little boy who placed his new toy sailboat in the water and slowly let out the string. He sat in the warm sunshine, and enjoyed spending time with the little boat he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat.
He tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke. The little boat raced downstream. The boy ran along the shore as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight.
All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, he went home.
A few days later, on the way home from school, the boy spotted a boat just like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see - sure enough - it was his! He hurried to the store manager and said, "Sir, that’s my boat in your window! I made it!" "Sorry, son," the manager replied, "If you want it, you’ll have to buy it for one dollar."
So the boy ran home and counted all his money. Exactly one dollar! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. "Here’s the money for my boat." As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, "Now you’re twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you."
God made us, then lost us to sin. But in Christ, He has redeemed us - He has bought us back. He did this by giving His all, which was enough, to pay the price so that we might belong to Him.
The only difference in the story and our situation is that, unlike the boat, we have a choice to make. The price has been paid for our redemption. The question is, are we willing to accept the new relationship with God made possible because of the price Jesus paid for us?
If we choose to accept what Christ has done for us, then like the boy and his boat, we can have God’s original purpose for making us fulfilled as we live in fellowship with Him. Which brings us to a second truth concerning our redemption.
2. The purpose of redemption - vs. 5-6
Paul identifies a two-fold purpose in Christ paying the price for our sins. He did so in order that . . .
A. We might become the heirs of God - v. 5
Some translations read, "that we might receive the adoption of sons." The Greek word for adoption is `huiothesia’. `Huios’ meaning `son’, `thesis’ meaning `position’, `huiothesia’ means `taking the position of a son’.
Understand this: Adoption is not the method of entry into God’s family. As Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, we enter into God’s family only by being born again. Rather, adoption speaks of our privilege and standing within God’s family. The moment we were born again, we were placed in an adopted state as heirs, as sons of God.
We think of adoption in terms of adopting a little baby. But that’s not the biblical concept of adoption. Biblical adoption refers to a full-grown adult. Suppose that Donald Trump, on his show, The Apprentice, chose to do more than hire the winning contestant. Suppose he chose instead to adopt them as his son or daughter. Instead of having a job, they would have an inheritance.
The Son of God took our position on the Cross of Calvary, paying for our sins, in order that we might in turn take the position as sons of God. Having said that, however, let me say this does not mean we are equal to Jesus Christ. True, we are adopted sons, but God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Nevertheless, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
B. We might receive the Holy Spirit of God - v. 6
Because we’re adopted sons, we have the Spirit of the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in our hearts. So it is that we can cry to God, saying, `Abba’ - the Hebrew word which means `papa’, or `daddy’ - and He will respond. This is what Hebrews 4:14-16 emphasizes.
"We need to understand that the privilege of prayer, wherein we cry, `Abba, Father,’ is not given to enable us to order God around, saying, `Bless this, do that, provide the other,’ - for such is not prayer at all. Prayer is the Spirit of Jesus Christ working in and through us in order to bring us into harmony with the perfect purposes of the Father. Prayer is the Spirit of Jesus in me crying, `Abba’ - not in a spirit of manipulation, but with the desire for unification - to become one with His perfect purpose and plan." - Pastor Jon Corson
It has been said that "it is reasonable to expect a son to resemble his father." That is what is expected of us. We have been redeemed and given the status of God’s children, as well as the indwelling Spirit of God, so that we might now do what we could not before: by God’s power, we can learn how to live life as God originally intended it to be lived! A life lived in intimate love relationship with our creator!
Someone once said, `The day you take responsibility for yourself, and the day you stop making excuses, that’s the day you start to the top.’ Do you know who said that? O.J. Simpson. The problem is, O.J. didn’t have the power to live out the principle.
That’s the problem we all have apart from Christ. We find that though the Law tells us what to do, it fails to give us the power to do it. But now, because of the price paid for our redemption, it has been made possible for us to be born again into God’s family and have the status of heirs and to have the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. By the power of the person present within us, we can learn how to live life as God originally intended it to be lived, as we cultivate an intimate love relationship with God.
Look at a young man in love. No one tells him to write love letters, pick flowers, or go for a walk in the park with his sweetheart. These things just happen when we’re in love - and that’s what the Lord wants for you and me. He wants to set us free, and wants us to respond to that freedom in love.
And because of the price Jesus paid to buy back that which was lost to God, this kind of relationship with God has been made possible for all who will choose to accept His sacrifice on our behalf. I can know God intimately, I can obey God whole-heartedly, I can live life joyfully, I can come before His throne confidently, I can face eternity expectantly. This is the meaning of Christmas!
