Galatians 4:4-7 - The Time Has Come - December 25, 2020

If I were to ask you what the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received was, I would expect that, at least here in church, you would probably say “Jesus.” And, while that’s true, that’s really only half of the story – the first half of the gift that God gives you on Christmas. We can and we must celebrate God’s gift of his Son to us, but if that’s where Christmas ended, we would still be lost and condemned sinners. Today, the time has come for us to not celebrate merely a coldly historical Christmas but to receive Jesus as God’s warm and personal gift to us.

Paul says that God gave this gift when the set time had fully come. What does that mean? Well, from a cosmic (that is, God-like) perspective, it simply means that the 1st century was the time God had always planned to send his Son to save the world. And he has not revealed precisely why he chose that place and time. But it is interesting to consider how God had shaped the world to receive his Son. A perfect storm of seemingly uncontrollable variables all came together at once. Roman rule established peace (the Pax Romana) throughout the inhabited world for the first time in centuries. Roman technology brought civilization in the form of roads and plumbing. Greek culture brought a common language and a love for learning. It wasn’t the “golden age” of Israel under King Solomon, but it wasn’t half-bad either. Protected from her ancient enemies by the Roman legions, Israel was pretty much free to carry out her business as usual (provided she paid her taxes…some things never change). The synagogues were thriving under the rabbinic teaching of the Pharisees. The temple was humming along under the Sadducees and Herod was busy renovating it to secure the loyalty of the Jews.

The people were in a watchful mood; waiting, expectant, hopeful. They had a sense of being on the threshold of something big. God had been strangely silent for over 400 years. There had been some bright spots, such as the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes – the event that continues to be celebrated as the festival of Hannukah. But the glory had long departed from the Temple. There was no ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies (Jeremiah 3:16). The priesthood had become a family business operated more for political power and personal gain than the reconciliation of sinners to God (Luke 3:2). It all combined to give the sense that God was about to act. Simeon, an elderly prophet in the Temple, had even been told by God himself that he wouldn’t die until he had seen the Messiah with his own eyes (Luke 3:26).

This was the set time of which Paul speaks. All the pieces of the puzzle were in place. That’s when the eternal Father said to his eternal Son “now” – and in that moment everything changed: the Ruler of history entered human history, the Creator became the creature, the Word became flesh, and the Son of God was born of a woman. This is how it had to be. Everyone has a mother, and our Savior is no exception. In order to become like [us] in every way (Hebrews 2:17), he had to be conceived in a woman and born like us. His Father, of course, is another story. In that way he is not like us, but in that way he is the perfect parallel to Adam. He is humanity’s second Adam, it’s new representative (Romans 5:12-21). He was born without the original sin of Adam, and yet he is born of a woman and therefore is like us in every other way. That’s why you can’t say, “To sin is to be human.” It’s not. It’s un-human. God didn’t create humans to sin (Ephesians 4:24). In that way, Jesus is the only “true” human – he’s bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh and had to be nursed and changed and burped just like every other newborn baby – except that he was sinless.

But he was, as Paul says, born under the law. This is part of his state of humiliation. Jesus, the Lord of the Law (Matthew 12:8), humbled himself and became obedient to it. He did this actively; he kept the Law perfectly. He did this passively; he suffered the punishment we all deserved for breaking the Law – to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). That’s why he didn’t just suddenly appear on earth out of thin air. He had to be born under the law – to be obedient to a father and mother and governing authorities. He had to experience the trials and temptations of life in a fallen world. There was no cheating. No divine hand tied behind his back. He had to do it our way; the hard way. He had to live our life the way we live it and die our death the way we die it.

Why? In order to redeem those under the law. To redeem means to buy back. Not from the devil – the devil doesn’t own us. Not from sin and death – they hold us captive but they are illegitimate captors. No he came to redeem us from the Law. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15: the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). The Law not only stirs up our sinful desire to sin; it not only exposes our sin; but it condemns us to death. The Law can’t give life, it can only kill (2 Corinthians 3:6) – and that’s exactly what it did to Jesus.

And that’s perhaps the most remarkable thing about Christmas. Jesus’ humiliation wasn’t limited to being born of a woman in lowly circumstances under the law, it consisted in him becoming our sin for us. It would be like someone today intentionally becoming infected with Covid-19 in order to save others (if that were possible). Jesus didn’t sin but he became our sin so that the sledgehammer of God’s wrath fell on him instead of on us. He redeemed us by becoming sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). This means that you are free. The Law has no claim on you anymore. It cannot accuse or condemn you anymore. Jesus has traded his birth for yours, his life for yours, his death for yours. Your sins are forgiven in Jesus. The wrath of God is quenched. Death has lost its sting and the grave has lost its victory (1 Corinthians 15:55). Jesus is victorious and you are victorious in him (Romans 8:37).

And when you know and believe that, then God’s gift to you this Christmas shifts from a cold 2000 year old historical fact to a very warm and personal gift to you today. Jesus did all these things so that we would be adopted as sons, sons of his own heavenly Father! By virtue of your Baptism you are sons of God – and this includes you women and girls, too (Galatians 3:28) – because you’re sons in the sense of heirs. Jesus gave up everything he rightfully possessed as God’s only begotten Son in heaven so that we could inherit heaven as God’s adopted sons.

That’s why this Christmas, Paul wants us to treasure the second part of God’s Christmas gift to us: he gave us his Son so that we could become his children and his heirs. Now, I know what you’re thinking. This is one of those gifts that has a time delay. It’s like getting a savings bond. I remember getting one as a child. I said, “Great, can we go to the store so I can use it to buy something?” My mom responded, “No, but in 20 years you’ll be able to cash it out for 50 dollars.” “Great…thanks.” But this inheritance isn’t like a savings bond; you don’t have to wait for it to mature because you don’t receive an inheritance when you die; you receive it when someone else does. Jesus was born…and he died. Which means that this inheritance is already ours. Paul explains: Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” 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. Paul lists four specific gifts that are yours now, to open and hold and cherish today.

1) First, in a world full of people who are struggling with identity crises, you have an identity. Where people search for their identity in their career, their appearance, their family, their gender or their gender fluidity, their skin color or political affiliation, you don’t have to do that. Whatever your line of work, whoever you are married to, whatever your politics – you are first and foremost a child of God – and that won’t ever change, even if everything else in your life does.

2) Second, you now have the right to pray to God, to call him your “Abba, Father.” Just as I don’t respond to calls of “Daddy” from anyone other than my own children, so God doesn’t hear or respond to anyone who is not his child through faith in his Son (Isaiah 59:2). Many people view prayer as nothing more than a meditative exercise – and understandably so, because anyone who does not come to the Father through Jesus is just wasting their breath (John 14:6). But you, you, dear child of God, have your Father’s promise that he will always hear you and always give you what is best for you (Matthew 6).

3) Third, you are no longer a slave, but a son. Do you know what the difference between a slave and a son is? A slave must work to gain and retain status in a household; a son already has status and thus acts appropriately. In other words, this gift of freedom from the Law completely changes the role of the Law. No more do you see the Law as a means of gaining access to God’s family – an empty promise it can never grant; now you see the Law as a guide for how the children of God want to live. Obedience for you is no longer an obligation but a privilege – a way of responding to God’s love and of witnessing to the world: I don’t belong to you anymore, I am God’s own child.

4) And, last but not least, if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ. As we age, I think we all begin lose interest in receiving gifts that can be wrapped in paper or sealed in envelopes. Why? Because eventually what we need most is not another sweater or a new fishing pole – but relief from pain and sickness, from sore backs and meaningless jobs and, let’s be honest, escape from life itself. This is a gift that isn’t found on Amazon but in a manger. And that is the last and greatest gift that God gives you this morning through the birth of his Son in Bethlehem: the promise of freedom from life in this fallen world and the full inheritance of eternal life in heaven.

How can you be sure? Because you’ve been baptized. Your baptism is your birth certificate. It tells you who your mother is: the Church, which gave you new birth into God’s family through water and the Word. It tells you who your Father is: God himself who sent his Son to take your place so that you could take his. Your baptism, more than anything else in the world tells you who you are, it tells you who your Father is, that you are free, and where you are going. Baptism is your own personal link to that baby born in Bethlehem. Through baptism, Christmas becomes God’s very warm gift to you personally, a gift you can begin unwrapping now and will enjoy throughout all eternity.

So, as you unwrap your gifts today and reflect on the meaning of Christmas, don’t forget that this day isn’t really about gifts or family or food but that 2000 years ago God told his only Son “the time has come” for you to become a man so that sinners may become my heirs. The world may be done with Christmas by tomorrow – or, heck, later on this afternoon. But you, dear children of God, your celebration of Christmas is just getting started. Merry Christmas! Amen.