| Introduction When we think about the birth of Jesus, it is important that we think of it in the context of the incarnation of God the Son, that is, God the Son becoming fully human in order to accomplish a mission. The birth of Jesus cannot be separated from the life he lived. His life cannot be separated from his death on the cross. And his death on the cross cannot be separated from his glorious resurrection form the dead. As we begin to reflect on the advent season today, let's not isolate the birth of Jesus from the rest of his mission. There have been efforts to that end. The Roman Catholic Church worships the child Christ as if he were different than the adult Christ. Even in Protestant circles, attempts have been made to split baby Jesus from crucified Jesus. In 1999, a German Lutheran pastor made the news when she said that the symbol of Christianity should be the manger, not the cross, because the cross was too threatening. The problem with this sort of thinking is that Jesus Christ was born to die. His mission was not to be a cute baby on a bed of straw and wood, but to die a gruesome death of separation from his Father in order to redeem his people. "Christianity is not a religion of stable and straw; it is a religion of thorns and nails, wood and blood." Philip Ryken Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, brings birth, life, death, and resurrection all together as he speaks of the mission of Jesus Christ: the redemption of his people. I. The Fullness of Time, 4:4. A. When the time was just right – the ideal time. B. We can speculate what made the time right – the pax romana, the Greek language, widespread synagogues – but ultimate the time was right because God determined to be so. C. One thing we can say for sure is that God planed and worked out history so that Christ was born exactly at the best time to accomplish all the purposes that the Father had for him. II. God Sent Forth His Son, 4:4. A. Christ's redeeming mission starts with God. 1. He is the initiator of both history and of redemption – both start with God. 2. Paul had already mentioned the covenant God had made with Abraham, 3:29. a. In that covenant, God says he will be the God of his people. Gen. 17:7-9 – And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. b. God pursued his people even when they chose slavery instead of freedom. 1) The Jews slavery to the law, 3:10. 2) The Gentiles slavery to the rudimentary principles of their own religion, 4:3. 3. But God relentlessly worked out history so that when the time was just right, he would send his Son to redeem his people, both Jew and Gentile, from bondage to sin, Satan, and self. B. There is something more that we see in this statement that God sent his Son – his Son existed prior to his incarnation. "The word translated sent forth comprises two thoughts: the going forth of the Son from a place at which He was before; and His being invested with divine authority." Herman Ridderbos 1. The Son wasn't an angel or a special creation. 3. And he was sent with all the authority that God himself has – sent with a message. III. Born of a Woman, 4:4 A. The most primordial promise of redemption was that God was going to work through the seed of the woman. Gen. 3:15 – And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. 1. In the midst of pronouncing a curse of death upon humanity because of the sin of its representative, God promises life and victory over sin and Satan. 2. This victory will not come through armies of angels, but through the seed of the woman who will be bruised by Satan, to be sure, through the humiliation of dying even the death of the cross. 3. And who, through the humiliation of death would crush Satan's head and put an end to his tyranny. B. While being sent forth by God shows that Jesus Christ was fully God, being born of a woman means that he was also fully human. 1. At the conception of Jesus in Mary's womb by the Holy Spirit, these two natures were forever and inseparably united in one person. 2. In the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God took upon himself human nature, body and soul, all the limitations that come with being human. 3. Why? So that Jesus Christ, being one of us could be the ideal substitute for us. "Fact is that in order to save us Jesus Christ had to be in one person both divine and human, divine in order to give his sacrifice infinite value, to deliver us out of the realm of darkness, and to transplant us into the realm of everlasting light…; and human because since it was man who sinned it is also man who must bear the penalty for sin and render his life to God in perfect obedience…." William Hendriksen 4. Being born a woman, that is, becoming human was part of Christ's humiliation that resulted in our salvation. Phil 2:5b-8 – Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. WLC 46 – What was the estate of Christ's humiliation? The estate of Christ's humiliation was that low condition, wherein he, for our sakes, emptying himself of his glory, took upon him the form of a servant, in his conception and birth, life, death, and after his death, until his resurrection. IV. Born under the Law, 4:4. A. Here is a reference to the covenant that God made with Moses – God working through history to bring everything into place so that the time would be just right. B. The one who gave the law voluntarily placed himself under the law so that those who were the law could be released from the curse of breaking the law, 3:10. 1. You and I, and every human being who has ever existed or who will ever exist, are born under the law, that is, we subject to moral law of God – here in Galatians Paul is referring primarily to the Mosaic law but the principle carries over. 2. That law is the standard that God uses for determining eternal fellowship or eternal destruction. a. You obey him perfectly according to his standard both in heart and practice and you will have eternal fellowship with him. b. You fail once in one detail and you will have eternal destruction. 3. That's the standard God uses, and he can't do differently because as a perfect God, he must require perfection. 4. So, humanity is in a serious predicament because even the best of us can't meet or keep that standard. 5. God, in order to be just and the justifier of his people, provided the perfect one who was willing and able to obey perfectly all the standards that God had and who was willing to be punished for the transgressions of those who had failed to obey God in every conceivable way. 6. During the advent season, we are celebrating the arrival of the perfect one who united in one the lawgiver and the law-keeper. 7. And we believe that Jesus came to live for us, to die for us, and to be raised from the dead for us because we couldn't do any of that, then God the Father accepts us as perfect because of Christ. V. The Mission: Redemption!, 4:5. A. Jesus's mission was to redeem, to purchase out of, those who those who had become slaves because of their debt to God because they broke his law. B. By his incarnation, Jesus purchased a people for himself and in that sense we are slaves of Christ – but that is not our primary identity. C. The emphasis here is that we were purchased to be adopted. 1. Christ doesn't redeem his people simply so that they can enter in a slave/master relationship God, though there are elements of that in the relationship. 2. Christ redeems people from bondage to the law, sin, Satan, and self primarily for them to be adopted as sons and daughters of God most high. D. The words as sons at the end of the verse are very important. 1. They are not meant be a collective and gender inclusive term, that is, it would not be appropriate to replace it with sons and daughters or children (NIV, ESV, NASB all recognize that). 2. The reason for that is the adoption laws and traditions of the first century. a. When we think of adoption today, we think of welcoming a baby or child into the family to be raised and loved in the context of his/her new family. b. That was not the primary idea behind adoption during Paul's time. c. The primary idea was of becoming legal heir pf the one adopting. 1) Boys were rarely adopted. 2) Girls were never adopted (or women for that matter). d. A father at some point would legally adopt his own son or a capable servant who would be worthy of carrying the family's name and wealth – the family's name and wealth could not be carried on legally by a woman. 3. So, when Paul says that all of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ, male or female, have been adopted as sons, he is saying something that is incredibly counter-cultural – in Christ, both woman and men, boys and girls, are heirs of the covenant promise of God, especially that he will our God and we will be his people. VI. The Proof That This Is True Is in the Spirit, 4:^ A. The proof and the guarantee that through Christ we are heirs of God is the Spirit who dwells in us and confirms that we have been adopted by God. B. He cries in us, "Father, our Father!" "[Abba! Father! is the voice of the Spirit of Jesus on the lips of his people." F.F. Bruce "… this salvation is both objective and subjective. For God the Father sent the Son in order that believers might have the position of sons and He sent His Spirit so that they might have the experience of the same reality." James Boice C. It is a distinctively Christian feature to look at God as our Father. 1. As one who has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, we don't approach God as a judge or even just as the Creator. 2. We crawl onto his lap and call him Daddy as it were. "First, the Father had sent the Son, sent him from his very heart, as it were: 'he spared to his own Son!' ..., his only son .... He sent him into a world of sin and ruin, where for our sake and in our stead he was to suffer innumerable reproaches. And what did we (all those who were to be redeemed) do? We (that is, our sins) nailed him to the cross! This we did to him who came to dwell with us. Yet, instead of casting us away forever from his presence of love, the Father then sent the Spirit of his Son, in order that this Spirit (and in him also the Father and the Son) might draw even closer to us, dwelling not just with us but within us, in our very hearts, and transforming these hearts from being hateful to being loving, from being rebellious to being obedient, from being distrustful to being faith-filled, and from being despondent to being exuberant with praise and adoration." VII. The Only Logical Conclusion – We Are Sons and Daughters of God. A. As sons and daughters of God, we are heirs of the promises of God, especially the ones made to Abraham which boils down to God being our God and we being his people. B. That promise is expressed in so many different ways throughout the Bible. Heb. 13:5-6 – Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 6 So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" Jn. 6:37-40 – All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day. C. And that is really what that promise is – eternity in glory with our God. Rom. 8:12-17 – Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. D. It is this identity that unify us, 3:23-28. 1. Not ethnicity – Jew or Gentile. 2. Not social status – slave or free 3. Not gender – male or female. E. It is faith in Christ that unify the people of God because it welcomes us into one family. God, who is a God of love, prepared and directed history so that at the right time (the perfect time!), he could send forth his Son to redeem his people.
Jn. 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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