CWC - Epistle - Christmas 2 - Kieth Bernard Kuschel
Galatians 4:4-7
4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Tie up and blindfold.
What would we have to give to get released.
Pay for hostage. Ransom. Redeem.
God, us. Sin. Payment.
IA1 (4) But when the set time had fully come. Consider these facts about the timing of Jesus’ birth. The Greek empire under Alexander the Great had established the Hellenistic Greek language as the worldwide business and cultural language. That was good for having the Gospel spread quickly. The Roman Empire was providing the Pax Romana around the entire Mediterranean world. Peace was conducive to the work of the Lord. There were Jewish synagogues in almost every major city in the empire, giving missionaries a point of contact and a starting point. There were Roman roads everywhere. That made travel easy. All those things, and I suppose others, we can look backward at and conclude that the time was just right for the coming of the Messiah.
2 But we really don’t know exactly what was in the Lord’s mind or why He chose that to be just the right time. The verses right before this say a child is no different from a slave until the time set by his father. So, the heavenly Father set the time for his Son to leave His heavenly home to become our brother. God’s time is always the right time.
B1 At this exactly right time God sent. Notice that. Human beings didn’t decide it was the right time for the Messiah. Human beings who know about the distress, discomfort, destructiveness, and death here on this earth did not determine that it was time for a solution to the world’s problems. Human beings didn’t say “God, it’s time for you to send the Messiah to deal with the spiritual problem of sin that is at the bottom of all the other problems in the world.” No. Human beings on our own wouldn’t even recognize that sin is the root problem in the world.
2 Man didn’t demand a solution. God sent a solution. God knew the problem right away when Adam and Eve sinned. God knew the solution right away too. He was the solution. He would have to come and solve the problem. That was the content of the promises given throughout the Old Testament. That was the content of the promise to Abraham in the Old Testament lesson for today.
God sent His Son born of a woman. This is not a reference to the virgin birth. It just says that Jesus was born of a human mother in the same way that other humans are born of a human mother. God the Son took on Himself our humanity. In this passage this is the reference to the Christmas event. The Eternal One had a beginning as a human being as a baby who slept in a manger.
2 Why? He was to be our Substitute. He was to take our place in all things. In order for Him to be that and do that He had to be one of us. He couldn’t really take our place if He didn’t have human characteristics and human experiences. He couldn’t really take our place if He didn’t go through the processes that all human beings must undergo just because they are human.
D1 Why did He have to be born of a woman? So that He might be under the law. God is the author of the Law. He is not under it. He is not subject to its demands. God has the right to end life because He gives it. The fifth commandment doesn’t apply to Him. God owns everything. It’s impossible for Him to steal anything. The 7th commandment doesn’t apply to Him.
2 But as soon as the Son of God took on Himself our humanity, then the demands of God on all human beings applied to Him. “Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them. You are to be holy to me, because I the Lord am holy.” Those demands fell on Jesus the true man as they fall on us. In order to take our place and keep the Law which we don’t keep, so that He could give us the holiness the we don’t produce, He had to become one with us - under the Law. There sure is a lot in this one verse. At just the right time, born of a woman, born under Law to be one with us, God sent His Son. Christmas is an act of God.
IIA1 For what purpose did God send His Son? {5}To redeem those under the Law. Which people are under Law? To which people do God’s commands apply? Everybody who has God’s law. That includes not just the people who have read God’s commandments in the Bible. It includes all people. God has written a basic sense of right and wrong into the hearts of all people. So, God’s purpose was to redeem all people.
2 Redeem means to buy back. A person uses something as a payment to buy something back from somebody. We redeem coupons. We turn in those small pieces of paper as partial payment to get something from the store. In some states they redeem bottles and cans. You turn the empty cans in as a payment. You get cash back from the store. The most dramatic circumstances in which somebody redeems something is when somebody is held hostage and we turn some money over to somebody to buy that person back from his or her captor.
3 All human beings are under law. All human beings break God’s Law. Therefore all human beings need to be bought back. We don’t use our tongues, our wealth, our time, or our actions to love others perfectly. That is sin. That breaks God’s law. That makes us deserve God’s punishment. That puts us outside of God’s family. We need to have somebody make a payment to God to buy us back into His family.
4 That’s where Jesus fits in. Jesus took our guilt on Himself. He suffered the punishment of death and separation from God we deserve cause of our sins. He was using His life as a ransom payment to buy us back from the punishment we deserve. He took our responsibilities on Himself. He kept the Law for us. He covers us with His holiness. He was using His life as a ransom payment to buy us back into the family of God. He could suffer like this. He could live as our Substitute because He had become one with us, born of a woman, born under law.
B1 The result is: {5} that we might receive adoption to sonship. What benefits are there from being bought back into God’s family? We are no longer slaves. Slaves belonged to someone. We don’t belong to the devil anymore. He doesn’t control us. We don’t belong to ourselves anymore. Our selfish sinfulness doesn’t own us. Slaves were forced to do what they were doing. We are no longer slaves of the law, forced to try to do what it demands to make ourselves right with God. We have been bought back by Jesus. That makes us right with God. That frees us to live our lives back to the Lord freely, willingly and joyfully. We are no longer slaves.
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2 Second benefit. {6}God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. We need the Spirit so we might be at one with God. Jesus makes it possible for us to be at one with God. But the Spirit brings it about. The Spirit leads us to believe that all that Jesus did for us is for us. The Spirit leads us to understand what being members of God’s family in Jesus Christ means. The Spirit directs our activities so that we say, “Thank you,” with our lives to the Lord for what He has done for us.
3 Third benefit. It is the Spirit who leads us to {6}call out “Abba, Father.” We can view God as our Father because of our oneness with God which Jesus made possible and which the Spirit brought into being. We can approach God and talk to Him on a personal basis because of what Jesus did and what the Spirit is doing. We can make requests and demands on the Father because of what Jesus did and what the Spirit is doing. We can talk to Him fully confident that He will satisfy our needs and take care of our problems.
4 One more benefit. {7} “since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” We get the estate. We get the inheritance that the Father worked so hard for. We are qualified to receive our eternal status - perfect and unchangeable children of God forever. That’s the inheritance God has prepared for us. God sent His Son to be one with us, so we might be one with God now and perfectly one with God forever. Christmas is an act of God. 6