Galatians 4:4-7 4But 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, 5in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. 6And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!” 7So 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.
Galatians 4:4-7 is one of the great texts of the Bible. It teaches the incarnation of Christ, the two natures of Jesus as God and Man, and that through Jesus as the Son of God and Son of Man, we are made heirs of the heavenly Father.
These four verses are used in our Lutheran Catechism to teach to our youth and adult confirmands why Jesus had to be true God and true Man. I’m sure your pastor drilled the meaning of these verses into you in Catechism class.
This morning, we’re going to do the same. To help you remember the importance of these verse, I want you to remember three images (and because it’s me, there is alliteration) – sand, silver spoon and siblings.
Hopefully, during your Christmas break you’ve been able to play some board games with your family. Some of the intense ones have sand times like Boggle, Scattergories, Charades, and Jumanji. When the sand runs out you need to have all your answers figured out. The time is now.
Imagine God had set a grand sand timer in eternity. When the sand ran out, that was the exact right time to send his Son into the world to be its Savior.
St. Paul writes, “When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son …” What was right about this set time for Jesus to be born? Looking back, we might discover several reasons why this was the right time.
The Greeks had conquered the known world. Everybody knew two languages – their native tongue and Greek. When the Gospel was written in the Greek language, it was easy to share it because everyone knew the language.
The Romans conquered the Greeks and enlarged their Roman Empire. The people still spoke Greek, but now there was the Pax Romana – the Roman Peace. This peace allowed the Gospel to be shared as people moved around.
God had all his major characters in place. Joseph was from the line of David, so God could fulfill his promise of a King from King David’s line. Joseph and Mary were both Jews, so God could fulfill his promise to Abraham that the Messiah would be his descendant. Mary was a virgin, so God could fulfill his promise to King Ahaz that a virgin would give birth to a child. God used Caesar Augustus to move Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. David’s city, to fulfill his prophecy through Micah. God used King Herod to move the holy family to Egypt to fulfill his prophecy through Hosea, that was our Old Testament lesson this morning. God used Archelaus, Herod’s son, to fulfill his prophecy that Jesus would grow up in Nazareth.
These are observations looking backwards in time and Scripture. The Holy Spirit never lays out exactly why God sent Jesus when he did. We are simply assured that God sent his Son when the time was exactly right – “when the set time had fully come.”
The last grains of sand in God’s celestial timer had fallen from the top chambers and filled the bottom one. Unlike the hurried frenzy when the sand runs out while we’re playing a board game, everything about God’s timing projects calm and calculation. We can be certain that this was perfect timing because it’s the timing that God in his wisdom had chosen since before time. For millennia, God had promised to send a Savior, and when the set time had fully come, he sent his one and only Son.
God’s timing is perfect. And so was his gift – Jesus Christ, God and Man to be our Savior.
Some of you remember the short-lived 1980s sitcom Silver Spoons. The show was about a dysfunctional father-son relationship and explored the themes of adolescence, friendship and family, all centered around money. Lots of money. And a train you could ride through the mansion.
Silver Spoons got its title from the fact that before 1700 common folk used wooden spoons to eat. Only the wealthy could afford silver spoons. The saying, “He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth” views an upper class and wealthy person not knowing anything about the struggles of life.
As the Son of God, Jesus had a silver spoon – his divine powers. But he was born under the law and usually left his silver spoon in a drawer.
St. Paul says it so matter of factly, “God sent his Son born of a woman …” Stop and marvel at that phrase. Jesus is God’s Son, yet he is born of a woman. Jesus is true God – he is divine, omnipotent, omniscient and almighty. At the same time, he is man – he has hands and feet, flesh and bones, and a soul. He became hungry and thirsty. He slept and wept. He even suffered and died.
“God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons.” From your Catechism classes, you recall that this was part of Jesus’ humiliation. Jesus, who is the Creator of the law and above the law, put himself under the to live under the law. In order to redeem – to buy us back from breaking God’s law, Jesus had to keep God’s law in our place.
For a time, Jesus laid aside his divine powers. Oh, we see them burst forth at times when he calmed the storm, fed thousands, cleansed lepers, cast out demons and raised Lazarus from the dead.
Most of the time, though, Jesus voluntarily laid aside his divine powers and did not use them. While he could walk on water, he usually used a boat. While he could turn water into wine and multiply loaves and fish, he usually used food and drink that was furnished naturally.
As Mediator, Jesus came “to redeem those who were under the law.” To mediate, Jesus needed to be under the law in the same way as those he would redeem were under it: as humans. So, in matters of temptation and obeying the law, Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient.” (Philippians 2:8) While still having full divine powers, he voluntarily did not use them.
Jesus kept the commandments for all the times we have broken God’s commandments. Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet he never once fell to temptation. We face temptation for a little while, and then give in. Again, from Catechism class, this is part of Jesus’ active obedience. These are things Jesus actively did to pay the price for our sinfulness. Jesus was obedient to pay for our continual disobedience. Jesus was perfectly righteous to cover over our unrighteousness.
Jesus never took the easy way out. He kept his silver spoon in the drawer. He could have taken out the silver spoon and used his divine powers to call down legions of angels in the Garden of Gethsemane or walk away from his captors or strike down those who dared to mock and strike him. He could have quit his office as Mediator.
But then the price would never have been paid. Then we would still be in our sins. We would be abandoned to the hell we deserve.
But Jesus stick with the hard way, all the way. He humbled himself, and kept humbling himself, to the bitter end that gives us a new beginning as heirs of God through Christ.
Christmas is a time for celebrating family. It is a time to gather together as parents and children, as siblings and cousins, as grandparents and grandkids — what a joy it is to be included in a family!
Such joy would be rather void and empty if it weren’t for another family relationship we celebrate at Christmas — a far more important family relationship — our relationship with God through faith in Christ.
The apostle Paul speaks of that family relationship: “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, in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. And 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.” What a joy it is to be called God’s children! What a joy it is to be included in God’s family!
But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, our relationship with God used to be completely broken. As human beings, we were born “under [God’s] law.” In other words, everything that God, the Giver of the law, demands of all people in his laws and commandments, God expects us to obey, and obey perfectly. However, as sinful human beings, we have lived under God’s law imperfectly. We have broken God’s law repeatedly, and we continue to do so every time we sin. Because of such disobedience, we deserve to be outside of God’s family forever. We deserve to suffer the punishment of hell, separated from all our heavenly Father’s blessings.
But it was never God’s desire that we should live outside of his family. And so, God determined to send us a Savior from sin. That Savior would be his very own Son. In pure grace, God molded and shaped the course of human history so that, at just the right time, “when the set time had fully come,” he could send his Son into the world. Though his Son was true God in every sense of the word, he became a human being. Just like us, he was “born of a woman, born under law.”
This is Jesus’ incarnation – when God became a Man. Jesus was a man so he could live under the law and be able to die. Jesus was God so he could live under the law perfectly and so his death could pay for the wins of the whole world.
When the God-Man gave up his life on the cross after a lifetime of perfect living, the Lord did something amazing. The One who lived perfectly washed all of our sins away in his blood and gave us his perfection in return. And now, when God looks at us, he no longer sees any sin. He sees only his own Son’s perfection. Because of it, our relationship with God has been fixed. We are part of his holy family. And we will be forever and ever.
We are brothers and sisters in Christ – siblings in God’s holy family.
Though our culture is done with Christmas, as Christians we are still celebrating Christmas for another week. Christmas is a time for celebrating family. It is a time to remember and rejoice in Jesus Christ, God and Man.
Galatians 4:4-7 is such an important Christmas text. “When the set time had fully come” – sand. “God sent his Son to be born of a woman so that he would be born under the law” – silver spoon. “So that we would be adopted as sons” – siblings. Amen.