David A.

Hornor for December 24, 2008 PCC Christmas Eve

Scripture: Galatians 4:4-7 (p. 1153)

Text: Galatians 4:4-5
Title: God sent his Son

Introduction

The shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, the angels, the
manger.

We have heard the Christmas story once again tonight

The star in the east, the little town of Bethlehem, so crowded with reluctant
participants in the Tax Census of Caesar Augustus.

The crowded inn with no room available.

These things are so familiar to many of us.

It’s hard know what to say about them anymore.

There’s no question that we are blessed and enriched by the accounts of

Jesus’ birth as recorded in the gospels.

There is something wonderful here: the fulfillment of ancient prophecies,

the disturbingly contemporary lust for power of a King Herod, the
coming of wise men from the east, that first hint of the breadth and
scope of the baby Prince’s kingdom...

These are passage that, although familiar, are places to linger and wonder,
pause and worship.

“Come adore on bended knee, Christ the Lord, the new-born king.”

It might surprise you to know that before the gospel accounts of Jesus’
birth, his ministry, his death and resurrection—before the gospels
were written down, they were told orally, by word of mouth.

And in fact, some of letters of the New Testament were written before
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John’s gospels.
J.j. Page 1
Scholars have long been convinced that Paul’s letter to Galatians predates
the earliest of the Gospels. Galatians is one of, if not the oldest of,
the New Testament writings.

Listen to the apostle Paul’s version of Christmas, in the fourth chapter of his
letter to the Galatians:

[Read Galatians 4:4-7 (p. 1153)]

My text this evening is verses 4&5:

When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born
under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the
full rights of sons.

P1. When the time had fully come, says the Apostle.

In the fullness of time, is the King James translation.

The time set by God had reached its completion, its fullness. We are living,
right now, in the fullness of time. We live in a new day which God
has made.

“Today in the town of David, [said the angel to the shepherds, TODAY] a
Savior has been born to you.”

The pain of yesterday, the guilt of the past, the disappointment of what has
come and gone before—these still exist.

But a new day has dawned. The past isn’t gone, but it is covered. The past
doesn’t have the final word. There is mercy for sinners. There is
grace for those who have gone off track. There is forgiveness for
sinners.

In the fullness of time, we hear about the possibility of something new. A

new beginning for relationships, a new beginning for the whole
world.

J.j. Page 2
The turning point of history and the possibility of a future which is not
dominated by the past, but instead blossoms—in the fullness of
time—into something new, something fresh, something full and rich
and joyful.
//

If this “fullness of time,” this new day is something of merely human origin,
we would have every reason to be suspicious and cynical.

There’s “nothing new under the sun.”

Maybe you read George Orwell’s Animal Farm in school.

As the book opens, Farmer Jones has been oppressing the animals, using
them for his own purposes, taking advantage of them. So the pigs
stage a coup—and run him off the farm.

What happens then? The pigs take over—and they are even worse
oppressors than Farmer Jones. There’s nothing new under the sun.

“Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss. We won’t get fooled again...”

Or will we? The history of politics suggests that we are pretty easily fooled
at times.

The history of religion points the same way. Some smooth talker comes
along and people flock like lemmings to the grape kool-aid.

//

If we are celebrating tonight something that was the result of a merely

cause and effect historical process, or luck, or wishful thinking....we
are the most pitiful of all people.

Here’s the thing:

The word the Apostle speaks to us is not from within this sphere at all.
He is announcing an inbreaking event from somewhere else.
//

From God.

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The infant in the manger is not us and we are not him. He is the Other. He
has come from the “realms of glory.”

If Christmas means anything, it means that we are celebrating tonight that

something wonderful has broken through to us from beyond
ourselves1.

Because, when the time had fully come,

P2. God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law.

God sent his Son.

This is no ordinary baby. He is not a clone of any of us.

If he were, he would be unable to help us. Again and again the human race
has proven unable to turn itself around.

We’ve got to be rescued from beyond ourselves, from another dimension.

So Jesus is not a creation either of God or man; he himself is the Creator2.

If Jesus is not the only-begotten Son of God, then this beautiful evening,
these joyful carols, the beautiful candles—all of it is only a fairy
tale, a magician’s illusion, and you are I are fools to imagine that it
is anything else.

And yet—and this is the mystery of Christmas—Jesus in the incarnation of

the Creator God himself, thought he is completely Other than us, he
has become one of us.

God sent his Son, born of a woman....

Nothing less than God himself has become Emmanuel, God-with-us.

And oh, how he as come to share our common life. It boggles our minds.
He hasn’t just sent us an email, or wired us a bouquet of flowers.

He has entered into our mortal existence. He has been tempted in every
way—just like us—yet without sinning. He has suffered our failures,
our regrets, our betrayals, heartbreaks, disgrace—and yes, even
death.

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The secret of Jesus is that he—and only he—is fully present in both the
divine and human realm.

In him and him alone has God come to live with us, to be with us, to
participate with us in all the variety, wonder, and suffering of life.

God sent his Son, born of a woman,

But more, he was born under law.

He submitted himself to his own law. The great lawgiver and judge was
born under law.

Christmas means seeing beyond the manger to the ministry, death, and
resurrection of Jesus.

He was born under law and proceeded to live the joyful, free, loving,
obedient life that none of us ever has. Poor sinners that we are, we
just don’t love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We don’t.

Who has done that? Who has done that as the representative of sinful
people?

Jesus—born under law.

And more. Not only is he our representative and example, he is our sin-
bearer: The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In his obedience, Jesus obeyed God’s precepts, his commandments.

In his obedience even to death, death on a cross, Jesus also absorbed,

exhausted, took into himself the penalty of sin as our substitute.

Take a look at the background of the slides tonight:

This is not all sweetness and light. Dark shadows of death and the penalty
of our sin are present every step of the way. The shadow of the
cross looms ominously over the manger.

J.j. Page 5
That’s what it means for Jesus to be born under law.

God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law.

P3. To redeem those under law

That’s us. We are born under law.

In the context here, Paul is clearly addressing both Jews and Gentiles—for
we are all, by nature, “under law,” kidnapped by the law.

God’s good and perfect law, intended for our good, meant to shape our well-
being, has instead became tool of condemnation.

That’s what sin does: it takes something good and twists it out of shape.
The problem is not with the law—the problem is with us: we are
unwilling and unable to obey the law.

God’s law says, “Do not make for yourself an idol,” and the human heart, as
John Calvin once said, is a veritable idol-making factory, cranking
them out faster than you can say, “Ten Commandments.”

God’s law say, “Honor your father and your mother,” and we chafe against
their God-given authority, not recognizing that it is intended for our
benefit.

The primary meaning of “law” in this context is the moral law of God,
particularly the Ten Commandments.

So God sent his Son...to redeem those under law.

To pay the penalty for the broken law.

To end the condemnation of the law so that now we are free to obey it, free
to love it, free to rejoice in God’s holy will once more.
There are other laws and principles that hold us in bondage:

• The law of diminishing returns – sometimes called the

addiction cycle.

J.j. Page 6
A little comfort food brings us a warm pleasant glow in the tummy and
blood sugar. But then we overeat, feel unhappy about our
appearance and obesity. So we eat the wrong way—and too much
—to make ourselves feel good again. And the cycle repeats itself.

The law of diminishing returns: more food, more alcohol, more drugs, more
running, more whatever it is.

It becomes an ironclad law. We can’t get out of it in our own strength.

And then, by God’s grace, we begin to see that we our trapped. And no
one can get us out of the jailhouse of addiction but God himself.

God sent Jesus to redeem those under the powerful law of addiction and
diminishing returns.

How about...

• The law of the jungle?

Might makes right. Victory goes to the strong, the quick, the powerful.

Or does it? Jesus shows us that victory goes to those who lose their lives
for his sake, who give up their own agenda to become part of his
revolution to heal the world.

The law of the jungle is trumped by the law of love—every time.

God sent his Son to redeem those under the law of the jungle.

How about...

• “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?” Lex talons. The
law of the claw.

Jesus broke this law on the cross, when he prayed, “Father, forgive them,
they don’t know what they’re doing.”

And by his spirit, he teaches to pray this same thing, “Our Father...forgives
us our trespasses and we also have forgiven those who trespass
against us.”

J.j. Page 7
The law of revenge is defanged, it’s power broken by Jesus Christ.

God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem [buy
back, liberate, set free] those under law.

P4. That we might receive the full rights of sons.

That’s what Christmas is about: We’ve been set free to experience our
rightful heritage as the children of God.

There is no more condemnation of the law for those who have been grafted
into the Jesus’ community.

The price for sin has been fully paid. The barrier between us and God has
been torn down.

“The full rights of sons.”

The image here is Greco-Roman adoption. The child is loved by his father
throughout his childhood, yes. But he is sill under tutors and
teacher and trainers—until he reaches adulthood.

Then one day, the father declares in a solemn, joyful ceremony: This son of
mine is my rightful heir. Everything I have belongs to him. I
officially give him the “full rights of son.”

He’s not a baby anymore. He’s a man.

That’s what Christmas in Galatia looked like—before Luke and the others
penned their gospel.

Christmas is about the birthday of Jesus—and about the birthday into full
son and daughterhood of the children of God.

So Happy Birthday, Jesus!

And Happy Birthday, people of God.

By the way, this isn’t a closed birthday party! Everyone is invited. There is
lots of cake and ice cream left.

There is room at the adult table for everyone here tonight.

J.j. Page 8
Come and join us!

Amen.

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1
“The Magical Kingdom,” by Fleming Rutledge in The Bible and the New York Times.
2
Ibid