12/24/08 - Christmas Eve - Galatians 4:4-5

HE SENT HIS SON SO HIS SONS WE COULD BE
- Christ's birth proves we are failures
- Christ's birth makes adoption possible

Christ’s birth was announced to sinners, it was accomplished through sinners, and it was achieved for sinners. And Christ’s birth was absolutely necessary if sinners were to be saved. Without Christ coming to this world the world would defeat us. Without the Savior being conceived by a virgin, the sins we were conceived with would still count against us. Without the Son of God coming to die for our sins we would die as enemies of God. And so God sent us Son so that his sons we could be. And I say “sons” instead of “sons and daughters” because it’s not about gender, it’s about receiving the inheritance. Back in biblical times the first-born son usually received the family inheritance. And so that’s why Paul says in Galatians chapter 4, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” God sent his Son so his sons we could be. The Son of God came down from heaven so that we might receive the first-born son’s inheritance. And we will receive heaven. We will receive eternal life. We will leave this earth and join a celebration forever in perfection only because God’s Son left heavenly perfection and came to suffer on this earth.
And Christ’s birth was absolutely necessary for all of this to happen because we could not do it on our own. We are failures in every sense of the word. We are failures! And Christ’s birth on this earth proves it! If we could be good enough to get to heaven based on the way we live our lives, if we could do something to gain eternal life by ourselves, Christ wouldn’t have had to been born. If it were possible for us to be God’s sons and to receive the inheritance because of who we have made ourselves to be - we wouldn’t be celebrating Christmas right now. We wouldn’t need to. Because we wouldn’t need Christ. But here we are celebrating Christmas. Christ was born. God’s Son was sent to this earth, born of woman and born under law in a little town called Bethlehem two millennia ago. And his birth proves that we have failed.
If you have plumbing trouble in your house and you finally have to bite the bullet and call a professional plumber, his presence proves that you have failed to fix the problem or have even failed to find it! He wouldn’t be there if you were able to fix it yourself. When a large company sends in a specialist to evaluate a problem and to determine a course of action in order to resolve something that has been left unresolved for quite some time, his presence makes it clear that the people who were supposed to be in charge had failed to carry out the responsibilities assigned to them. When a government sends in its military to one of its own cities, the soldiers’ presence indicates that the local authorities could not deal with the volatile situation in an appropriate and timely manner. The arrival of these different people at these different times reveals that someone has failed to do what they were required to do. Every year Christ’s birth should remind us of that very same thing! His presence should remind us that we have failed. We have not done what we are supposed to do. We have not kept the laws and the commands that the Lord has laid down for us. We have not done enough to get to heaven. And we cannot do anything to fix it ourselves.
According to God’s law, what are we required to do in order to get to heaven? Everything. From the 1st Commandment to the 10th and everything in between. We are not only required to keep some of them or most of them or the majority of them. We are not simply asked to try our best and the Lord will give us a break because of our efforts. No, God’s law says that we are to be perfect in every way. We are to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. That means we are never supposed to doubt his plans, we are never supposed to question his love, we are never supposed to place anything above him at any times in our lives. Have you done that? We are to honor our fathers and mothers, honor those in law enforcement, honor those in government positions, and honor all those in authority over us. That means we should never bad-mouth them, never complain about them behind their backs, never think ill of them because of what they have done, never come close to a rebellious or defiant word or attitude. Have you stayed away from all of those faults all of your life? We are not supposed to steal according to God’s law. And that includes not only refraining from taking property that belongs to someone else, but to actually help everyone in any way you can. Never being resentful of loaning your things, never refusing to help someone in need, never letting your innate selfishness overrule generosity. Have you been that person your entire life? And these are just the 1st, 4th, and 7th Commandments. 3 of the 10. 10 of the hundreds. Hundreds of the thousands. And the thousands that really sum up the one command: love. If you have loved God and loved everyone else perfectly, if you’ve kept every one of God’s commands in every way, you will go to heaven. Otherwise, you have failed.
Tonight we are celebrating Christ’s birth. God sent his Son. Why? Not because you have measured up to God’s demands. And not because I have. God sent his Son because we have failed. But God also sent his Son to make our adoption possible. Christ’s birth indicates that we have failed but it also shows us how much God cares. He wouldn’t have sent his Son if he didn’t want to do something to fix the problem we have made for ourselves. And so “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Jesus was born “under law.” That means he was required to follow the law of God just like any other normal human being who has ever lived. Jesus was a real person. And he had to be in order to redeem those under law. Of course, he kept that law perfectly. He never once sinned. He never once fell into temptation. He never once let an errant word slip from his mouth or entertained an inappropriate thought. He truly was - and is - perfect. But his work did not stop there. His perfection alone did not redeem us, buy us back for the Lord. Jesus also had to take the punishment of sin that we deserve. That’s what the cross is all about. That’s where this cute little baby Jesus ends up. He was born in a stable to die on a cross. That’s why he came. And that’s why his birth made our adoption possible. His birth was the beginning of his life for ours.
And those who believe that Jesus is their Savior from sin, 100% their Savior, based on nothing they have done but on everything Christ has done, those souls are adopted as God’s children - as God’s first-born sons. They are adopted into his family because Christ has lived and died and risen for their sins. He has lived and died and risen for yours. So now you will receive the inheritance given only to God’s sons: heaven, eternal life, perfection in Paradise. This is yours not because who you made yourself to be but because of who Christ is. And because of who you are now: an adopted child of God.
And it was all made possible by this Child, this pure and perfect Infant whose birth we celebrate tonight. Our Savior, our King, and our God. A Son who went from being surrounded by the angels of heaven to being looked over by barn animals. A Son who went from being clothed in the splendors of perfection to being wrapped in strips of cloth. A Son who went from standing on the clouds to lying on a pile of straw. God sent this Son, his only Son, so that his sons we could be. God sent his only Son to gain even more. And he has. And he will. And we are included. We are included in God’s perfect family because Christ was born of a sinful family here on earth. And so although this birth reminds us of our failures, it more importantly reminds us of Christ’s victories. Because tonight we celebrate the Son of God becoming the son of Mary so that we could be his sons forever. Tonight we celebrate sinners being saved.
Amen.