Galatians 4:4-5
Wednesday morning we saw Kelly and Kieran off to school, showered, and finished last-minute packing. We were getting ready for David to take us to the Austin airport so we could fly back to Columbus. As David finished dressing, we gave the dogs a final walk. We were returning from that walk when my phone rang; US Airways was informing us that our departure time had changed. Our plane would be late getting to Austin.
While some airlines have better on-time records than others, all airlines are subject to unforeseen circumstances that cause their planes to be late. Sometimes they’re just not on time.
Some of those looking for the Messiah may have felt his arrival was running late. God’s Redeemer, they feared, wasn’t on time. Most of the past five centuries the Jews had been under one conqueror or another Even the brief period of independence under the Maccabeans was unsettled and uncertain. For well over half-a-century, the Romans had held the Jews under their control. Doubtless there were many times when the Jews were convinced it was time for the Messiah to show up.
Of course, they were expecting something entirely different. They would have hardly imagined the event they had awaited for almost two millenniums would take place in a barn. But, God was on time; and that was what mattered.
That first Christmas God was on time to demonstrate His providence.
Paul had no doubt God was in charge. The language Paul uses here suggests that Jesus was born at the “appropriate” time or “just the right time,” as the Living Bible translates this verse. It speaks of God’s control but it’s also a reminder Jesus was born into a particular historical context.
Certainly, we know he was born in the province of Judea in what had once been the proud and independent nation of Israel. But Judea had long ago fallen under foreign domination. After a brief flirtation with freedom, the Romans took charge of the land.
This was the situation when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Herod, a “king” appointed by the Romans, sat on the throne in Jerusalem. Herod, though he had built a beautiful new temple, was considered by most Jews to be a half-breed puppet who did the bidding of the far-off Roman emperor. In truth, he was a self-centered megalomaniac who delighted in indulging his sensuality; a poseur who merely pretended would pretend devotion.
The Jews who so despised Herod longed for the Messiah to be born, grow up, and begin the political liberation of the nation. It wouldn’t happen that way. Yet, the unexpected message of Jesus spread throughout the empire. How?
We need to understand how human history was ready for the first Christmas.
There was an almost universal peace in the Roman world. The so-called Pax Romana (“Peace of Rome”) began about 27BC and continued for about a century. It was a time mostly free of major wars. There was general prosperity and stability in the Roman world. This peace made travel and communication easier.
Add to this, the Roman road-system. By the time the young church was ready to take the gospel to the larger world, Rome had established a road system which was almost unrivaled in the ancient world. Although the roads were built to help speed the movement of armies and commerce, they also helped traveling missionaries as they hurried along to take the story of Jesus to the farthest reaches of the empire—and beyond. In the Book of Romans, Paul mentions his dream of taking the gospel to Spain, a dream which was by no means unrealistic.
Then, too, commerce had created a demand for goods in ports all over the Roman world. Did you know the Egyptian grain fleet, which was already in existence at the time of Jesus’ birth, would remain one of the world’s largest fleets until the seventeenth century? These ships were far from safe—Paul tells us he experienced at least three shipwrecks—but they were profitable enough to keep a busy shipping business afloat. We can only imagine how many missionaries took to the sea to carry the gospel to distant lands.
All this business helped to create a demand for a common language. The modern nation of India illustrates this. That nation has dozens of official languages spoken in its various regions but English helps to unite the country. In the Roman world, that language was Greek. Almost everyone, including Jesus, was at least bilingual; they would speak their local language—such as Aramaic—and Greek. This allowed Paul to travel from one language-group to another to preach the gospel. Of course, the New Testament was written in Greek, a language which could be read and understood throughout the Roman world.
While I find this historical detail fascinating, we also need to understand how the human heart was ready for the first Christmas.
The world into which Jesus was born appears to have been experiencing a deep spiritual hunger. People were tired of the mythologies which depicted the gods as plotting against each other, committing adultery, and otherwise behaving like spoiled adolescents. Emperor worship offered little solace, since it elevated to the status of deity those who might have attained that position through assassination or bribery. Many yearned for something more. They wanted something which would give them meaning and direction in their lives.
Some in the Roman world also were beginning to adopt a belief in one God. Again, the old mythology of many gods seemed empty. At this point, some discovered Judaism. About six centuries before the birth of Christ, many Jews began spreading throughout the Mediterranean world, at first to escape the chaos caused by the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians and, later, for commercial reasons. Whatever the reason, by the time of Jesus’ birth, there were synagogues in at least 150 Roman cities, outside Judea and Galilee. These synagogues taught about the one God Yahweh and his moral demands rooted in Old Testament law.
So, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God had already been at work preparing the infrastructure to spread his gospel to a spiritually needy world.
That first Christmas God was on time to initiate His plan.
Paul says God’s Son was “born of a woman.” Some see this as a reference to the Virgin Birth, but that probably isn’t what Paul has in mind here. I was “born of a woman,” you were “born of a woman.” If anyone here wasn’t, we might want to call Syfy channel. This was Paul’s way of saying Jesus was born into humanity.
One of the ancient creeds, a summary of key Christian beliefs, says that God’s Son “for us men and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate.”
Jesus became involved in humanity in the most intimate way possible, he became one of us. He would know hunger; he would know thirst; he would know cold; he would experience the burning sun as he worked. If he hit his thumb with the hammer, it would hurt; if his saw slipped, he would bleed. Christianity as always believed that, somehow in a way not fully understood, Jesus—though God in the flesh—was not born with an innate knowledge of the everyday world. He would have to learn how to use a hammer without hitting his thumb and that usually takes hitting your thumb a few times.
The point is, God did not remain aloof from his creation.
At the same time, Paul says God’s Son was “born under the law.”
This phrase has two elements which are important. The first is suggested by the Living Bible’s translation which states “he was born a Jew.” As such, this is a reminder that God was keeping his word. Centuries before he had promised Abraham that one of his descendants would be a blessing to the entire world. The Jewish nation was to be the vehicle that brought the Redeemer into the world. That ancient promise was kept that first Christmas.
Then, too, this is a reminder that Jesus was born to be subject to the Law. He was born to live out his life under that law as no one had ever lived it before—perfectly. Only by living his life without sin could he be qualified to give himself in our place on the cross.
Surveys have shown that a disturbing number of young people in our churches believe Jesus sinned just like everyone else. They have no evidence of this and, more important, fail to see how this rejection of the Bible’s teaching about Jesus undermines his work of redemption.
Ironically, even though they deny he was the incarnate Son of God, most Muslims believe Jesus lived a sinless life. How strange that Christians are denying that fundamental affirmation about Jesus.
This is important because, as Paul will tell us here in Galatians and later in Romans, the law was not given to make us perfect. It was given to show us our imperfections.
The Law makes sinners of all of us. It proves our unworthiness to receive God’s gift of salvation. Earlier in Galatians, Paul makes this clear, “…all those who depend on the works of the Law [for their salvation] are under a curse, since scripture says: Accursed be he who does not make what is written in the book of the Law effective, by putting it into practice.”
This is why it was necessary to “redeem those born under the law.” All of us who try to win God’s favor by our own efforts are doomed to fail. Imagine standing in the batter’s box getting ready to face a pitcher equally famous for fast balls, curve balls, and sliders. Then, imagine being told you must face this pitcher blindfolded. And, finally, as you try to get ready for the first pitch, the umpire says, “One strike and you’re out.”
That situation is not as bad as trying to please God with your own good works. God sent his Son that first Christmas to do the impossible for us.
That first Christmas God was on time to accomplish His purpose.
“God sent forth his Son….” The word “sent forth” is from “exapostello” meaning “to be sent out” as on a mission. That mission helps explain the why of the first Christmas.
God sent his Son “so that we might receive adoption as his children.” Sin—failure to live up to God’s standard—had destroyed our relationship with him. Jesus made possible the restoration of that relationship.
Paul illustrates how complete that restored relationship is in two ways.
There is a new intimacy with God. Helen Mongomery’s translation captures that meaning: “And because you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, "Dear, dear Father!"” Many translations retain the Aramaic “Abba” in this verse. Paul used it and then added the Greek for “Father.” Some of his readers would immediately recognize the point he was making.
The Hebrew or Aramaic word for father is “Ab.” “Abba” is apparently the word a child might use. We might compare it to “Dad” or even “Daddy.” It suggests a special intimacy. Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, the great jazz musician, grew up in a home where the children were expected to call their father “uncle.” This was because he didn’t like people knowing he was old enough to have children. He seemed to want to distance himself from his own children.
Paul says God gave us the Spirit so we might be closer to him.
Then, because of our restored relationship, we have a new hope for the future. “Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you—by God’s own act.”
The reference to slavery in this verse is to the ruthless demands of trying to provide our own salvation. Because of Christ, because of Christmas, we may be free from that slavery.
God graciously offers us a relationship with him. It is a relationship which brings countless blessings. Chief among those blessings is freedom from having do try to do the impossible.
Conclusion
My father loved Christmas. I believe he was as excited about it as any child. The cliché of the child waking the parents on Christmas morning didn’t play in our house. My father was always the first up, sometimes waking me up.
I don’t know all that may have made Christmas such a special event for him. I know his childhood was rough. His mother—my grandmother—died when he was just a youngster. My father’s sister cared for him and his four brothers.
There didn’t appear to have been much fuss over Christmas. They weren’t poor but my grandfather appears to have been indifferent to the holiday. I recall my father saying he looked forward to the local church passing out a bag of treats for Christmas because it was the only time all year he would see an orange. Sometimes that bag was the only Christmas present. By the way, my father was born in 1910, so this was some years before the Great Depression.
I suspect those experiences were part of the reason my father always looked forward to Christmas in his adult years, after he had found a good job in the steel mill.
My father loved for Christmas to arrive; he was always ready to give gifts to those he loved. I suspect our heavenly Father loved that first Christmas, loved the opportunity to give the Gift of his Son to a needy world. It was time for that Gift.
If you haven’t already received that Gift, he wants you to have it.
If you have already received that Gift, he wants you to pass it on.
