A Perfect Christmas

Go with me to Galatians chapter four this morning. Galatians chapter four will. Spent at least a couple of Sundays, well probably three Sundays, looking more. Explicitly at the incarnation, getting our hearts ready for Christmas. It's that time of the year, isn't it?

But as I said quite thoroughly earlier, The incarnation is never separated from the crucifixion. It's never separated from the glories of our salvation and the second coming of Christ.

So, as the scripture weaves all these things together, So, will we weave all these things together as we think on Christmas? I call this a perfect. Christmas, how can you have a perfect Christmas. Have you ever had a perfect Christmas? We had a perfect Thanksgiving this year.

I mean, when you have seven grandchildren, nobody throws up, it's pretty good. I mean No catastrophes. Everybody was healthy and Uh we love the Lord and We're blessed and Just a side note, we were out in the country. And, you know, our children have everything, you know. I mean, not my children, our children.

If you look at the world where. I mean, they just have all kinds of stuff. And I watched my grandchildren literally. play with dogs, throw walnuts at each other, and play in a fire for hours. And I thought Okay.

The things that you can learn from children, the things that matter aren't really the things we buy, are they? But anyway, back to our text. Galatians chapter 4. A perfect Christmas beginning in verse 4. But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son.

Born of a woman born under the law.

so that he might redeem those who were under the law. that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Crying, Abba. Father.

We have the perfect Christmas story in front of us. And we start with a preface, if you will, in verses one and two of the text to get the flow of the context. The text says there in verses 1 and 2 of our chapter: Now I say, as long as an heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.

So in that culture, the wealthy Romans and Greeks particularly would get a slave or a guardian they called him and he would oversee the child, the children. And even though that child, in effect, their name was on the deed to all the estate. They function like a slave. They had to do what that guardian said. They had to go when they said go, wake up when they said wake up, go study when it was time to study.

They were under the governing authority of that slave or guardian. And so he takes that and he says, in like manner, our heavenly Father. Places mankind, all of us. Under the servant or the guardianship of the law. Until the time established by the Father when we can be released from it.

And you know, everything happens at a perfect time. And that's my first main point: that is, this is the perfect Christmas because he came at the perfect time. At the perfect time. The fullness of time is the way the text reads it out. And in the fullness of time means it was the perfect time.

It wasn't haphazard. All things concerning Christ. Are established from eternity past, and they all come about in perfect timing. They're all set. It was all done.

For example, as Ephesians 1, verse 4 reminds us, Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Our salvation was perfectly timed. It's hard for us to wrap our brains around. Matter of fact, we can't wrap our brains around the reality of the sovereignty of God and salvation, that He marked us out and set out the plan of salvation and even our particular salvation before the world began. It's all perfect.

Everything about it. You know, the law had been established for some 1,300 years, and man lived under the law before Jesus came. 1,300 years. And that Was the perfect time. That was the Fullness of time.

And when that time came, Jesus is born.

So that he might perform his mediatorial. Savior office work, if you will, to redeem us. That's what the text says in verse 5. Let's read verse 4 to get the flow. But when the fullness of time came.

God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. We'll unpack that in a moment. Verse 5: so that he might redeem those who were under the law. To sort of set the foundation, I want to talk about redemption or being redeemed and its first cousin. Really, these are so intertwined, they're almost the same thing: redemption and atonement.

Two important theological concepts that have about the same idea. Redemption, or to be redeemed, means you're released. From your present state or condition. Through the payment. of another.

Someone else pays for it, and you get released from that woeful condition you were under before. Of course, Christ is the one who came. Christ paid the redemption price, and we are released from that status, that standing of being owing to the law, therefore condemned and cursed under. The law. What a glorious truth that is.

Now atonement is very much like redemption. Atonement, again, is the idea of bringing two together. Because one of them vicariously suffers for the other one and allows for that uniting. Of course, that was Christ.

So Jesus is the one who came. at the perfect time that he might fulfill all righteousness Fulfill the role or the office of Savior or Messiah, and he did it perfectly, including the timing.

Now, talking about how things happen in a certain time or at a certain time according to God's dictates, we think about the Old Testament. Practice of atonement. You remember it well. It was a set time that the Jews had for them established by God. when on the great day of atonement and only on that day.

The high priest, the 10th of the month of Tishra, Would come into the holy of holies, and in that holy of holies, he would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. And there, picture the atoning of sin. One has died, the animal that died, the blood was sprinkled, and his vicarious nature, man's sin is therefore pushed back or held back, if you might look at it that way, because that only pointed to the actual true atonement, which comes through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So, just as the Jews had a particular time for that atonement, and no other time would work. Jesus came at the particular time. Perfect time. Time was fulfilled, or in the fullness, I should say, of the time.

Now, that also includes the idea that everything else that needed to be done before he came has been done. God does absolutely nothing prematurely. This is a practical point of application for us. You might ask: why am I going through this? Why will not God remove this out of my life?

Why doesn't God give me some relief?

Well, he loves you more than you know, and he's got a. Perfect time to do that. And by the way, everything that's not perfect at one day is going to be all removed from you. Everything that's imperfect. all the troubles, all the trials, all the hardships.

removed. when we're glorified with him In heaven. God does nothing prematurely, and when he sent Jesus. He waited until sin was fully developed. And man's inability to save himself was fully manifested.

And then the time had come. All the prophecies of all of the ages came together at this common center point, even the social and political world. had come to the proper place. For Jesus to come. Matter of fact, God has a purpose for allowing the evil day.

before he brings the remedy. And his timing is always perfect. Psalm 102, verse 13 reminds us of God's particular Perfection in timing things. You will arise and have mercy on Zion for the time to favor her. Yes.

The set time. has come. The scripture even teaches that even the entire universe has been awaiting. This event of Christ coming. The entire cosmos was pregnant and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Christ child.

And that's why when Jesus comes. Those beings that were in on the mystery, if you will, and the wonder, and waiting that perfect time could not hold it in. Luke chapter 2, verses 6 through 14, as we have the narrative of Jesus' birth, our part of the narrative. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son.

And she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. In that same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. Can you just imagine that scene of these shepherds on a hillside, a lonely hillside? It's always only been quiet and dark, and boom, the glory of heavenly angels is all around them.

They're terrified. Verse 10, but an angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy. In other words, this isn't a threat. Just that the fullness of time has come. And you guys are getting in on a little preview.

of what God's doing. Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. Verse 11: For today in the city of David, there's been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger or a feed trough.

And suddenly they appeared with the angel.

Now, this would be really terrifying, would it not? A multitude of the heavenly host. Praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among men with whom He is well pleased.

So there was just the perfect time, and heaven couldn't hold it in. The time of the fulfillment. The fullness of time.

Well, it's a perfect Christmas because He's the perfect one and he came at the perfect time.

Well, I've already given away the point of the next. Phrase. That's Roman 2. It's the perfect Christmas because he was the perfect person. The perfect person First forward, the text says.

But when the fullness of time came, that's the perfect time. God sent Fourth. His son. Not an angel. Not the son of a righteous man or a prophet.

His son. He was the perfect one. He's co-equal to God the Father. And after all, if you've got a job to do and you're God, you just send yourself. God puts on human clothing.

He becomes flesh. He dwells among us. Because the perfect one has come to do for man what man could not do for himself. Romans 8:3 reflects on this. Romans 8:3, Paul writes.

For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh. God did. Sending his own son, i.e. his Perfect one. Also, the text tells us in verse 4: not only did God send his Son, Paradox of all paradoxes, mysteries of all mysteries, wonders of all wonders.

He's born of a. Woman. God came. Came as a child. Born of a mortal?

Woman. Amazing. Holy man Born of a woman. The angel had told Mary. That she's going to have this miraculous conception of this baby.

And Luke chapter 1, but she couldn't take it all in. Who could take all of that in? He's fully God and fully man. Theologians use the phrase, he's the God-man. And it's a mystery to us.

There's a glory and a wonder about it that we can't take in. And as I was listening to the musical Wednesday night as they went through the whole thing and all the scriptures that we use, it just. I thought deeply about it. And I couldn't figure it out. But I could wonder over it.

I could glory over it. I could treasure it. He came to be like us, and he was like us in every way, but yet he did not sin. His parents were humble and lowly. His birth mother was a lonely girl, we would call her today.

She's probably in her teens for sure. The village of his birth was insignificant, Bethlehem. His birthing room was a musty small enclave in the side of a hill, literally a livestock shelter. Can you imagine how filthy and what the stench was like in there? Mystery of Mysteries.

His bed was the livestock feed trough. His companions farm animals. His dress was swaddling clothing. That's the clothing of the poor. His worshipers.

At the first just lowly shepherds. The perfect one came that way. The perfect one came that way. God humbling himself to become man. We call this the incarnation.

The incarnation is God becoming man. It's a condescension. God came down to us, and like I love to say, it's a condescension beyond comprehension. We can't grasp all of that. Oh, but we must marvel over it.

We must take the time to think on it and wonder about it. My little devotional, I made it very short each time so that there'd just be an aspect of it each day that you could hopefully marvel over afresh. And wonder over anew. He came. To be our savior.

Perfectly fulfilling the Prophet's plan. Perfectly achieving our salvation. And he was the perfect person because he was perfectly qualified. Not anyone else could do that. Not anyone else could perform the atonement that was required for our salvation.

Well, this is the perfect Christmas story because it tells about the Perfect timing of his coming. It tells about the perfect one coming. But thirdly, it's because in it he provides the perfect salvation. He provides the perfect salvation. We've hit on it, but let's.

Examine it a little more closely. You know, the Bible never just leaves us with Christ's birth. And so, as you look around the world this time of the year, and man just sort of puts onto Christ's birth whatever meaning he wants to put on it. It's just a new day that speaks of the hope of mankind, our new age of peace, or a new age of brotherly love, et cetera, et cetera. That's not what the scriptures say.

Matter of fact, the birth of Christ is connected to A tragic Yet glorious end for Christ, at least his Um on the earth. It tells us explicitly and without equivocation that his birth is connected to his. AF. This tragic ending that he will face on a bloody cross. A Roman cross Has a glorious truth in it for all of us.

Look at verse five in our text.

So that He might redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons.

So that he might redeem us, so that he might adopt us, so that he might call us and have us as his sons. His purpose was to come.

So that he might die, that he might rise again, and then one day he might reign with his children forever and ever.

Now from the text, let's Examine three parts of this Perfect salvation that he has provided for us. Perfect timing, the perfect person, and the perfect salvation He has wrought for us. Number one, In this salvation, the text tells us he represents us. Before the law. He represents us before the law.

Look at verse 4. That he was born under The law. He placed him under the law, just like you and I are all born under the law. That means born accountable to the law, born with a requirement to answer for all the transgressions. You commit.

of this law. And Jesus was placed there also. By the Father's own appointment, he was placed under the law. To be subject to the law because he was the representative man. He says, I will be human.

And I will go before God the Father, representing all of mankind. Under the law, he represented us before the law. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, do not think that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill it. He didn't throw it out.

He neither discredited the law nor discarded the law. He fulfilled it. The idea is he filled it full. Take every eota, every jot, every tittle of all the law, and Jesus filled it. Four.

Every bit of it. Representing us. In our place. We don't think about that very often. We think about the cross.

We'll mention that in a moment, where he died in our place. But he lived in our place. Do you get that, church? In Christ, you have now fulfilled all the law. Wow.

I like that. He filled it full, kept it completely. Abe. War it out, if you will. Completely used it up.

Not completely, perfectly. Keeping it. That is, he came into our room. He stood in our place. He came under the law.

To keep it in perfection in our place, i.e., for us. Romans 8 verses 3 and 4. For what the law could not do, the law could not make the elect children the sons of God. It couldn't do it. Jesus had those who were his from the foundation of the world, but the law couldn't get us home.

Are you man? The law couldn't get us home. Jesus came and did what the law could not do. You see, brothers and sisters, God has ordained to have for himself a people, and the law could not get the job done to make us his people. Jesus Jesus did it.

He can get the job done. I've got to read the verse, Romans 8, 3 and 4, for what the law could not do. Weak as it was to the flesh, God did. Sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us. Did you see that?

All the law requires for you to stand just before this holy God has been fulfilled for us in and through Jesus Christ. Romans 8:1 reminds us, Therefore, now there's no condemnation, no condemnation of the law for those who are in Christ Jesus. He represents us. Before the law. Secondly.

This perfect salvation means he redeems us. From the law. From the law. We've talked about it. Let's talk about it a little bit more.

In Galatians chapter 3, the earlier chapter, verse 13, look at it there. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, curse is everyone who hangs on the tree. His redemption required him taking the punishment. in the place of all the law breakers.

Through his death, his cross-bearing death, We are redeemed. We are literally purchased out of that condition. We are in the slave market of sin, and we must account for our sins under divine wrath and judgment. And he literally paid the purchase price and took us out of that state into his own house and said, Now, this is one of mine. He has my righteousness.

He's not to be under condemnation any longer. Because of my death. We are so guilty. We have so broken God's law, we are such, are so deep in transgressions and in sins. And there's no way we can fix ourselves.

Romans 3.19. We know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may be accountable to God. There's nothing to say. That's our natural condition. That's where we were.

The immutable bar of divine justice thunders from heaven's throne, and all mouths are shut. Shut up, the text says, in effect. You have no excuse, no explanation. You are what you are. You are fallen.

You are sinful. You are a transgressor. You are under the curse of the law. You are under condemnation. Hush!

You must bear the weight. Of divine wrath. You have no excuse. But wait. Can it be?

Yes, listen. Between the thunders of the lost condemnation, I think I hear something. Oh. I hear a baby. A little child.

Sweet little child. Can it be? Can it really be? That the law and judgment and condemnation is not God's final word. Yes, it is true.

It's wondrously, mysteriously, and gloriously true that God has satisfied the demands of the law against us, and He did it. High coming. Throw a little Child. Prophet said, A child will be born to us. A son will be Given to us.

It's kind of my mind's eye this morning. I picture some. person who is just raving and reviling and evil and Mortonly worthless and just corrupt and Everything about you wants to uh abhor them, if not punish them. That's where we were. And now God.

comes in this little baby. Uh What is it about babies you just want to hold them? I want to be tender with them and kiss them and They're just precious beyond compare. And God fixed that monster. With that Sweet.

Innocent preciousness. A little baby. Of course the baby grew up and He went to the cross, but there's something in there that the weakness of God is stronger than men. Romans 8:3 says, What the law could not do, weak as it was, God did, sending forth his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

So it was the custom in that day of the wealthy Greeks and Romans, particularly, who had no children. It was the custom they would go out and find a slave child. And they would purchase that child. And make it their own child, give it their name, put that baby in their house, and raise that child with their love. And it all was because they paid the Purchase price.

Christ has redeemed us. Though we were once helplessly enslaved to sin and under the condemnation of law, Christ has now removed that from us, He redeems us. He was The perfect one. Who came to represent us before the law, who comes to redeem us, purchase us out from under the law's curse and condemnation. And thirdly, He releases us to the liberty of sonship.

He releases us into the liberties of sonship. There was a day when that Greek or Roman child, growing up in the Greek or Roman home, under the guardian, under the slave that looked after them, could be released. And no longer did they answer to the guardian or the slave.

Now they were a full heir. An adult, I mean, they could enjoy the privileges of being an adult heir of. The household. Notice how he words it here in our text, verse 5 again.

So that he might redeem those who are under the law. Here it is: that we might receive the adoption as sons. We're released into sunshift. Receive there is the idea of receiving something that was long due and promised. God said, I'm going to have a people.

I've marked you out before the foundation of the world. I'm going to save you. I'm going to keep you. And at the promised time, at the fixed time, at the fullness of time, it finally came. I love Christmas because of all the pregnant meaning, no pun intended, with this little baby.

coming into the world. All that it means for us. Christ promised salvation. Is now ready, it's suitable, it's right. We can receive it, not just for forgiveness, not just have a place in the household as a servant.

But now we hold and we have the status of the dignity of a son. in God's household. Father Augustine said it this way. God makes sons of men.

Sons of God Because he first made the Son of God A son of man. The Incarnation.

So, the experience of the liberty of sonship begins at conversion. But it's interesting. We've been talking about salvation. We've been diving into some foundational truths these last several weeks, and we've been talking about the witness of the Spirit.

Well, here it is again. How are we assured? that were one of these sons adopted. Out from under the old guardian, the law, out from under the law's curse and judgment. How do we know we're one of those?

Well, verse 6. Because you are sons. God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba. Father. You see.

Now God sent his son at Bethlehem. That's verse 4. Verse 5. The Son redeems the children at Calvary. In verse six The Spirit releases you into sonship starting at conversion.

You can see God not only sent his son to secure our salvation, he sends his Spirit to assure our salvation. Do you have the new birth? Do you have the witness of the Spirit in your heart? And one, I think, very sure way to check that is what happens in you during the preaching of the word. Is there something in you that says amen?

When the word of God is preached, when this comes forth, there's something in you that says, Yes, I don't deserve it. I don't live up to it, but that's true and that's right, and I agree. The witness of the Spirit. Paul goes on to say, This spirit's inner witness. Is that gentle?

Childlike Confidence and rest and assurance that though the law would thunder its condemnations, this gentle, sweet, authoritative voice says, But you're gods. You've been forgiven. Christ took your place. The condemnation is no longer over you. Jesus has removed all of that.

Christ has won the victory.

So, as your natural man, And your natural conscience, perhaps, in the old world cries into you and shouts at you and says, You're not fit and you're not God's, God's crying shout overshadows that one. Christ says more loudly, Yes, but you're his. It belonged to him.

So there's liberty. In this You know the phrase there in our text that we cry, Abba, Father, and that's such a liberty that I'm just His. You know, your children should grow up in the most secure environment, knowing that when I'm with Dad, I'm just free from everything. He takes care of everything. That's a wonderful place.

And that's the picture here. We cry, Abba, Father, the text says. That's that familiar term, Papa we might say, or daddy we might say in our vernacular today. And it means that we have this affection from Him and this comfort from Him, so that we are liberated from all fear and all anxiety of what's going to happen to us.

So I respect my Father in heaven. I want to serve my Father in heaven. I want to honor my Father in heaven. But beyond that, there's that ever-present Spirit's inner witness that gives me a childlike confidence. A childlike trust.

A childlike peace. I don't deserve it. But I am his and he is mine. Fanny Crosby wrote it this way in an old song, Perfect Submission. All is at rest.

I, my Saviour, am happy and blest. Think about that. We're talking about perfection. Perfect submission. All is at rest.

I in my Saviour am happy. And Blessed. He came as a little child. that you might find confidence, rest, and peace with God. as his little child.

And if you find confidence and peace and rest with God. That's the perfect Christmas. That's the perfect. Christmas. Yeah.