“The Trinity Christmas” -- Galatians 4:4-7

Watching cooking shows, it’s not long before a meal begins with the key three ingredients for a mirepoix (or a soffritto in Italian cooking), which are carrot, celery and onion. These three ingredients can be replaced by another element in creole cooking or other dishes, but those three ingredients are all you need for a solid base upon which one can make a roast or other dish like that.

Perhaps you’re familiar with the phrase, “Good things come in threes” or, “Bad things come in threes.” I don’t know how true those statements are, but we tend to look for the three things in order to make it fit.

Over the past three weeks as we’ve focused on Christmas, we have considered the roles of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in bringing Christmas about. We remember from the first message that it was the Father’s love that sent His Son. We looked at Jesus’ example of humble obedience in the advent we call Christmas. And last week, we considered the role of the Holy Spirit in creating a child within Mary’s womb because nothing is impossible with God.

Today, we bring the three together, because Christmas is not just about the birth of Jesus. It is also about the relationship that is formed when we proclaim Jesus as Christ.

Background

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is focused on addressing a heretical view of what it means to be a Christian. Specifically, there have been those who have taught the Galatians that accepting Jesus by faith is only the first step in being a true Christian. According to these false teachers, a person not only had to believe in Jesus but they also had to follow the law God gave to Moses. Paul’s letter is a forceful reminder that we come to Jesus only by faith and that we are dead to the law.

The first two chapters of the letter are biographical in nature, stressing Paul’s validity to the claim as apostle and an encounter with Peter at Antioch that resulted in conflict over the same issues that now plagued the Galatian church.

Chapter 3 speaks to the theology of how God brings us into relationship with Him through faith and not through the observance of the law. Towards the end of the chapter, Paul writes, “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law” (Galatians 3:23-25).

Paul then shares the truth that we are all sons of God by faith, making us God’s heirs. He uses the term “son” not to exclude women (he writes in v. 28, “There is neither . . . male nor female”), but because of the laws of Rome and Judea. Under the law, only sons could inherit from the father; daughters were excluded from all legal claims. Paul is now preparing to use an illustration of a child who, as a minor, is under the control of a guardian or trustee. It is only when the child reaches an age designated by the father under the terms of the will or the trust that the child can have absolute control of his own inheritance.

As we come to the passage we are looking at today, let us keep in mind this truth:

Central Truth: Christmas is the activity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Normally, I’d break the sermon down to three or four key elements in the passage. This passage, though, is filled with phrases, and each of the phrases have a significance. So this message, we’ll be looking at the phrases.

1. ”But when the time had fully come”

Paul begins this passage with the phrase, “But when the time had fully come.” Specifically, he is referring to the idea of the child reaching the age decided by the father under the terms of the trust or will, but he is also referencing the idea of Hebrew thought about God’s involvement in our world.

Jewish belief was that God was in absolute control of all that happened in the world. God’s control was either direct or indirect, but the outcome of all events would be determined by God. This applied particularly to the coming of the Messiah. Jewish thought was that God would send His Messiah to overthrow any conquerors who dominated Israel/Judea and that this Messiah would then usher in an eternal kingdom on earth that would glorify God and prove His majesty to all the world. This Messiah would appear only when the time had fully come. Then God would intervene in a real and dramatic way.

Paul harkens back to this idea in stating that God sent Jesus when the time was right to do so. When I was in college, I took a New Testament survey class. The text book was by a man named H. I. Hester. Dr. Hester wrote about the birth of Jesus as saying that God had brought everything together so that Jesus’ birth and ministry would have the greatest impact on His world. Rome controlled the Mediterranean world from Spain to the Red Sea and all along north Africa. This world was for the most part at peace. And the Romans had built an extensive road system in order to move their armies quickly throughout the empire. The road system also made travel convenient. Add to that the universal language of koine Greek. Almost everyone could speak a simple form of Greek, so it was easy to communicate across the empire. Finally, there was a spiritual hunger and yearning in the Roman Empire when Christ was born. The Romans and others had lost faith in their many gods; the Jews were eager for the Messiah. The people had an emptiness in their spirit and were looking for answers.

The time was ripe for an advent from God. The time had fully come.

2. “God sent His Son”

When that time had fully come, God sent His Son. We know from the previous messages that this act of redemption was an expression of God’s wondrous love and Jesus’ humility, not wanting to grasp onto His divine nature but willingly emptying Himself in order to become human.

From the beginning of time, God has been reaching out to us. He has shown Himself in His creation, and He has inspired men over a long span of time to speak His message of love and redemption to our world.

God sent His Son. He didn’t send an angel (though He did send angels to speak to Zechariah and to Mary and Joseph); He sent His Son. In Jesus we see the fullest revelation of God into our world. Jesus tells us in John 15 that anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father. The writer of Hebrews tells us that “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being” (1:3).

When God knew that the time had fully come, only one thing would do. He sent His Son. Fully divine, Immanuel—God with us. This is what it means that God sent His Son.

3. “Born of a woman”

As significant as it is that Jesus is fully God, we are blessed in that He was also fully human. God’s divine presence was made evident in our world through this child that was born to Mary. Born of humble means, growing up in a working class family, Jesus grew as any child would, becoming a man as any healthy son would do. This Jesus, born of a woman, experienced and knew what it means to experience life and all its emotions and temptations just as you and I did. The only difference between us and this Son of God born of a woman is that, while He was tempted, He never sinned. Jesus experienced emotions as we experience them. He knew frustration—there are several references in the Gospels when Jesus says, “Have I been with you so long, and you still don’t get it?”

This Son, who was born of a woman, experienced pain, emotionally and physically, as we read the events leading up to and through His crucifixion. This Son of God was born of a woman and knows what it is to be human.

4. “Born under law”

In the original texts, the word “the” does not appear in describing “law.” While there is no doubt Jesus was born under the Mosaic law, being raised in a Jewish family and observing the holy days and rituals revealed to Moses and given to God’s people, it is also true that Jesus was born into a world with restrictions. He lived under Roman rule, and He lived in the laws of nature. Jesus was born into the same world you and I have been born into. Although we have records of Jesus not always observing the laws of nature (it’s not possible to walk on water otherwise, or to calm storms and heal the dead otherwise), He nonetheless knew the limitations and restrictions of being born under law.

Of course, the law He was born under included the fact that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, and that the wages of sin is death. Unlike us, because Jesus never sinned and because He was sent to free us from the law, Jesus did not fall short nor did He have to reap the wages of sin.

5. “To redeem those under law”

Instead of reaping the wages of sin, Jesus paid our debt in order that you and I might be redeemed under the law that condemns us otherwise. Remember that God so loved the world, and that anyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. Jesus came to redeem the entire world from the wages of sin. That offer is extended to everyone who lives and breathes, but the offer is only extended to those who come to Him in faith.

The story of Jesus—the Gospel—is that God’s love caused Him to send His Son into our world, to experience life as we do and to live under the same conditions we do in order that He could bring redemption and salvation to all who believe. And when we believe, when we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, it ushers in a new relationship between us and God.

6. “That we might receive the full rights of sons”

Because of Jesus’ redeeming work, God’s grace is extended to us and causes us to become a new creation. No longer are we the sons of Adam under the curse of sin—now we are the children of God, created anew in His image, being transformed by His Spirit and giving us the full rights of being the sons (and daughters) of God.

There are ramifications that come with this promise.

7. The ramifications of “being a son.” (6-7)

The first ramification is that we are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The moment we profess Jesus as Christ, we are instantly transformed into the children of God and immediately our spirit is brought to life by the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit that now indwells us remains with us, giving us eternal life and the seal of God’s great promises to us, including the full inheritance that comes to us be being the children of God.

The second ramification of being God’s children is that the Holy Spirit that indwells us brings us into an intimate relationship with God, to the point that we can relate to Him with the same intimacy with which we related to our earthly parents. We can come into the presence of God just as a child comes into the presence of our earthly fathers, and we can talk to Him with the same confidence and love and hope that we did with our earthly father. The Spirit calls out, “Abba, Father.” “Abba” is the Aramaic word that a child would use in speaking to his or her dad. It is a phrase of familiarity, not formality.

The third ramification is that we not only have the presence of God’s Spirit and a familiarity, but we are given the fullest relationship we can have with God. Because we are a son, we are also an heir.

What does it mean to be an heir? It means that all the promises God has given through His Word are fulfilled in Christ, and we are full recipients of these promises. Among the promises are that we can never lose our salvation, we are sealed by His Spirit, we are given eternal life that we experience the moment we come to Christ as Savior. We have the promise that Jesus is always with us, and that Jesus is a consistent and reliable Savior—He never changes. We have the promise that we have overcome and that we are safe and secure in God’s presence.

Conclusion

When we celebrate Christmas, we not only celebrate the birth of Jesus. We celebrate the fullness of God working in our world and in our lives to bring into being the full promise of His redemption.

Christmas is the product and expression of God’s “so” love. Christmas is the product and expression of Jesus’ humble and obedient character. Christmas is the product of the Holy Spirit working in a uniquely divine way to bring life where life should not be. And all of Christmas is celebrated in the redemption of those who come to the Father through the Son and relate through the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son.

When we celebrate Christ, let us truly celebrate Him who made it all possible. Let us celebrate God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Let us celebrate the divine action that gave us life’s greatest gift.