What We Celebrate

Next Sunday is Christmas Day. So, today, I want to do a bit more to help you prepare to celebrate Jesus' Advent. What I'm going to do is rehearse the basics of the Gospel. I doubt that I will tell you anything that you haven't heard before. But that's not my goal. All I want to do is remind you of what you already know. But in doing this I hope to help you focus on what the celebrating is to be about and in this way to help you fight against the growing worldliness that tempts Christians these days. This morning's text is Galatians 4.4-7. After I read it we'll take a look at a few of the key thoughts that Paul presents here.

Let's start with this. What does Paul mean here when he talks about 'under the Law'? He tells us that Jesus was born under the Law and that he has redeemed those who were under the Law. So, what is this 'under the Law'? His point is not complicated. The Law defines how to live. It describes the rules that everyone is supposed to follow. And having done that, the Law then says, 'If you do this, you will live.' The Law makes a promise. It will reward obedience. All who keep the rules as described by the Law will receive this reward. And the reward is nothing less than life, life in its deepest sense. The Law promises the life of the age to come, eternal life. All you need to do is keep its rules.

Now, let me remind you about how the Law defines 'keeping the rules'. For one thing, this is about perfect obedience. Passing grade is 100%. If someone gets a 99.9% on the test, he fails. He has not kept the rules according to the Law. The Law will only reward perfect obedience. It gets even more difficult when you remember that keeping the rules is not just a matter of how you behave, what your body is doing. To be sure, the Law evaluates how we act. But it does that only after it evaluates our attitudes. Keeping the rules, according to the Law, starts with the heart. Jesus taught this in his Sermon on the Mount. Do you remember how he said that if someone was angry without cause that person had broken one of the rules, the one about murder? So, a calm, outward demeanor that covers a seething heart is not keeping the rules of the Law. Obedience - the kind that the Law will reward - begins in the heart.

The Law has more requirements. Consider the classic example of the Boy Scout helping the little old lady cross the street. To be sure, what he is doing is good and right. But the Law goes further. It asks him why he is doing this. On one level, he's being a kind neighbor to this needy woman. Good. But that isn't enough. According to the Law, he needs to do this for the right reason. And what reason is that? Paul wrote about this in another of his letters. 'Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.' If the nice Boy Scout is graciously helping the little old lady across the street for some reason other than highlighting God's goodness, if, let's say, that he is doing this so that he can get that 'helping little old ladies across the street' merit badge, then there is a problem. He has not met the requirements that the Law has established. He's doing the right thing, helping the lady. He's doing it in the right way, graciously. But the right reason isn't there. If he's thinking about that merit badge or actually anything else beside making God look good, then the Law is clear. His obedience is not perfect. No reward for him.

Now, what about people who have never seen a Bible or even heard of the Ten Commandments? Does any of this apply to them? They know nothing about the Law and its rules, right? Well, not exactly. Paul tells us that everyone has at least a reflection of this Law written on their hearts. It isn't as clear or as complete, but it's something. In fact, it's enough. So, these people will be evaluated according to that expression of the Law. And the passing grade is still the same: perfect obedience from the heart and for the right reason. So, everyone is held accountable to this Law.

This Law rewards those who fulfill its requirements: perfect obedience. But what about those who don't pass the test? Do they just miss out on the good stuff, the reward, and get to live just a so-so existence? No. There are only two possible outcomes for anyone. If there is obedience, perfect obedience from the heart and for the right reason, then there is a reward. But if there is a failure to obey in the right way then that person doesn't just miss out. He is condemned. Jesus spoke about this. He taught us that that there are only two ways to live. There is following the narrow way that leads to life and then there is the broad way of death. So, if the reward is bliss beyond imagining, then the condemnation is horror beyond imagining. And that's it. There is no third possibility. It's bliss or horror - eternal life or eternal death. That's how the Law defines it. That's what Jesus taught.

Now, put yourself into this picture. It's a plain fact, beyond debate, that you have failed the test. You have not kept the Law. So, it's horror and not bliss. That sounds awfully harsh to some people. 'What about the person who really tried to pass the test. In fact, he got a 95%. Not too shabby. Certainly, better than most. To be sure, he made some dumb mistakes along the way, but for the most part, for 95% of the time, he got it right. It doesn't seem right that he should face horror and not enjoy at least a little of that bliss.' If that were the situation, I would agree. But it's another undebatable fact that no one 'really tries to pass the test'. The problem is not that we goof up a little here and there. No, we have rebelled. We have refused to live according to the rules that the Law set out. Refused. Here's a good description of what I'm talking about. 'The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' The problem is not that though we tried, we didn't do very well on the test. We rebelled.

So, it's not that some try but get a 95%. We all get zeros. Because of our rebellion, we all earn zeros on the test. Some people rebel with a nice smile and lots of Boy Scout merit badges. And some rebel with rage and curses. But we all rebel. The sentence of horror is completely just.

That's what it means for us to be under the Law.

And now, we get to talk about Advent. As Paul tells us, Jesus was also born under the Law. He had to live by the same rules. The promise of the Law was the same for him, with the same requirements. Perfect obedience from the heart and for the right reason. So, his situation was the same as ours. The difference, though, was that he passed the test. He faced the same temptations that we face, but he dealt with them well – every time. He kept all the rules. He obeyed perfectly. From the heart. For the right reason. And if you think about it, that is simply amazing. Our lame obedience can't last a full morning without us blowing it somehow. Jesus' perfect obedience lasted a full lifetime - and that without any cheating.

So, since Jesus obeyed the Law, he earned the reward. He kept the rules so he gets the bliss, right? Well, not exactly. He earned the bliss, but he was condemned to the horror. And he chose to experience that horror.

Here, I want to remind you of a phrase that I've used before. I get it from Martin Luther. The Great Exchange. Jesus earned the reward. We earned the horror. And yet, Jesus suffered our horror. He took it on himself. He did that for us. And on the other side, instead of facing the horror that we have rightfully earned, we receive the reward. We enjoy the bliss. There has been a Great Exchange. Now, please understand what I'm saying. This does not mean that we get off. This is not like a presidential pardon where the guilty person does not go to prison, but is returned to his old life. We are not just let off. We don't just get to avoid the horror. We are rewarded. What Jesus earned and should have enjoyed, we get to enjoy. This is so much more than getting let off. We are not just pardoned and then allowed to return to our old lives. We are redeemed from the Law. We enjoy the reward. We are pardoned and then get to experience a new kind of life, eternal life. And all of that is happening now. Do you see why Luther called it the Great Exchange?  

We’ve looked at being under the Law and being redeemed from that Law. Now we’re ready to look at this 'adoption as sons'. Jesus redeemed us so that we might receive this adoption as sons. What's this? It's one way of describing the reward.

What's so great about being a son? Well, for one thing you get benefits of your father. Now, if someone’s father is a bum, that's a problem. But if your father is a great guy, then life is good. The Spirit is telling us here that the reward is getting to have a Father who is a great guy and more. Life is good for his sons, very good. Now, we are not sons by birth. We are sons by adoption. Our Father decided to include us so that we would enjoy all the benefits of being his sons. And while these benefits are not ours by birth, they have become ours by right. 'But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.' We have been given the gift of the rights of the sons of God. Now, I'm sure that there is someone out there who has written something about Paul's obvious sexism in writing 'sons'. 'What about the women, Paul? They're not sons. They're daughters.' Paul, they tell us, is showing how culture-bound he was when he wrote this. Au contraire, as the French say. Paul was actually being counter-cultural in this. In the first century it was the sons who had the rights and the power. Daughters were considered second class and expendable. But here Paul speaks into that culture. He is saying that Christian women are, by no means, second class. They have equal claim to all the rights and privileges of having God as Father. Paul is far from first century rube here. He actually was ahead of his time. We all enjoy the privileges of sons.

Paul could have mentioned lots of things in describing the great benefits of being sons of God. But he picks this one. 'And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”' We receive the Spirit. It's part of the reward. It is easy to mention the Spirit's presence in the life of the Christian. It's a point of orthodoxy that we all know. But just take a moment and try to feel what that means. We get God. He is always with us. And he is with us for a purpose. He intends to lead us into a growing experience of that reward, that bliss that Jesus earned. And that means that we get to change. All of the habits and attitudes that so easily trip us up are, one by one, removed. They are plucked out of our lives and replaced with good and Godly habits. And so, just to peek ahead to what Paul writes later, the Spirit develops in us the ability to love, to rejoice all the time, to experience amazing peace in the most unlikely moments and lots more. And we are never alone, never left to fend for ourselves. That's just impossible. Immanuel. And at the heart of this all is the growing awareness that the God who is over all of this, the God who created it all and keeps it going, down to the last atom, that God is our Father. And he is a great Father who loves us with his fatherly love.

And that leaves one last thought from our text. 'So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.' We are heirs. And what is an heir? Someone who has an inheritance. There is an inheritance waiting for us to enjoy in the age to come. I'm really not sure what all that means, but it has to mean at least this: the full experience of being the sons of the most high God. The full experience. I'm not quite sure what that will feel like, but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to like it.

How does all of this become ours? And how do we grow in our enjoyment of it? It's not by Law-keeping. There is no more being 'under the Law'. Life is no longer a matter of trying to keep the rules to gain the reward. That is all gone. The reward is ours as a gift, a Christmas gift. Jesus tells us, 'I'll take care of you. I will. I will make sure you get the reward. Just trust me.' And as we do trust him, our experience of the reward, our enjoyment of it, grows and grows. All we need to do is trust Jesus.

Now, what should you do with all of this? I could talk about being grateful for it. I could talk about being happy because of it. And those things are obviously good. But I would rather talk about something else. And this isn't something you do with all of this. It's something that all of this does to you. If what I have explained to you from this text does not stir your soul, if contemplating who Jesus is and what he has come to do for you doesn't arouse your passions, then something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong. One sign of a maturing Christian is a growing wonder at the Gospel. Consider the Psalms. Along with the cries for help and the laments about life, there were songs of passionate praise. Why? They were responding to the goodness and love of their God. They were praising God, their savior, their deliverer. '​​​​​​​​But I have trusted in your steadfast love; ​​​​​​​my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. ​​​​​​​​I will sing to the Lord, ​​​​​​​because he has dealt bountifully with me.' And that was written before Jesus showed up. If the Gospel does not stir you, you have a problem, a serious problem, one that you need to address. But if the Gospel does stir you, however that might show, then it becomes worship, just like those Psalms. It becomes worship that gives its all to Jesus because you know that he is worthy. And it also becomes your evangelism. As you take that sense of wonder at what Jesus has done for you back into the world, it becomes a clear statement of the beauty of Jesus that even the rankest pagan can understand. Unbelievers today need to see the Gospel before they will listen to it. Worship and evangelism.

This Gospel is what Christmas is about. This is what we celebrate.