Incarnation: The Son in the Flesh to Make us Sons Forver (Galatians 4:4-7)

“On seeing a living slave offered in New Orleans on a slave block: “There was a rising hatred inside of me against slavery, and I swore if someday I could do something about it, I would do something about it.”

—Abraham Lincoln

When I read Abraham Lincoln quote, I cannot help but think back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve broke God’s command.

God made a promise Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

God faithfully kept his promise (Galatians 4:4a)

Paul says God kept that promise

God orchestrated the fullness of time

The fullness of time” emphasizes the realization of God’s saving promises (cf. Mark 1:15). In Eph 1:10 God has so designed history that his plan “for the fullness of the times” (lit. trans. of τὸ πλήρωμα τῶν καιρῶν) was to unite all things in Christ. Now that Christ has come, “the fulfillment of the ages has come” (τὰ τέλη τῶν αἰώνων κατήντηκεν, 1 Cor 10:11). Jesus came at “the appointed time of the Father” (Gal 4:2), for God sent him as his Son at the right time in the history of salvation.

Christmas reveals God’s faithfulness to send his Son in the flesh so that we can be His sons forever.

God sent His Son in the Flesh (Galatians 4b-d)

Paul says in verse 4

Galatians 4:4 (ESV)

God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

The phrase, “born of a woman” speaks to Jesus’ incarnation. The incarnation of Christ’s means Jesus joined himself to humanity.

John 1:14 (ESV)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

At a glance, it might be tempting to think that John is saying Jesus changed into flesh, like the way a caterpillar changes into a butterfly during metamorphosis. Or you might think that the divine mixed with the flesh, like a demigod in the Marvel Universe. That is not the case.

John identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. Isaiah called the Messiah “mighty God” in Isaiah 9:6.

Paul says in Christ “all the fullness of deity dwells” Col 2:9. Jesus himself said that he and the Father are one (John 10:30). Most notably, Paul describes both Jesus human and divine nature in Phil 2:5-10; he was in the form of God, he took the form of flesh, and yet was fully God and fully man. Therefore, nothing was subtracted from his deity, but his flesh was added.

In the incarnation, Dr. Stephen Wellum explains, the eternal Son who has always possessed the divine nature has not changed or set aside his deity. Instead, he has added to himself a second nature, namely a human nature consisting of a human body and soul (Phil. 2:6-8). As a result, the individual Jesus is one person—the Son—who now subsists in two natures, and thus is fully God and fully man. And Paul says, he was a man “born under the law.”

God’s Son in the flesh was born under the law (Gal 4:4c-5a)

Paul is referring to the Mosiac law. Timothy Keller rightly notes, that Jesus was born, as all human beings are, into a state of obligation to God’s law, and he lived, as Thomas Schriener describes, under the tyranny of the sin.

As an obligation to God’s law, Jesus was subject to God’s holy morality, and was charged to live it out perfectly. As to the tyranny of sin Jesus suffered in the way we suffer the affects of sin on this world: disease, poverty, hunger, the oppression of evil, death, and the weight of judgment if any iota of the law is broken. Jesus’ incarnation shows you that he became like us in every human capacity.

Songwriter Mark Altrogge wrote a song called, “Father, How Sweet.” Its in part a meditation on Galatians 4:4-7. He writes,

“Jesus, it fills our hearts with wonder That You would leave Your heavenly place To take on flesh to thirst and hunger To save the ones who spurned Your grace You came to forfeit every mercy To die that mercy we would find And then You hung alone in darkness So in our hearts Your grace would shine” Mark Altrogge

What is the wonder of the incarnation?

The wonder of the incarnation is the how the depravity of our sin and the gravity of the Father’s love collide in the majesty of the Son’s incarnation.

The Depravity of our Sin.

Paul says in verse 5 we are born under the law. That is, we are enslaved to the law. The law reveals to us that we are utterly helpless under sins power. The law shows us all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Falling short does not mean that with a little extra effort we can do better. Falling short means we are helpless under sins power and God’s condemnation cannot be removed through our own obedience to the law. We need a rescuing from the wages of sin which is God eternal judgement (Romans 6:23). The depravity of our sin exposes our desperate need for a need for a rescuer, and God’s love delviered one in the flesh.

The Gravity of God’s Love

In verse 5, Paul explains how Jesus’ incarnation allows you to experience God’s gracious love through Jesus’ work of redemption.

Galatians 4:5 (ESV)

to redeem those who were under the law, .

The word for redeemed in verse 5, is the same word Paul used previously

Galatians 3:13 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

To be redeemed means to release a slave from his owner by paying the slaves full price. Here the slave master is the law. Jesus pays your full price to the law. He completely fulfills all the laws demands on you by living a perfectly incarnate life of obedience and dying an atoning death on the cross (Keller, Timothy. 2013. Galatians for You. God’s Word for You. Purcellville, VA: The Good Book Company.)

Jesus’ incarnation allowed him to take the curse upon himself so that he can liberate you from the condemnation of the law, and he did it at the cost of his life. The cross is where Jesus took your curse. It is where he shed his blood.

The bible is clear

Hebrews 9:22 ESV

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Not only did Jesus take your curse upon yourself but in exchange he gave you his righteousness.

Thomas Cranmer, a reformation theologian, explains the effect of your redemption well,

“Christ is now the righteousness of all those who truly do believe in him. He for them paid their ransom by his death. He for them fulfilled the law in his life. So that now in him, and by him, every true Christian man may be called a fulfiller of the law, since that which their infirmity lacks, Christ’s justice has supplied.” Thomas Cranmer

Haing his Son bear your curse on a cross was God’s design for your redemption. It pleased the Father to crush his Son for your iniquity. What was God’s motive for your redemption. It was his deep, wondrous, out of this world love. It is a love he set to lavish on you before the foundation of the world according to Paul (Ephesians 1:4-5), that sustained for you through your rebellion, while you were a sinner Jesus came and died for you (Romans 5:8), and it is a love that will never be separated from you, and it is a love that will see you all the way home. What can separate you from the love God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or danger or sword? Nothing can separate us from the the love of God in Christ Jesus our incarnate, crucified, and risen Lord (Romans 8:32-39). It was God’s love that sent His Son into the world that whoever believes upon Him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Mark Altrogge in the second verse of the same song, “Father, How Sweet,” expresses the depravity of our sin, the majesty Jesus’ incarnation, and the gravity of the Father’s love. He sings,

“Father, what love You’ve shown to rebels That You would send Your Son so dear Into this world of grief and trouble To bring unworthy sinners near We’ll never fathom how it pained You When You supplied the offering To rescue those who had disdained You To watch Your dear Son suffering.” Mark Altrogge

The Majesty of the Son’s Incarnation

In the fullness of time, God sent his son, his beloved Son, into the world, as a human being to rescue sinners. There is all kinds of majesty in the incarnation, however, for times sake, we will only look at one of the ramifications of Jesus coming into the world as a human being; sharing our identity so we can have unity with Him.

“God sent his son to perfectly identity with us so we could perfectly unify with him.”

The Weakness of Sharing our Identity

Jesus left his perfect glory and put on all of humanity in all its weakness, dependency, fragility and creaturely existence; taking the form of a human man; being in the form of God, taking on the form of flesh (Phil 2:6-7).

Shame is a weakness that we live with because of sin. Shame is weakness Jesus chose when he identified with us. Isaiah says Is 53:2,

Isaiah 53:2 (ESV)

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

Have you ever felt the weight of shame that comes when people look at you and decide tin a moment to not take you seriously? Erskin and I went to see the movie “Devotion” Friday night. In one scene, Jesse Brown, a highly decorated black Korean War aviator, remembers how he was told a black person cannot fly a plane; which implies because he is black he is too inept or stupid to be a pilot.

This happens across the board in humanity. The lens of the fear of man sees you and says, “I’m not going to take you seriously because you, my friend, you are obese. I’m not going to you serious in that wheel chair. I’m not going to take you seriously, a jew, born into poverty. Who are you Jesus? Are you not Joseph and Mary’s son? Doesn’t your own family think you are insane. You are not worthy my time. And what our hearts hear in that moment is nothing short of, “You as a human being are worthless.”

Jesus had not form or majesty that we should take him seriously. He had no beauty that we should see him as worthy. Jesus was born into our world, taking our form, feeling the weight of our shame, to spread the greatest message of hope the world could ever hear, only to have people respond to him with at the very least with indifference and at the worst hate inspired cross minded aggression. And here is the real majesty of it all. He chose this. We live with this, but he chose and he chose it knowing it would him to be utterly humiliated by dying on a cross.

Furthermore, when he was resurrected, he did not come back in the form of his former preexistent glory. He came back in a resurrected glorified human body, in which he will remain forever.

Robert Letham explains,

“We can become one with him, because he first became one with us. By taking human nature into personal union, the Son joined himself to humanity. He now has a human body and soul, and will never jettison either.” Robert Letham

Do not let that truth pass over you too quickly. There was no other way to make you compatible for heaven. If God wanted to fulfill his desire to dwell with his people and be our forever God, Jesus had to lower himself and take a human body forever.

Jesus chose to forever identify with you as an embodied being so you could be forever be unified with him.

What an amazing majesty. That Jesus would love you so much that he would take the initiative to change at great cost to himself, a change that will be forever permanent, as an expression of his love and the Father’s for you, so that can forever be unified to His love. Apart from Jesus, the world does not know such selfless sacrificial love. That, my brothers and sisters is majestic. And the majesty continues in what he accomplishes on your behalf.

Jesus’ incarnation made you you sons and daughters forever (Gal 4:5b-7)

When you are under the curse, your father is the devil. Jesus told the Pharisees that their sinful works reveal their father is the devil (John 8:41-44). Paul says that everyone of us who once walked according to the pattern of the world, under the rule of prince of power in the air. We were sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2-3; 5:6). Jesus salvation work not only justifies us, but he secures our adoption into God’s family. By faith, Jesus gives us the authority and right to become sons and daughters of God.

Paul already addresses this in his letter to Galatians. He says

Galatians 3:23–26 ESV

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

This is not a just future promise. This is an already blessing. You are a son or daughter right now in Christ. Your faith in Christ has transferred you out of the kingdom of darkness, out of the enslavement of sin, away from your abusive father the devil, and placed you into his family as his rightful heir.

Furthermore, Paul says

Galatians 3:28–29 ESV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

All that God promised through Abraham he has fulfilled in Jesus and His redeemed humanity which consists of all men and women and children, black and white, abled and disabled, rich and poor, will enjoy the blessing of of being an heir as his adopted children.

So many of us come to Christ feeling like we are kind of saved by grace. That is, Jesus takes our curse and our sins on the cross. We receive our pardon and we are left to live the kind of righteous life God would be proud of, that he would bless. We live everyday hoping to earn his favor and rewards for being a good boy or good girl. If I just make sure I do my devotional everyday, make my payment to compassion international every month (maybe two payments), say my prayers, go to church, be a good person, I will earn more of God’s favor.

Jesus did not come in the flesh, to take your curse on a cross, so you can simply be free. He did not justify you and leave you to yourself to make your way in this world, for you to work you new righteousness on your own effort.

Jesus came in the flesh to take your curse on a cross so you can be free as a true son and daughter of the Most King is free to be. He came to position you from outside the kingdom to inside the throne room.

Usually, when a king defeated his enemies, he would march them down main street in front of the kingdom in humiliation before he either enslaved them or executed them.

Because Jesus’ redemption accomplished your adoption, you do not enter the kingdom as a slave to be condemned. Jesus marches you down main street as a son or daughter with honor. He does make you a gatekeeper. He does not tell you to take you place along the streets with the servants. He brings you to the throne and the Father announces to the kingdom, my son, my daughter, has come home. By faith, that is your identity right now and forever. God’s Spirit given to you is proof of it.

Galatians 4:6 ESV

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

The Holy Spirit has been given to you to both help you experience your adoption and seal your adoption:

What do I mean by experience?

The Holy Spirit leads you to intimate prayer

The Holy Spirit leads you to call out to the Father as a son and daughter should cry out. The calling is a deep passionate cry for your Father to hear you.

The Holy Spirit helps you to pray as sons and daughters. The crying out refers to prayer. Paul says in Romans 8:26-27

Romans 8:26–27 (HCSB)

...the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.

And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

The Holy Spirit gives you intimate access to the Father. As a son and daughter empowered with the Holy Spirit, you enjoy Gods presence and intimacy, the way a child is allowed to enter his fathers circle, sit on his knee, and be embraced with his arms. Remember, Jesus’ blood tore the veil and gives you the confidence to enter the throne of God to receive mercy and grace. The Spirit moves you to enter like a child.

The Holy Spirit secures your adoption

The Holy Spirit also seals your salvation, an din turn your adoption. To the Ephesians, Paul already said they were predestined to be adopted as sons and daughters. Then in verse 13, he says

Ephesians 1:13 ESV

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

The idea of being sealed is similar to a down payment on property. In antiquity, when a person was going to buy land, they would give a portion of the cost as a downpayment with the promsie that the rest will be paid in full. There was no refunds. Once the downpayment was given, the transaction was sealed, as good as done. When Jesus gave His Spirit, he sealed your salvation and your adoption forever.

Christmas reveals God’s faithfulness to send his Son in the flesh so that we can be His sons forever.

Christmas, however, is not the last word. We look forward to a second advent. Jesus is coming back in His new glorified body. And when he comes back, Paul says he will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body (Phil 3:20-21). On that day, the world will take him seriously. The world will take you seriously because you are unified to Him. Sin, shame, and death will be destroyed, ensuring we will never be enslaved under its tyranny again. We will serve our King, our Prince of Peace, our wonderful Counselor, our might God, who will reign forever. Thank God he looked upon our helpless state and was stirred to do something about it.