Born To Set God's Children Free

Introduction

We’ve entered the season once again where strong debate rages. Where tensions flare up at a moment’s notice. Sides are drawn. Friends become enemies; enemies become friends. Opinions reign supreme and people seemingly lose their minds in a passionate pursuit to stand their ground and declare that they are right.

And I’m not talking about politics, I’m not talking about the latest event in the news. I’m talking about how early is too early for Christmas music to be playing and when is it still too early to decorate for Christmas?

Should we wait till Thanksgiving is over or can it start before Thanksgiving? Does Thanksgiving need its own time to breathe and just be its own thing, or can Christmas be wrapped up in it?

Now, typically, in the past, I’ve wanted Thanksgiving to be its own thing, but over the last couple of years, I’ve seen our family pushing it up further and further. This year, I was ready for Christmas music on Halloween. And I know some of you are like, I can’t even look at you right now!

I seem to remember growing up and not really hearing much Christmas music till like the week following Thanksgiving, but over the last several years it’s like, July 4th is over, crank up the Christmas stuff. Hobby Lobby, get those trees out! 50% off!

I think there’s a reason why the start to the Christmas season seems to keep getting pushed up earlier and earlier, and I don’t think the only reason is marketing and commercialization. I think people really do love the anticipation and longing that this season brings. It’s a strange thing really, you long for Christmas day, but you also want the days leading up to it to slow down because there’s kind of a savoring that takes place and when the day comes and is over, you now are the farthest away from that day coming again and then the wait begins for the next Christmas.

You know for me growing up as a kid, my least favorite day of the year was December 26th. Because now there was a whole year before the next Christmas. And as a kid, a year seems like an eternity.

We’ve entered the season of Advent. It’s a season within the rhythm of the church of waiting and anticipation for the arrival of Jesus.

The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” It’s a season where we do two things? We look back to the first Advent of Christ, the birth of Jesus into this world. And we celebrate his coming. We celebrate because hope was born. But secondly, this is a season where we wait patiently, but also eagerly for the second Advent of Jesus when he returns and finally establishes His reign and rule over all creation.

You see, from the moment sin entered this world, all of creation has been subjected to the curse of sin. Everything was broken in that moment, everything was fractured. And from that moment on, all of creation, we included have been longing for redemption, longing to be set free, longing to be healed, longing to be restored.

The apostle Paul says it this way in Romans 8.

Romans 8:22-23 “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Do you hear what he’s saying? There’s a longing, an aching within all creation for the finality of our redemption. To plead with Jesus to finish what he has begun, to come back and once and for all eradicate the curse of sin from God’s good world. Restore it back to how it was meant to be. A world free of death, of sickness and disease. A world free of hostility and pain and instead a world of peace and harmony. A world where we walk in close intimate relationship with our God.

You see, the first and second Advents of Jesus really go hand in hand. We needed the first Advent because we needed the power of sin and death to be crushed. Without the first Advent and what Jesus accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection we could not have what His second Advent will bring, a complete renewal of all creation.

And so, what we’re going to do over the next four weeks as we enter into this season together is to look back at the birth of Jesus which has provided a way for salvation and reconciliation with God and at the same time we’re going to look forward with eager anticipation to Jesus’ second coming, Hi second Advent which will bring about the renewal of all things.

We sang the well known Christmas carol this morning, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” The line goes, “Born to set thy people free.” Jesus was born to set God’s children free.

And so, the question is, “free from what?” “Why must we be set free?” “What are we enslaved to?”

So, let’s look first at,

Our Condition

Verse 3.

Galatians 4:3 “In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.”

Now, we didn’t read the first two verses but Paul obviously here is continuing a thought. In verses 1-2 of chapter 4 Paul uses this analogy of a child who, until they reach a certain age set by their father do not have access to their inheritance but instead are subject to, as Paul describes them, “guardians and managers.” That’s what he says in verse two if you want to skim it really quickly.

There’s a lot to unpack here culturally that Paul is alluding to that we just don’t have the time to get into today. But quite simply, in this culture, certain guardians or trustees would be placed over a child to supervise and hold them in check until the age of his legal minority was ended. It was then, when the child reached maturity that they would have full access to the family’s inheritance. And so, Paul makes this point that the child, though he is the rightful heir, until he comes of age that the father appoints, is really no different than a slave. He’s subject to the law.

All throughout chapter 3, Paul has in the forefront of his mind Jewish Christians who were at one point subject to the law, under the oppressiveness of the law and now, because of Christ have been set free. And now, here in chapter 4 he’s addressing Gentile Christians and saying the same thing. So, before Christ, the Jewish people were enslaved to the law. That’s verse 23 of chapter 3, “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law.” They thought the law would redeem them through their obedience to it. However, all the law did was reveal their guilt and inability to obey.

Here, many Gentile Christians in Galatia had been saved out of religious syncretism (the merging of many religions) and just flat out pagan idolatry. They were enslaved to religious moralism, cultic and demonic belief systems. For some it was even a worship of the material world itself. That’s why Paul says in verse 3, “you were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.”

Now, portions of Galatians are tricky to unpack and fully understand. This is one them. And if you’re like, I’m not quite following what Paul’s saying, I get it. So, here’s ultimately the point he’s trying to make.

Before Christ, whether you’re Jew or Gentile, you were enslaved to sin. It owned you. It managed you.

That was our condition. That is the condition of every human being. Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Sin, means to “miss the mark.” So, God has set the standard of perfection, of complete holiness and we have fallen well short of that aim.

And it’s absolutely devastating. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.” Both physical and spiritual death is in our future because of sin.

And so, physical death, corruption, decay, brokenness is in the world today because of sin, but worse than that is the spiritual death we experience apart from Christ. This spiritual death is an eternal separation from God in a literal and physical Hell.

If Heaven is the eternal bliss, joy, pleasure that we experience forever, without it every growing dim or fading away in the presence of God himself then Hell is the complete opposite of that.

Sin has wrapped its chains around us, we are unable to escape its clutches on our own and it drags everyone to an eternity of hellish separation from God.

This is the human condition. This is why we need to be set free.

And so, how does our freedom come about? Let’s take a look at,

Our Freedom

Verses 4-5,

Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

Again, think of the line in that song we sang this morning, “Born to set thy people free.”

Let’s just park for a moment in these two verses.

Paul says, “when the fullness of time had come.” What’s he saying? What do we deduce from that statement? I’ll tell you what we see from it…we see that God had orchestrated the redemption of humanity according to his timetable.

Nothing has been or ever will be out of the control of God. He reigns over all. Not even for one second has God ever lost control of his creation.

When sin entered into the world in Genesis 3, God was not taking a nap. He wasn’t asleep at the wheel. He didn’t walk into the garden that day and think, “something’s different.” “Wow! I really missed that one. Sorry guys, I’ll try and fix it. Ummm, Jesus, can you go down there and see what you can do?” In his sovereignty, he allowed for that to happen and the plan of redemption was already put together. Now, in our finite minds, we don’t fully understand the why.

God’s ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts.

But one thing we know. He’s in control. Isn’t that great rest for you soul today?

All of us enter this room today carrying different struggles, different burdens and trials. For some, maybe this past year has been the worst year of your life. Take heart though, God’s in control.

Just as he was in control here in Galatians 4. When the time was just right, “God sent his Son.”

Jesus, God the Son, the second person of the trinity, willingly came to this world in order to redeem it.

This vital truth, this vital doctrine right here is what separates Christianity from every other false religious belief system out there today. Every other religions says, “here’s what you must do to get to god.”

But here, God comes to us. God sent his Son, “born of woman.”

God takes on human form, human nature. Why? Because we needed someone to represent us before God. In the garden of Eden, Adam represented humanity and he fell short. He failed. Therefore, because of his failure, all of us are born in sin. Unable to save ourselves. We needed another representative. This is Jesus, born of woman.

He was born, Paul says, “under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.” Meaning this, that all of the righteous requirements that God had set forth for humanity to obey had become their shackles because of our inability to obey perfectly. The law was our undoing. All it did was accuse us of where we fall short.

And so Jesus was born under those same righteous requirements. The difference now though is, where Adam failed, where you and I failed, Jesus succeeded.

Jesus once said, “I didn’t come to abolish the law, I came to fulfill it.” He’s not doing away with it, he’s going to do what you and I could not do ourselves. And that is, to earn right-standing before God through our obedience.

The coming of Jesus into this world, born of woman, born under the law was done so that he could as verse 5 says, “redeem those who were under the law.” Redeem those who were enslaved by it. Enslaved by their sin. And not only redeem us, but look at how verse 5 ends. “So that we might receive adoption as sons.”

Paul is unpacking for us here I believe a grander view of salvation that I think most people miss.

And that is, when God saves us, not only does he take off of us the burden of our sin. So, we are forgiven. Our debts are cancelled. We are pardoned. Yes, and amen! But at the same time, something is put on us. And that is, a new name. We’re adopted into the family of God. We bear his name. We are legally seen before God as his son, his daughter.

Let’s say a criminal were to stand before a judge and that judge looked at this criminal, saw all his offenses, saw all of his guilt, he knew he must render a judgment. A guilty verdict.

Our salvation would be like that judge looking to his own son to take the place of that criminal and the judge’s son saying, “yes, I’ll take his place.” Well, that judge can now look at that criminal and say, you’re free to go. My son is taking your place. He’s going to pay the price.

Now most of us think, that’s the full extent of our salvation. A criminal that’s set free and able to walk out of the courtroom because someone else took his place.

But Paul doesn’t stop there. No, he goes on. It’d now be like that judge looking at that criminal after he had been pardoned and then adopting him into his family right then and there. So, this criminal who had no family, had no wealth, had no inheritance comes into that courtroom guilty, deserving of punishment but now leaves that courtroom not only pardoned but now a son of that judge with the full rights to that judge’s inheritance.

That’s freedom. That’s what Christ has purchased for us. Not only a pardon from our sin but as the text points out,

Our Restored Relationship

This is verse 6,

Galatians 4:6 “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!””

God the Son was sent into the world to provide the legal and objective status of sonship. So, through Christ, we are adopted legally into the family of God.

But it’s through the Spirit, who was sent into our hearts that provides the subjective experience of sonship.

It’s in our hearts, Paul says, that through the Spirit we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

Think of “Abba” as a child’s term of affection for their father. Some children say, “daddy,” others may say “dada.” But the idea behind this term of affection is the subjective experience the Spirit gives us with the Father.

It’s not that we just know we belong to him and are adopted. It’s that we feel the beauty of it.

Soldiers often spend months away from their families. Now to a young child, they can still understand and know that they have a father, he’s just away, but still nothing changes the fact, the reality, the truth that they belong to their father, they carry his name. Nothing changes that.

But where we get goosebumps and a warmness of heart is when we see that father reunited with their child. When that child sees their dad and can run up to him and hug him and kiss him, they experience in that moment the truth of what they knew, that they belong to him.

This is what Paul says the Son and the Spirit do. The Son, provides the way for us to be adopted into the family of God. And the Spirit is sent into our hearts so that we experience and feel that love of acceptance and belonging. And we experience this amazing truth by meditating on the work of Christ. And as you meditate and worship Christ for who he is and what he has done, the Spirit will come and stir your hearts to feel the weight of that truth.

It’s really beautiful how the Father, Son, and Spirit work together to bring about our redemption.

Verse 6 doesn’t happen unless verses 4 and 5 do.

And so, because of the work of Christ. Because he was born to set God’s people free we now have,

Our New Identity

Let’s wrap this up. Verse 7,

Galatians 4:7 “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

The more we dig into our salvation the more glorious and beautiful it becomes. Paul’s building on his point here. We are no longer slaves. But we’re sons and daughters. And if that’s the case, then we’re also heirs of God’s inheritance.

What is this inheritance? I’ll sum it up with three things.

We have an eternal Father.

Regardless of your upbringing, meaning some of us in this room didn’t have a father, or maybe some had a father who was absent and distant. Maybe cruel and abusive. Still others had a good father who pointed us to Jesus. But still, even the best earthly father doesn’t compare to the goodness of our eternal Father.

A Father who loves unconditionally. A Father who always does what is right and good. A Father who assures us of his love. A Father who fights for us and pursues us.

Through Christ we have received an eternal Father who we will forever spend our lives with.

2. We have an eternal family.

We have brothers and sisters in Christ who we will enjoy God together as coheirs with Christ for all of eternity.

3. We have an eternal home.

A home is meant to be a place of peace and joy. That’s not always the case, but through Christ we have an eternal home that is ours forever. A place where joy will never end, peace will reign, and it’ll never be taken from us.

Come, thou long expected Jesus., born to set thy people free. From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.

This is what the season of Advent points us to. This is the hope all humanity needs to hear and receive and believe. Do you believe?

Gospel Proclamation.