No different from a
slave
Our bible passage this afternoon is a classic Christmas text.
It tells of how God sent Jesus to be born as a baby, taking on our humanity. We
will get to that in verse 4. But just to set things in context, it is important
that we begin reading from verse 1.
What
I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a
slave, although he owns the whole estate.
Galatians
4:1
The key phrase for us to note is how Paul says that the heir
can be “no different from a slave”. Paul is describing a someone who looks like
he has everything - who himself thinks he owns everything - but in reality is
no different from a slave. Why? Verse 2 says that he is subject to guardians
and trustees. Verse 3 tells us that he is enslaved by “the basic principles of
the world”. He’s a slave. This guy isn’t free.
Now, Paul is not talking about sin. That’s important to realise
as the slavery which Paul describes in this verses is not addiction to some
kind of destructive behaviour. That kind of slavery is obvious. You can see it
in your own life (and you may or may not realise this, but your friends can see
it too). That kind of bondage or addiction to sin is obvious.
But the slavery that Paul is describing here is not sin because this kind of slavery looks respectable. In verse 1, he gives us a
picture of the heir who “owns the whole estate”. Literally, it reads “lord of
all”. This guy has everything. Do you know anyone like that - who has all the
money in the world; who has the car, the girl, the looks, the smarts? Paul says
this guy might have it all but in reality he is no different from the slave
forced to clean his toilet.
The thing is, Paul isn’t being hypothetical. He might be using
an illustration but in verse 3 he makes it crystal clear he’s applying that
illustration to us as Christians. He’s saying it’s possible for us to be saved
but still live like we’re lost; it’s possible for us as believers to be sons
and act like slaves.
So,
also when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of
the world.
Galatians
4:3
Did you get that? When we
were children; we were in slavery?
That’s Paul’s introduction to the Christmas message and his point is this: It’s
possible for us as Christians to make a big deal out of Christmas and yet be
absolutely clueless about the Christmas message.
It’s possible - in fact, I’d say that it’s likely - we have turned up today thinking, “This
Christmas stuff is for someone else”; and we think it’s because we’ve done it
so many times before, we know everything there is to know about Christmas;
Christmas is for the kids, it’s for the newcomers, it’s boring - that’s what we
think. But in reality, Paul says to us, “The real reason why you’ve lost that
wonder over the message of the gospel is because you are like the heir who is
no different from the slave”. Your friends might look at you and go, “That guy
has everything.” Or, “She’s my role model.” But the truth is your life isn’t
one of freedom. It’s one of slavery.
From Christmas to the
cross
I got my haircut this week and struck up a conversation about
Christmas with my barber, who is a Jehovah’s Witness. The thing you need to
know about Jehovah’s Witnesses is they don’t believe that Jesus is God, so they
don’t believe in the Christmas message that Jesus was God become man through
the incarnation. So, my friend, the barber doesn’t celebrate Christmas (in
fact, he doesn’t even celebrate his own birthday). When I asked him what his
plans were for Christmas - whether he was going home, spending time with his
family - he wasn’t at all keen on talking about it. “Christmas here in the UK
is meaningless.” he said. “It’s just about presents and buying things. It’s not
about Jesus.”
But then he pointed to bible which I’d placed on the counter.
He had seen me reading it while I was waiting in line (I was preparing for this
message) and was genuinely curious. “What is this, if you don’t mind my
asking?” “It’s a bible,” I said.
“Do you mind if I took a look at your bible?” he asked. Wow! In fact, he did more than take a
look at it. He called out to his friend behind his counter, “Hey, check this
out!” He then showed me what he was reading that morning for his devotional
(Psalm 37). We even talked about his favourite passages from Scripture (John 17
and Revelation 21).
As you can imagine, my haircut took a little longer than
expected (and my hair ended up a bit shorter than expected!) He was trying to
tell me why he believed Jesus was not divine. I was trying to answer his
objections by showing how the bible pointed to Jesus as God.
But I also wanted to steer the conversation back to Christmas.
Here was a guy keen to talk about God. He was enthusiastic about the bible. He
had a high view of Jesus but he had a big problem with Jesus being God coming
to be born as a baby. So finally I said to him, “I know that we disagree on
this one thing - you say Jesus wasn’t God, I think the bible says he was. But
what would it mean if he was? I know you don’t think so, but consider just for
a moment - if Jesus was God, then what Christians are really saying is that God
died on the cross. That’s the biggest difference between you and me. If God
died on the cross, then it means God
had to come as a man; then it means
God had to be born as a baby.”
You see, Paul was trying to get to the same point when he
talked about Christmas. He was trying to get to the cross. The reason God sent
Jesus two thousand years ago, wasn’t just to be born as a baby. It was so that
Jesus could die for our sins. In other words, the reason for Christmas is the
cross.
Born under law
But
when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under
law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
Galatians
4:4-5
Most people only ever hear verse 4, “God sent his Son, born of
a woman...” but it is verse 5 that tells us why God sent Jesus; why Jesus was
born of a woman. Verse 5 says, “to redeem those under law.”
If you remember, that is what the angel said to Joseph, “You
are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their
sins.” Most babies only do three things - eat, sleep and poop. Babies are
helpless, they can’t look after themselves, they need constant attention. They
need constant care. But this baby, according to the angel, will grow up to do
something for us instead. He will save his people from their sins.
That’s why Jesus was born. If you notice, Paul doesn’t just
say, “born of a woman,” he also adds, “born under law.” Why does he say that?
Born of a woman, we understand. In fact, isn’t that what we hear every
Christmas? Jesus was born as a baby. His parents were Mary and Joseph. And then
we get the kids to dress up as the shepherds who come and see the baby Jesus in
the manger. We understand that Christmas is about Jesus being born as a baby.
We’ve heard again and again that on Christmas Day, God sent his Son to be born
as a man, born of a woman.
But why? That’s the
question Paul is answering. Why did Jesus have
to be born of a woman? Answer: Because Jesus was entering our world not as
an heir but as a slave. That’s what being born under law means. It means
humbling himself. It means Jesus subjected himself under God’s law, living in
obedience to the law and ultimately taking upon himself the punishment of the law.
That’s why verse 5 begins, “To redeem those under law.” Redeem
simply means to pay. His life was a kind of payment and the law was a bill that
we couldn’t afford to pay ourselves, but which Jesus took on and signed on our
behalf. Under the law, Jesus paid the price for our salvation.
A few days ago I went to see the musical Les Miserables, which
tells the fictional story of Jean Valjean, a man locked up in jail for nineteen
years for stealing a loaf of bread. Upon his release from prison, he meets a bishop
who offers him food and shelter, but Jean ends up stealing the silverware
instead. Jean gets apprehended by the police who bring him back in chains to
the priest’s home. But instead of charging Jean Valjean with the theft of the
silverware, the bishop thrusts a couple of silver candlesticks into his hands,
saying, “You left so early, surely something slipped your mind. You forgot... I
gave these to you, also!”
What the bishop showed was more than generosity. It was grace.
He gave Jean a second chance. “God has raised you out of darkness. I have
bought your soul for God,” said the bishop to Jean.
When Jesus paid our debt on the cross, he did more than pick up
the tab. He released us from slavery to become sons. Verse 5 again, “To redeem
us under the law that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Paul puts it
another way in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
At the end of the day, Paul is saying you are either a slave or
an heir. It’s either one or the other. Again, the kind of slavery Paul is
talking about isn’t chains and oppression and bondage - it’s not the kind of
slavery that’s obvious. Rather, this slavery looks respectable and proper from
the outside.
Over and against the Valjean’s character in the musical Les Mis
was the character of Inspector Javert, who spends his life searching for the
escaped convict. Yet in a pivotal scene of the musical, Jean risks his life to
save the inspector from being executed. The inspector cannot comprehend how a
criminal he has despised all his life would come to his aid. Instead of
gratitude, the experience fills the inspector with grief and hatred.
Damned
if I'll live in the debt of a thief!
Damned
if I'll yield at the end of the chase.
I
am the Law and the Law is not mocked
I'll
spit his pity right back in his face
There
is nothing on earth that we share
It
is either Valjean or Javert!
Unable to deal with the conflict in his soul, Javert takes his
own life by jumping off a bridge. You might say to me, “Now that’s just silly.
Why would anyone be so broken up over the law - a bunch of rules - of all
things?” Well, for Javert it was the law, but for many students here in
Cambridge, it’s their degree. For many parents, it’s their children. For many
Asians, it’s respect and status in the community. We’re not talking about
something that’s bad or destructive in and of itself, rather, it’s what we’ve
built our entire lives on, over and against God. It’s that thing or person or
accomplishment, which if taken away, we would say, “I no longer have a reason
to live.” That’s the kind of slavery Paul is describing in Galatians and I
think it’s a kind of slavery that happens a whole lot here in a city like
Cambridge.
What Jesus did in coming to be born on Christmas Day was take
on our humanity, yes, but also, take on our slavery. He was born under law, so
that when he died on the cross, he could take the full penalty of that law.
When you understand slavery in that way and what Jesus did to
free us from that slavery, then you begin to see that people react to the
message of Christmas in one of two ways. Either they are freed from their
slavery by trusting in Jesus, or sadly like Inspector Javert, they would rather
die the slave than live in gratitude to the one who freed them.
This means determining whether you are a slave or an heir is
not as simple as asking yourself, “Am I free?” or “How blessed do I feel?”
After all, Paul began with the heir who thinks he has everything but in reality
is no different from the slave. Meaning, it’s easy to fool yourself into
thinking you are one or the other - either out of pride or self-pity. No, the
real test is in your response to God’s grace in Jesus Christ. The real test is
look at the cross - to see there a man hanging in agony, bearing the full
weight of God’s anger - and say, “That’s what I deserved, but thank you, Jesus,
that you came and paid price I could never have paid on my own.”
The Spirit of the Son
Some of you are terrified at the idea of doing something like
that because you think it’s a con that Christians use to get you to feel
miserable about your sin. You are afraid that if you let yourself be vulnerable
even for a moment, even before God, he’s going to point the finger at you and
go, “Aha! Gotcha!”
If that’s you, then just listen to what Paul says next because
he tells us God sends the Spirit to help us to cry out to him as more than just
a master, more than just a judge. He wants us to call him Dad.
Because
you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who
calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since
you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Galatians
4:6-7
God helps us to turn to him every step of the way. First he
sent his Son to die for us on the cross. Then he sends the Spirit of his Son to
call him Father. Why does he do that? Precisely because it’s not enough to know
that we are no longer slaves, we need to be reassured that we are sons. If you
are at all able to pray to God and call him Father, here is a word of assurance
from the bible that says to you, it’s the work of the Holy Spirit enabling you
to do just that.
The point is, God doesn’t want slaves, he loves us as sons. He
loves us to such an extent that he sent his own Son to die on the cross for us.
It means he isn’t looking for you to prove yourself - he loves you. It means he
isn’t looking for you to make up for your mistakes - he forgave you in Jesus
already.
It means that in Jesus Christ, God became man, the Son humbled
himself as a slave, the author of life suffered death, the sinless one became
sin, the one who made the law was born under law in order that he might redeem
those under law. In order that we, together with Jesus, might receive the full
blessings of God our Father as his sons.
Born
that man no more may die
Born
to raise the sons of earth
Born
to give them second birth
Hark!
The herald angels sing
"Glory
to the newborn King!"
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