Galatians 4:4-5
Introduction
Is there anything more wonderful than the birth of a baby? Perhaps
that is why Christmas, over time, has overshadowed all of the other holidays,
both religious and secular. Birth is a cause for celebration, and no birth is
more celebrated than that of our Lord. Though every birth contains wonder and
mystery, the birth of our Lord Jesus is the
wonder and the mystery to celebrate.
We will be considering passages that speak specifically of Jesus being born
with the intent to learn the different perspectives they bring to this joyful
mystery. We will look next Sunday at what it means in Philippians 2:7 that
Jesus was “born in the likeness of men.” Then we will go back to Isaiah 9:6 to
consider that “for us a child is born.” This morning we consider what is meant
by Jesus being “born under the law.”
Text
We are landing in the middle of a long
instruction by the Apostle Paul, or I should say a long scolding. Paul is very
angry, enough so that he was ready to pronounce a curse upon some teachers. The
issue had to do with the role of the Jewish law in conferring salvation, or, to
express it in another way, in obtaining acceptance from God. The first
controversy in the church was over the matter of accepting Gentiles into the
church: were Gentiles included in the saving work of the Jewish Messiah, or was
his work restricted to God’s covenant people?
The first church council concluded that
Gentiles could be received. But this still led to a second issue: must Gentiles
take on the same Jewish customs and laws in order to be saved? In essence, did
they need to first become Jews to be included in Christ’s (the Messiah) saving
work? The second church council resolved this issue by declaring that Gentiles
did not have to take upon themselves the Jewish laws. The letter to the
Galatians, however, may have taken place before this council or the council’s
declaration had yet to be disseminated. So here we are in the midst of the
controversy.
Paul has been explaining the role of the
law – what had always been its purpose and limitation. The law had never been
an instrument of salvation. This is important to understand, as even today
there is confusion about this. Dispensationalism (popularized by the Scofield
Bible) teaches that there were different dispensations by which God provided
salvation. And so there is the dispensation of the Jewish nation by which God
provided salvation through the law and its sacrificial system. Our present
dispensation of the church age is that of grace and faith. Furthermore, the
church age is like a parenthesis. Once again the Jewish dispensation will
return at Jesus’ second coming, and the law with its sacrificial system will be
restored. The covenant of the Jewish nation and the covenant of the church are
two separate covenants.
In Galatians, Paul contends that there is a
misunderstanding of the law. The law never had the power to save. As he says
clearly, “…yet we know that a person is not justified
by works of the law… by works of
the law no one will be justified”
(2:16). Even for Jews, following the law did not save them, and, therefore, to
now add such a burden to Gentiles is a travesty. As Peter spoke at the second
church council about this: “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to
the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our
fathers nor we have been able to bear?” (Acts 15:10)
What then was the purpose of the law? Paul speaks of it in
two ways – that of a judge and that of a guardian. As a judge it locks up all
guilty offenders, and, by the way, all of the world is guilty. So, Paul tells
us that “the Scripture imprisoned everything
under sin (3:22)” and that “we were held captive under the law”
(3:23). The law pronounced us guilty of sin and then locked us up so that we
remained prisoners of sin. It did not justify us; it did not declare us not
guilty; and it did not rescue us nor provide a way to be released.
As a guardian the law functions in the role of a guardian of
a child, who must wait until he reaches legal age to access his inheritance and
privileges. Until that time, the child must abide by the laws of the state and the
rules of the guardian. He may be the heir of great wealth and high position,
but until he reaches legal age, he is in essence no better off than a slave,
having to do what he is told. The verses preceding our own text explain:
I mean that the
heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the
owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until
the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were
children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world (4:1-3).
So, the law, contrary to justifying us, condemns us and
locks us up. The law, instead of freeing us, keeps us under subjection as our
guardian. This is true for both Jew and Gentile. Where then is our hope? How do
we ever become justified? How do we ever get out of prison? When do we reach
the time in which we come into our inheritance? This is what our text answers.
But
when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born
under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we
might receive adoption as sons.
Our hope lies not in our ability to follow
the law or to escape from the law; our hope lies in the Son of God, Christ the
Messiah. It is he who redeems us so that we are no longer under the law’s
condemnation and no longer in the condition of slaves. Yes, it is Christ who
redeems us, as verse 5 states. Verse 4 presents the conditions necessary for
him to redeem us. Let’s study it.
But
when the fullness of time had come. What is this fullness of time? It is
the end of the law’s role as imprisoner and guardian. God has said to law,
thank you for your service; my Son will take over now. And so God sent forth
his Son. There had been a release date from prison all along; there had been a
date set for obtaining our inheritance. That date for each was the date set for
God sending his Son to earth and achieving our redemption.
The age of the law had all along been
leading up to this time; indeed, it had been preparing us for this time. How
so?
As the one locking us in jail, it had first
exposed us as being guilty before God. Without the law we do not even know that
we need redemption. The sheer number of laws in all their forms deter us from
taking a glib view of our standing before God. It is easy enough to look at the
Ten Commandments and justify ourselves as keeping them, easy enough until we
see law after law that interpret the commandments; until we read in the law how
time and time again, and in variety after variety, that they are broken by the
very people sworn to live up to them; easy enough until we are given glimpses
of God in his holiness, read of his judgments against sinners, and observe the
enormous sacrificial system needed to protect sinners.
Who, then, keeps all of the laws? Psalm
24:3-4 asks, “Who shall ascend the hill
of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He
who has clean hands and a pure heart.” Who then has clean hands and a pure
heart? The “King of glory.” And so the psalm goes on to speak of the King of
glory who is strong in battle and who enters the city. As the psalm does, so
the law does – points us to the King, to the Messiah, to the Redeemer who can
make us right before God. The law leaves us to despair of ourselves and to look
for our hope outside of ourselves.
As guardian, the law also tutored God’s
people. In its laws they learned what a righteous life is like; in its
sacrificial system, they comprehended the necessity and meaning of
substitutionary atonement; in its stories they saw what a righteous King and
Redeemer is like. And so, over the years, as the time grew near, they would be
prepared to recognize the Messiah and his work.
The law furthermore acted as a restraint on
people while the time for the Messiah drew near. Without the law, sin would
have spread without constraint. God’s covenant nation sinned greatly, but it
continued to exist and to maintain a remnant because of the law’s ability to
expose sin, to point people to God, and to exercise a measure of control on
behavior.
So the law had good purpose, but salvation
itself was not part of that purpose. The law simply could not justify a soul
declared guilty. That is where the Son of God comes in.
Born
of woman. God sends his Son by means of the incarnation. He is born of
woman. This is a way of saying that he was born in the flesh. He was human,
fully man. In speaking of John the Baptist, Jesus said that there was no one
“born of women” as great as him (Matthew 11:11), meaning no human being. (As
God’s Son, Jesus Christ is also divine; that he was sent by God the Father
indicates his pre-existence.)
Hebrews 2:14-16 sheds light on the
significance of Jesus taking on human flesh:
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself
likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the
one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and
deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
16 For surely it is not angels that he helps,
but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
We have moved into deep mystery, but here
is the central point. In order to deliver those who are of flesh and blood, it
was necessary for our Redeemer to be of flesh and blood. To deliver us from the
power of death, he had to wage battle against death. Jesus had come in the
flesh to do battle on the cross against death and against the devil. He engaged
in battle by offering his own flesh up to God as an atoning sacrifice for our
sins. Sin was our jailor. The law had thrown us in prison and sin kept us
there. Sin turned us into slaves. Until we became justified before God, we
would remain in prison, ever enslaved to sin.
From the law we learned that only a pure sacrifice
could make an acceptable substitutionary atonement that would lead to our
justification. But then, who has the clean hands and the pure heart to be such
a sacrifice? Obviously the Son of God. But wait a minute. It is one thing to be
perfect in heaven where the effects of sin cannot touch one. A real sacrifice
must have flesh and have proven itself in the flesh, if it is to redeem human
flesh.
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications,
with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he
was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned
obedience through what he suffered. 9 And
being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey
him (Hebrews 5:7-9).
And so, God’s Son had to be born under the law. He had to go through
the sufferings produced by the law’s interaction with law-breaking sin. He had
to wear flesh that felt the death-infection. He had to live among people
covered in sin. He had to suffer their sinful reactions to him. He had to be
tempted by their temptations. He had to fulfill all of the laws through
perfectly loving God and perfectly loving his neighbors. He had to be holy just
as his Father in heaven is holy.
And he did it! He did it all. He lived the
perfect life and thus mounted onto the cross as a pure, acceptable sacrifice,
and on that cross he redeemed his people. He opened the jail cells; he mediated
new adoption papers that transferred us to God, so that even now we might
receive and begin to enjoy our inheritance. He left but one more step to take
place for our full justification before God. That one step was the exercise of
faith.
…we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through
faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be
justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of
the law no one will be justified (2:16).
Lessons
Christ was born under the law to redeem us
who were under the law. Amen! So then, why were the Galatian Christians trying
to get back under the law? Why were they getting circumcised? Circumcision was
the sign of belonging to the covenant of the law. What’s with that? Why were
they adhering to the religious days of the old covenant? Why were they dressing
themselves up with Jewish law regulations? Why did they think that becoming
Jews by observing Jewish law would make them right before God?
Had Jesus failed in his efforts to fulfill
the law? Had he failed to do all that was necessary to redeem his people?
Because that is what anyone is saying by their turning to the Jewish law to
complete their salvation. No one is saved unless they are justified. No one is
justified if they try to earn it through the law. There is only one means of
justification and that is faith in the work of Jesus Christ to win our
justification on the cross. To add to that faith by our own efforts is not only
fruitless but is an affront to our own Redeemer.
Jesus Christ was not born that he might
enhance our efforts to be justified before God. He was not born merely to open
our jail cells in hopes that we might complete the work to be done to walk out
of jail. He did not appear as our advocate to win our release by the parole
board by showing our good behavior in jail. Jesus Christ was born under woman,
under law so that he could smash our prison jail cells; so that he could rescue
us from the clutches of Satan and of death. He was born to fight a battle on
the cross as our Redeemer King. Either he won that battle or he did not. Either
the law was right to point us to a Savior or it served no purpose at all.
We may not be the Galatians who literally
were trying to become Jews, but we can be in as much danger by our efforts to
prove to God and to ourselves that we are worthy of Christ’s saving work. We
too can try to make the law do what it can never do, which is to make us worthy
of salvation. The law is good. It is good at showing us the holy standards of
God so that we might know how to live. It is good at restraining us to some
degree from sin. But it is especially good at showing how inaccessible a pure,
righteous life is, so that we should despair of confidence in ourselves.
Yes, we are to strive to follow the moral
law of God. But even the law says to us, “Look to Jesus Christ. Look to your
Redeemer. If you find anything in me, find the hope, the foreshadowing, the
promises of your Redeemer.” Through faith and faith alone, lay hold of the
justification that only his work supplies. It is for that purpose that Jesus
was born under woman and born under the law as our Redeemer.
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