Christmas 1
Dear friends in Christ. Today we are at the 5th day of Christmas—the day, according to the 12 Days of Christmas song, 5 golden rings are given. Supposedly this song was written in England during the time it was illegal to be a Roman Catholic there. In order to teach the Roman faith, this song was written with each of the gifts having a hidden meaning, like the partridge in a pear tree is to represent Christ; the four calling birds the 4 Gospels, and today’s 5 golden rings—the first 5 books of the OT.
How blessed we are that we can boldly and unashamedly celebrate Christmas in its true and full meaning! As we do so, there is also that side benefit of annoying those who do not want to hear/ think they have no reason to hear the glorious Christmas proclamation: There is born for you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Christmas and its full proper Christian celebration—keeping Christ in Christmas— is definitely worth the fight. As we celebrate that full proper Christian Christmas for the full 12 days, not only is it the full and true expression of our joy and faith but we are also fulfilling our Christian calling to be the salt of the earth—by being that burning/ stinging reminder to the godless world of its sin and need for a Savior; and by encouraging our weak brothers in the faith to stand strong against societal/ “politically correct” pressures.
How blessed we also are that the holy Scriptures in full, clear unambiguous words tell what exactly Christmas is all about. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Here in these few words we have the what and why of Christmas. Let us ponder them this morning.
1. Of course Christmas is all about Jesus’ birth. But we miss the true meaning/ significance of what really was going on if we merely think/ say: Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. We come to the question: Who is Jesus?
And that’s precisely what Christmas is about! That’s precisely the Christmas miracle: when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. Here we come to the deep mystery of who God is. From Holy Scripture we know that there is one God, yet 3 distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; not 3 Gods but 3 distinct persons in the one Godhead. We know that all 3 persons are equally almighty, eternal and Lord.
So what does the Holy Spirit here tell us through St. Paul in our text? God sent forth His Son; that is, the almighty, eternal Father, the First Person of the Holy Trinity, sent forth His Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, equally almighty and eternal. He sent Him forth on a particular task/ mission. How wonderfully and how gloriously the 3 Persons of the Holy Trinity work together; how they have the same mind and will! The will of the Father is also the will of the Son. God sent forth His Son.
But that’s not the Christmas miracle. The Christmas miracle is that God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. Here we have the greatest of mysteries! The eternal and almighty Lord, the Son, the Second Person of the holy Trinity was born at a certain time and place—in Bethlehem during the reign of Caesar Augustus—and of a woman: the blessed virgin Mary! At Christmas God was born a man. The true God took on human flesh and blood in the womb of Mary just as the angel, Gabriel, had announced to her [Luke 1. 35]: The Holy Spirit [the 3rd Person of the Holy Trinity]will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Because from the fall of Adam sin contaminates each human conception and birth, the Holy Spirit had to cleanse and purify from all sin and defect that part of Mary from which the Son of God would take on human flesh and blood. By His work overshadowing Mary, the Holy Spirit prepared a sinless human nature that was at that moment on and into all eternity the flesh, the human nature of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Here was a true miracle—not only that Jesus was born of the virgin, but that Jesus, true man, was conceived and born without the taint of Original Sin. So from the very beginning, Jesus, true God, is like us in every way except sin; He is true Man. God becoming man—God taking on, assuming in Himself a human nature; the eternal, almighty God taking on human flesh and blood at a certain time and place; the Infinite taking on the finite—that is the Christmas miracle.
This was God’s plan right from the get-go. He told Adam and Eve right after they had sinned that He would send a Savior from sin [Gen. 3.15] who would be the Offspring, the Descendant of the Woman—not the man, not the man and the woman; later, through the prophet Isaiah 7.14, He refreshed and fleshed out that prophecy making it crystal clear: Behold the virgin is conceiving and bearing a Son. Now, at that first Christmas, what seemed impossible happened: the virgin birth; the holy, eternal, almighty God became also a true man.
So what? That Christmas miracle would do us no good unless it brought us some blessing/ some benefit. What is the blessed result for us of God becoming man? Our text: But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. The Christmas miracle is Christ’s birth for us. With Jesus’ conception and birth, with the true God becoming also true man, He came and entered our prison. He was born under the law. He, the holy God, became also a true human being and placed Himself under the Law of God; He is the holy God who gave the Law for us humans to keep, and Who demands that we keep it. But now, that first Christmas, He became also one of us and placed Himself under the Law of God to keep it for us, to do for us what we are unable on our own to do—perfectly obey God’s holy Law, that very Law that God demands we keep if we are to enter heaven.
In just 3 days we will see the very concrete expression of Jesus being born under the law. Eight days after Jesus was born, He was circumcised and placed under the Jewish law. On 01 January, when the Church remembers our Lord’s circumcision and naming, we are remembering the very reason why He came—to take our place for us under the Law of God to keep it for us. Jesus’ circumcision is the sign of His submitting Himself to the Law of God; He is declaring by that act that He took upon Himself the obligation to fulfill the Law of God and to bear its curse and punishment.
Here we come to the great reason of why Jesus is both God and man. If the “so what” of Christmas is that God became man, the “so what” of why God became man is this: if Jesus were only a true human being—even a sinless human being—His work would do us no good. If Jesus were only a man and He obeyed God’s law perfectly, it would only benefit Him because He would only be doing what God expects/ demands of a man.
But Jesus is both man and God. Not only are we assured that because Jesus is true God that He could never sin, but also because He is both man and God His holy divine nature was active in fulfilling the holy Law of God. Because it was Jesus the God-man going about fulfilling the holy Law of God, His work has worth and value for all people; and because Jesus is the God- man, He could truly do so as our Substitute, in our place doing what we, because of our sin weakened nature cannot do. The other part is just as vital: to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. By His holy, sinless life lived for us Jesus bought us out/ He redeemed us; giving to God what we owe Him—a perfect, holy, sinless life!
But there is still the question of our sin. By our sin we earn nothing but God’s wrath and damnation; by our sin we exclude ourselves out from heaven. So to redeem us, not only did Jesus, the God-man, live the holy life God demands from us in His holy Law and so fulfill for us God’s law; but on top of that, by placing Himself under God’s Law, Jesus also took our sins and guilt upon Himself to bear our curse and punishment; this we see most dramatically at the cross.
Here too is the “so what” of why at Christmas God became man: If Jesus were just a man, His suffering and death would have value only for Himself, but because it is the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross, His sacrifice has infinite divine worth and value for all the sins of all the people! Here is the immovable, solid foundation of God declaring us forgiven and righteous! Here is the solid foundation of the absolution—Christmas, God becoming man to be our Savior. Without Christmas, without God becoming man to redeem us, there is no way any of us could be our Lord’s dear Christians and heirs of heaven; without Christmas none of us would have a blessed heavenly future just death and damnation. So yes, Christmas is really a festival of our salvation: But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
2. Here we come to the other Christmas miracle: the birth of Christ in us. The first Christmas miracle, the birth of Christ for us, would do us no good unless He is also now born in us, in our hearts through faith. Our text: And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Dear Christian, we are sons of God, that is, heirs, as St. Paul tells us earlier [Gal. 3.26]: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. The whole reason why there had to be that first Christmas was our hopeless misery under the law, sin and death; but because of God’s grace, mercy, love toward us who in no way could save ourselves, He sent His Son to become also true man that first Christmas so that He could save us/ rescue us from our sins and make us His dear children and heirs of heaven.
Do you trust in Jesus as your only Savior from sin, death, devil and hell? Do you look to Jesus for your forgiveness and righteousness? Then He has been born in your heart; then you have experienced that other great Christmas miracle—Jesus being born in your heart through faith. What a great cause you have for joy and celebration—especially at Christmas!
Now since Christ has been born in your heart you, dear Christian, are now in that state of grace—faith always, constantly receiving from Jesus His forgiveness and righteousness; faith knowing and loving the true God aright; you are no longer slave to sin or the law but an heir of every heavenly blessing. Jesus has been born in our hearts, we have this glorious gift of faith because the Holy Spirit came to us in the word/ in the word made visible, namely holy Baptism, and worked faith in our hearts. We would know nothing about Jesus or believe in Him—that is, He would not have been born in our hearts—unless He was offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. So by the Holy Spirit and His work in us we have a truly blessed and joyful Christmas. And now He assures of our grace in Christ and our adoption as sons of God/ heirs of heaven and leads us joyfully into every good work to the praise and honor of God.
Merry Christmas, dear Christian! Christ was born for you and also in you. INJ Amen.