Through Jesus’ Redemption, God Adopted You

I am sure you have already heard talk about New Year’s resolutions. Maybe you are someone who started planning them back in October. Maybe you are going to use the one from last year since it did not happen. Or maybe you do not care for resolutions. However you feel about New Year’s resolutions, if you hear someone say, “I don’t need any New Year’s resolutions because I am great!” You are very likely to respond, at least in your mind, “Yea, right!”

Usually, following the rules means you get a reward. Like if you follow the traffic laws, then you get to keep driving without a ticket. Or, if you keep your New Year’s resolution to communicate better in your marriage, then you are rewarded with all the blessings that come with marriage. Yet, there is a scenario in which following the rules does not mean a reward. When someone is sentenced to life in prison, there are many rules restricting what you can wear, what you can eat, where you sleep, etc. When a prisoner serving that kind of sentence keep those rules, they are still in prison. And, if they try to escape, then they are punished and still in prison. When you are in a situation where following the rules or fighting against them both put you in the same horrible place, then you need to be saved.

We grow frustrated when following the rules does not come with a reward. In our New Testament reading from Galatians 4, the Apostle Paul addressed his frustration with Christians who believed they would be rewarded with eternal life in heaven by following rules. To understand the points Paul made in our reading from Galatians 4, we need to go back to Galatians 3. Paul wrote in Galatians 3, 19 “Why, then, was the law given at all?” Paul posed this question because he knew the Galatian Christians would want to understand why God had given the Old Testament believers laws that no longer needed to be followed since the coming of the Savior. Paul gave them several reasons. Some of which are, one, the Old Testament ceremonial laws which dealt with dietary restrictions and different animal sacrifices, were meant to keep the Israelites separate from the other nations so that the promise of a Savior descended from the nation of Israel would be kept. Two, it was added to clarify what is sinful so that it would be clear to Israel that they were sinful and sinned often. Three, the law did not have the power to save anyone because no one was able to keep the law perfectly meaning no one was righteous through the law. Paul summarized the purpose of the law in Galatians 3:22, “But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” The law took away any idea that Israel could save itself from sin, death and hell. So, the many reasons for the law ultimately work together to show that no Israelite could be rewarded for keeping the law because they broke it constantly. Instead, the law showed the need for a savior.

You and I have never been under the Old Testament ceremonial laws. The many laws, rules and regulations that Israel was commanded to follow were familiar to the Galatians, but they are foreign to us. They are the chapters in Old Testament books of the Bible like Leviticus or Deuteronomy that are often skipped with the excuse that they are too complicated, repetitive and boring. These laws may not be familiar to you, but the idea of keeping God’s laws to be saved is very familiar to you. We like to think of ourselves as good people and often grow frustrated when sermons, Bible studies, devotions, pastors or fellow Christians point out our failure to keep God’s law. We do not like having someone call us out on our specific sins. Instead, we like to see ourselves as the ones who believe in Jesus and do a lot of good things to go to heaven, or do lots of things the right way as we see it, which makes us good enough for heaven. The rules and laws we come up as good and the right way often deal with how we manage our finances and children, or how we spend our time and who we spend it with. The Galatians gave into the temptation to add following God’s law to faith in Jesus to be saved, and Paul emphatically called them out. You and I have given into adding how well we live, think, speak and act to our faith in Jesus as well, which puts us in danger as Paul wrote later in Galatians 5, 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. When you are alienated or separated from Christ and his grace, there is no reward and no heaven, only sin, death and hell.

The way God saved us from the law to bring us to Christ is revealed in the verses from our New Testament reading from Galatians 4. Jesus put himself under the law to save us as we read in Galatians 4, 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. The time referenced here is Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus, that God alone had determined. Jesus became a human being subject to the same law of God, which is showing perfect love to God and all people, as any other human being. He kept God’s law perfectly meaning he was righteous and worthy of heaven. He had no fear of death or hell because he had no sins to cause him to die or sentence him to hell. Then, at just the right time, Jesus was put to death on the cross for our sins, not his own. God carefully planned Jesus’ birth and death to be a payment for our sins with the sinless blood of his one and only Son. We see God the Father protecting his son from an early death by sending him to Egypt and then bringing him back to Israel in our Gospel reading for today from Matthew 2, 19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” God carefully planned, protected and carried out every detail of Jesus’ life to save you so that you could also be his children.

God has adopted you as his child. You are the recipient of what God did. As with all who are adopted, the decision and work to adopt are done by the one adopting, not the one being adopted. Paul further explained what God’s work to save, redeem and adopt you mean in Galatians 4,

6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Galatians 4:6-7

These words complete the work of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit to save us. The Father planned, the Son redeemed and the Spirit fills our hearts with faith to call God our, “Father.” By the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts to give us saving faith, we no longer live in fear of God for breaking his law, but we live as thankful heirs of eternal life by God’s work for us. God has always done the work to save his people as we hear in our Old Testament reading for today from Isaiah 63,

7 I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us—yes, the many good things he has done for Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses.

Isaiah 63:7

Isaiah went on in the next two verses to use the words “Savior, saved, love, mercy, redeemed, lifted and carried them” to describe what God does for his people.

I am sure you have already heard talk about New Year’s resolutions. Today you have been reminded of what God resolved to do for you. When you were a slave to sin and condemned to hell, he saved you. And when you have acted like the Galatians adding following God’s law to your faith for confidence in heaven, which alienates and separates you from Christ and God’s grace and is like telling God, “I don’t need any New Year’s resolutions because I am great!” God has given his law to remind you that you cannot play any part in your salvation. You need a Savior. And God at just the right time because of his great love for you sent his Son to pay for your sins with his life on the cross. We celebrate Christmas all year because God kept his resolution, his promise to save you and through Jesus’ redemption God adopted you. Amen.