advent Part four - Galatians 4:4-5 (ESV) - Pastor Tim Kroeker

Romans 5:19:

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

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Harry Houdini was a world-famous Hungarian-American magician, illusionist, and stunt performer. He specialized in escaping seemingly impossible situations. He was perhaps the most famous illusionist known for escaping straitjackets, even while suspended upside down from a crane. He would use flexibility, a specially designed jacket, and sometimes shoulder dislocation to free his arms and then undo the buckles, making it a signature, breathtaking feat that captivated audiences globally.

The entire human race is in a straitjacket of sorts, trapped and rendered powerless by the restraints of sin. Who is able to wrestle himself free?

This Advent season, we’re reflecting on an ancient Christmas hymn found in Galatians 4:4-5, which forms the objective basis for the doctrine of justification by faith. These two verses tell us about the person and saving work of God in Christ. In the first line of our hymn, we saw that salvation was God’s idea, decided before the creation of the world, which He brought to fulfillment according to His perfect timing. The second line tells us what that plan was. God sent forth His Son. When God sent forth His Son, He didn’t send a surrogate. He came Himself. Jesus, the Eternal Son, was the only one capable of accomplishing what we could not by our own effort. The third line tells us how it was that the eternally existent Son entered into history to save humanity. He was born of a woman. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, Jesus became fully man so that he might save us in full. But when Jesus took on human flesh, what were the conditions under which he entered?

The fourth line of our hymn tells us. He was born under the law. Like a straitjacket, Jesus subjected himself to the constraints of the Mosaic law, which he performed perfectly on our behalf. He broke the bonds. The good news of the gospel is not only that our sins are forgiven but that Christ’s active obedience to the law is ascribed to us as well. Therefore, in Christ, we are declared to be righteous in the sight of God. We are free.

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