“God Sent His Son”

In Galatians 4:4 we read: “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the lase, that we might receive adoption as sons.”

There are more than 6 Billion people living in this world of ours and many will celebrate some form of an end of the year celebration. Many will in fact observe Christmas, although many who will celebrate really have no understanding of who or what they are really celebrating. The verse above puts it all in proper perspective.

When the “fullness of time,” or when God knew it was the best time in human history, God sent His Son. God knew that the world was coming together under one empire, that is Rome, and that there was one major language, and since the Romans built many roads, for the first time travel was getting a little easier. The world was beginning to be much smaller.

But there is more to the message of this verse. God sent the Christ to save mankind. To fulfill the law of Moses, given by God, and to make the greatest sacrifice ever in order to redeem for Himself a people.

What we see today is a commercial, end of the year celebration that has very little to do with this message. And even those who profess to be “Christian,” there is often a lack of the depth of understanding. There may be a head knowledge and a belief that there is a God, and even a Son named Jesus, but simply knowing facts about something is far different from an intimate knowledge based in a living expressed faith.

Johnston and Perkinson in “The Organic Reformation,” note, “The call to the Kingdom is a revolutionary call to radical obedience through radical surrender of our hearts to His heart.”1 Is this what we see today? They go on to say: “We have exchanged the Person of the King for propositional truth about Him, switching from transformational encounter with the Living God to knowing a whole lot of stuff about Him.” 2

This is the problem with Christmas. The real Jesus and His mission have been replaced at best with the cute baby in the manger who grew up and due to unfortunate circumstances, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, died on a Roman Cross. Interesting in light of Galatians 4:4 where we note that this actually was planned, at  just the right time.

Do you really know who Jesus is? Do you really understand that His coming was not some random accident?

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of The Savior. Luke 2:11, “for unto you was born this day in the city of David, a Savior.”  I hope you have more than a superficially knowledge about Jesus Christ. That you not only believe, but have true faith in Him and full understanding in your heart as to why He came.

Merry Christmas!

Foot 1″The Organic Reformation” (Johnston and Perkinson, pg.50, Praxis Media, 2009

Foot 2 “The Organic Reformaiton” (Johnston and Perkinson, pg.50, Praxis Media, 2009