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What would the world be like if Jesus had never been born? What if history was not as it is? What if there was no announcement of the birth of baby Jesus? What if there was no star that was pointing the wise men to Bethlehem?
What if none of this ever happened? There was no baby lying in a manger. What if this historical event never happened? How would life and how would the world be different today? There is a game that sometimes historians play and it's a game of what if.
They call it counterfactual history. It's though they sit around at the coffee table with their tweed jackets and their pipes and they think about what would the world be like if certain events that did happen, if they didn't happen, how would the world be different?
And so they play that out in conversation. For example, what if Great Britain and the Allies had not defeated Adolf Hitler? How would the world be different today if the Nazi flag flew over Parliament?
Or what if the United States had not purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7 million? How would the world be today if Russia bordered Canada? Or what if the internet or cell phones had never been invented?
That which you carry around in your purse or in your pocket, what if you didn't carry that at all? And that there was no internet. How would the world be different today if that had never happened? And you can play this out at even recent events that have captured the news.
It's the same principle as that classic Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life, that imagines what if George Bailey had never been born? And how would life have been different? And so his guardian angel gives him a tour of this alternate world to help him appreciate the value of his life, to show him what life would have been like if he had not been born in order to impress upon him the difference for good that he has made upon the lives of others.
And how about you? How would the world be different if you had never been born? Now, you know, in our study today in Galatians 4, 4, it says, when the time came to completion, God sent his son born of woman.
What if this was not a fact of history? What if Jesus had never been born? Can we determine the importance of his birth? Now, you may have never thought about that, but there are those who have thought about that.
And they've played this out in their mind and conversation and asked, what difference has Jesus Christ made upon, let's say, civilization? And they've come to be determined that there is no human being in history that has had a greater influence and impact upon just civilization than Jesus Christ.
I mean, think about it. Think about how many, for example, hospitals begin with saint. In my hometown, there was one called Saint Francis. And in so many, they can trace their origin or they can trace a compassion organization back to their roots, which was started by Christians.
Or think about public education. That was started because of the Protestant Reformation. The origin of Harvard was by John Harvard, who was a pastor, and he started Harvard in order to train up pastors, as was Yale and Princeton.
All of them at the early stages were Bible colleges. Now, they're not that anymore, but that was their origin because of Christians who loved Jesus Christ. Our American government is built upon many biblical principles.
Any of the signers of the Constitution and of the Declaration of Independence, many of them were Christians or they held a Christian worldview. Or science. Science is based upon a Judeo-Christian belief that there was a living and true God who created the universe, who is a reasonable God.
And he built it based upon truth and that human beings, because we're made in the image of God, can trace that out and understand it. And so that's the origin. Many of them were Christians, scientists.
Arts and literature and music, the things that we deeply love, many of them were influenced by Christians. Johann Sebastian Bach would end his masterpieces with Sole Deo Gloria, to God be the glory. Michelangelo and the masterpieces that he would create.
Handel's Messiah. None of this would exist if Jesus Christ had never been born. Now, that's an impact upon civilization, but when we think about his influence upon our lives and those of us who are seated today, our minds don't turn necessarily to what the impact was upon civilization, but rather something that's eternal, something that's spiritual, that has eternal differences.
Because the angel would have never announced, Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. That would have never been said if Jesus had not been born.
If Jesus had never been born, you and I would have no hope for deliverance from the slavery of sin and of death. We would have no reason to have any kind of hope that we would be free from the corruption of sin and of condemnation before the bar of God's justice.
We would have no means of having peace with God. If Jesus had never been born, we would have no future to look forward to when the Bible says that in that day, in that future day, God will make everything new.
We would not have that hope of a restored, reborn, reclaimed, remade world and universe. There would have been no savior who would have declared this promise. Everyone who sees the son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
None of that would be true if Jesus had never been born. And so when we consider Galatians 4, four through seven, Paul shows us in these words the importance of the birth of Jesus, and he does so in four different words.
These words are like Christmas gifts that have been given to us because Christ was born. The first word that we'll consider is the word redeem, found in verse five. The second word is the word adoption, found in verse five.
The next word is the word father, in verse six. And the final is the word heir, found in verse seven. Now, before we get into that, I need to briefly inform you about the background of this book and why Paul wrote it to begin with.
Well, on Paul's first missionary journey, he went through this area which is southern Turkey today, and it was called Galatia, and he planted different churches in Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, and he poured blood, sweat, and tears into these churches to get them started because the gospel had never been preached in this.
Nobody had ever heard of Jesus until Paul came and proclaimed his name. And churches were planted, they were started, and he got them grounded upon the gospel truth, this truth that God saves us by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and that was the gospel message that he preached.
And he preached to them that this was free to us because Jesus Christ paid the price. Now, having anchored these churches in the sound doctrine, he later learned to his dismay that there had come along some false teachers who had infiltrated these churches and they were beginning to proclaim a counterfeit gospel contrary to what he had preached, and that said something like this.
They said, well, believing in Jesus is a good start. It's a good place to begin, but you need to add. You need to add to that the Jewish right of circumcision and holding to the Jewish ways, and so they began to proclaim a Jesus plus our own contribution gospel.
Jesus plus, and it's not unlike what we find today in a lot of religious circles where they say, well, yeah, Jesus is fine, we believe in him, but we're going to add our own contribution in order for God to be pleased and to accept us.
This is what he wants, and so they preach this, Jesus plus. Well, when Paul learned that they were saying you need to believe in Jesus plus you need to hold to rights and ceremonies and traditions, he was very, very angry by what he learned, and in a word, Paul tells us in the first chapter what he thought about these who are preaching that, and he used the word cursed, a strong word, and Paul was so angry at these Jesus plus teachers that he launches, I mean, he launches into an assault upon them and says, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one that you received, a curse be on him, and the Galatians learned this, and so this book, it's like a battle cry.
You smell it and you sense and you hear like a battlefield because he is assaulting these who were enemies of the gospel. Now, when we come to chapter four, he's talking about this Jesus that he preached, and he says, let me show you how awesome he is and that you don't need anything else or anybody else.
Jesus is enough, so when we come to this chapter four, four through seven, the first word that he impresses upon them as a gift that has been given to us is the word redeemed, and I go back to these verses, verses four and five, where it says, when the time came to completion, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law so that we might receive the adoption of sons, but I wanna focus on that first word, redeemed, and the point that he's making here is that redemption carries the idea of a transaction.
In other words, there's a price that must be paid in order to redeem somebody or something, but in this case, it's you and I, and we are purchased by the blood of Jesus. Purchased to what end? Purchased so that we might be liberated from the slavery to sin and the slavery to death that follows, and through the sacrifice of his body and his blood, which was a sin offering, he satisfied the justice of God, and the justice of God is that sin must be paid.
Either you and I will pay, or we have a substitute that pays for us, and in this case, the substitute is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he bought at the high price of his own blood the freedom and the forgiveness that we enjoy today.
Now, think of it like this. Satan ruled or had dominion or control with an iron fist upon us, and we were slaves, and our future was nothing but eternal death. We were slaves to sin, we were slaves to Satan.
How bad was our predicament? Ephesians 2 states that we were dead in trespasses and sins, without hope and without God in the world. You know that portion in Exodus which tells us about the Israelites that were under the dominion of these taskmasters from Pharaoh, and they were forced as slaves to do his bidding, and they had no hope of rescue.
There was nothing that they could do in order to rescue themselves. Well, in a sense, you and I, we need to be rescued. Moses was sent by God to rescue the Israelites. Jesus Christ was sent by God in order to rescue us from sin and the dominion of Satan.
The wages of sin is death. Either we die or a substitute dies for us. We needed a mediator. We needed somebody who was both human and God, a perfect human being and God in order to reconcile us with God.
And so, sin carrying the sentence of death was paid for by the blood of Jesus and by his sacrifice on the cross. And that's why Ephesians 1, 7 states it like this. In Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.
There was a price, and it was a price that was paid for our ransom. That's a word that is used when somebody's kidnapped, and there's a ransom note, and they say, you pay it such and such an amount in order to see your loved one again.
Well, we were ransomed by a price, and the price was the blood of Jesus. And it's a ransom rescue. We were rescued by the purchase of Jesus. Now, think of the billions of people around the world who are trapped in the lies of Satan, and he's telling them that you have to work, and you have to earn, and you have to contribute in order to find some kind of peace with God.
And so, they are enslaved to this. And there are so many that they are desperate to find something because in their hearts, they know something is wrong. I don't have peace with God, and so they search in order to find it.
And so, they look into religion, or they look to good works, or they look to something in the world, and they are groping for it, like somebody groping in the dark. They are desperate, and they have no idea how to find peace with God or freedom.
There's this emptiness, and they just don't know.
Well, we do.
We know that it's through the blood of Jesus Christ. People need to be rescued. Well, because Jesus was born, because he was born, he carried our sin, and he died on the cross in order that we might be set free from sin.
And he was raised on the third day. And those who put their faith and their hope in him will never be disappointed. That's the first word. The first word is redeem. But the second word is adoption. In verse five, once again, to redeem those who are under the law so that, or to the end, that we might receive adoption as sons.
It's a wonderful thing to say that we were ransomed and we were rescued, but there is something about this word adoption that has a sweet sort of warmth about it. Now, I've never been adopted, and I don't know about you, but I would venture to say that to really appreciate this term, you almost have to be one who was, that you went through like the foster home and maybe an orphanage, and think of the feeling of being adopted into a family.
Well, this carries this idea that we were adopted into the family of God so that we are now called the children of God. We have been accepted by him. Adoption is such a sweet family term. Now, I've been a part, as I was thinking through my ministry, I've been a part of at least five different adoptions where I was either at the front end and writing some of the paperwork on behalf of a couple who wanted to adopt, and they were going through an agency, and I filled out the paperwork for them because they wanted my reference on their behalf.
I've sat in a judge's chambers, and we've talked about, with the judge, about a couple that wanted to adopt a couple of kids, actually. I've also been in the courtroom on the day when that announcement is made by the judge, and I've sat there among friends and family, and they invite me as the pastor.
Would you like to be a part of this? And I say, yeah, I'll be there. What time is it? And the judge, you know, she makes her pronouncement, and it's such a happy occasion because think of what the judge has to preside over.
How many depressing cases? But not this one. This is full of happiness, and it makes the pronouncement, you know, and then the gavel comes down, and there are cheers, and there are high fives, and everybody wants to have their picture taken alongside of the judge, and family photos, and then they get me in there somehow, be a part of the pictures.
It's a wonderful time. It's a day of celebration. It's party time, and that's what happens at adoption. Now, you or I, it's party time because we have been adopted into the family of God. It is huge. Now, you know, what is the best part of being adopted into a family?
If you were to ask somebody that question, who has been adopted, what do you think they would tell you? What do you think they would say is the best part of being adopted? I think the first thing that I've read is they say, I know that I'm loved.
I feel such a love. I feel, secondly, that I belong, that I'm wanted. Means for years, they didn't feel like they were wanted, but now they're wanted, they belong, they have a new family, they're loved, and they feel so fortunate.
Zephaniah 317 talks about how the Lord feels toward us because we belong to him, and he uses in that language, speaking about Israel, but there are parallels with you and me, and that the Lord is among you a warrior who saves.
He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love. He will delight over you with singing. Can you imagine God breaking out into song in celebration that we belong to him? And that's the language that we ourselves may hear with our own ears, God breaking out into song and music.
Because we now belong to him. And this phrase that he will be quiet in his love is something that has like a satisfaction and a sense of rest. You know how somebody just kind of sits back with a big smile on their face, and it's like, yeah.
This is what I was working toward. It's all here. That's the idea that God is quiet in his love, a quiet satisfaction that we're with him and that we belong to him. Now, does that appeal to you? Would you like to experience that, to be adopted by God, no longer alienated, no longer shut out, but sitting at his table with a big smile upon the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, who we will see?
You know, like Revelation 3, 20, that we come in and eat with him and he with us. Well, let's go on to the third term. A wonderful gift that is ours because Jesus was born is that now we can call God our father.
Now, this is a benefit that is unique only for Christians, for believers. The world cannot call God their father, not in the sense that you and I. He may be their creator, but he's our father. So that when we pray that prayer, our father who art in heaven, we are praying it as a group because there's brothers and sisters in the family of God who are with us, but he is our father.
I think of when I think of father, I have in mind the prodigal son. I think of the love that that father had for the prodigal. As it says in the parable that Jesus, he would go out and he would look down and he would search the horizon to see if he could see his son.
Day after day, he would go out and look. Is my son coming over the horizon? Well, one day he does see him. He sees the gate and the walk of his son and it looks, that's the way he walks. And the father runs out to him, which in that day, he just wasn't done.
He didn't just tear out and run out, just wasn't done. So when Jesus told that parable, he says, this is how God is. Runs out, grabs his son with a bear hug and kisses him and then enrobes him with his own garment, the best robe of the house and a ring on his finger and a party, a celebration.
That's our heavenly father and that's our relationship with him. He loves you very much and he's so, so happy to have you as his child. In this verse, verse six, it says, and because you are sons, God sent his spirit, the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
You know what's interesting about this verse is that the Trinity is mentioned. You've got both the son mentioned and the spirit and also father. All three persons of the Trinity are involved in our salvation.
It was planned by the father. It was executed or taken place because of the son and it's applied to us because of the Holy Spirit. Our relationship and the love that we feel with our heavenly father is because the Holy Spirit, you know, is the one who helps us with that and provides that sense of warmth.
And that's really what it is. It's a sense of intimacy or warmth or closeness to the point where we cry out Abba, Father, a term of endearment, a term that describes something of familiar acceptance and a joy and a love that we have between a child and his father and even in our Jewish homes today.
That's how dad is referred to. The child will call him Abba. And so we call our heavenly father Abba. Not an austere, not a cold, not a stern or a sterile relationship, but something that's genuinely warm.
And that's because Jesus Christ was born. We enjoy that today. And the final term is the term heir in verse seven. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then God has made you an heir.
This is a status. This is one of the privileges that we have, that we have an inheritance, an inheritance that first Peter says is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and kept in heaven for you. Ephesians one tells us that this inheritance is guaranteed because the Holy Spirit dwells within us as a down payment for good things to come.
Now, what is this inheritance? Well, you know what? I have a feeling this inheritance, which I could summarize as enjoying this glorious life in the kingdom of God, but that sounds still a little ethereal out there, you know?
Like, well, what do you mean by that? Well, you know what? I'm not as sure I know what I mean by that because I have a feeling that, you know, when we read about heaven in the Bible, it's like looking through a keyhole.
We only see a little bit. What we see, we like very, very much, but we know there's a whole lot more out there that we don't see. A lot of surprises, a lot of wonderful things that God has in store for you and me because we have this inheritance.
And all of that, which he has for us, is the inheritance. And we will enjoy it for eternity. It's, again, it's imperishable, undefiled, unfading. It never grows old. We're never gonna be looking and thinking, well, you know, is this it?
Is this all there is? Never gonna come to our mind. It'll always be fresh and wonderful, exhilarated and exciting. And God has so many gifts that I imagine that he has waiting for us that he's told us nothing about, but he will unwrap those and he will show those to us.
One day.
And that's part of the inheritance. So let me return back to the question that I began with. What would the world be like if Jesus had never been born? Well, those that are historians and sociologists, they're gonna look at civilization and they're gonna look at institutions and say, well, what's the legacy of Jesus with regard to civilization and society?
And okay, you can go there, but I would much rather turn my attention to these eternal things. These things that really count for eternity and something wonderful that have benefits and promise in a new relationship.
Captured in those four words that because Jesus was born, we are now redeemed. Because Jesus was born, we could be adopted as his children and the children of God. Because Jesus was born, we can now call God Abba, Father.
And finally, because Jesus was born, we're promised an inheritance that is beyond our wildest dreams. Let's pray. Our Father, today as we turn our attention here to these wonderful verses that capture for us these gifts that have been provided because our Lord Jesus Christ was born, that he died, that he rose again the third day and sits at your right hand and is coming again.
Our hearts are thrilled. And we pray that those about us, whether it be a family reunion that may be coming up here at Christmastime or those that we work around, as the subject of Christmas begins to find its way into conversation, to be able to turn people's attention, not to the celebrations that the world enjoys, but rather to consider the difference that it makes for us personally, that we have a savior who's guaranteed to us redemption, adoption, a father, and an inheritance.
We thank you so much for these blessings and benefits.
In Jesus' name, amen.