We Greet Him As True Man
Galatians 4:4-5
When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
How shall I greet you? The answer to that question is one that everybody has to answer at one time or another. How am I going to receive Jesus when he comes? Everyone has to grapple with that issue at some point in their life. There’s no way around it! The answer to the question is especially pertinent in this month of December, because December 25th is the day set aside to commemorate Jesus’ birth date.
Our world, by and large, is geared to some sort of celebration on that day. You are a part of that world. Jesus’ birth date will affect your life in one way or another. You must determine how you are going to approach this event and the man whose birth compels such a commemoration. You must decide what you will make of it. You must choose the way you will deal with Jesus. You must answer the question How shall I greet you?
There are a lot of answers to the question. Many ways of greeting Jesus’ are steeped in traditions that may have little to do with him now. They concentrate just on some sort of celebration. This way of dealing with Jesus relegates him to a place behind the outward trappings of Christmas. He is replaced by things once chosen to celebrate him!
Other ways of greeting Jesus treat him more spiritually. That also allows for a wide range of receptions. Many approaches are possible. The occasion of his birth may be a profoundly moving event acknowledging his life-changing effect upon you; it may be merely recognition of a very influential person of history; or it may be anything in between.
Bottom line, of course, the defining factor in your personal way to greet Jesus is what you see when you look into his manger. Your reception hinges entirely on who you think Jesus is and what you think he accomplished with his life. That’s the way your greeting is formed. It is our goal, this evening, to determine exactly who and what is in the manger.
In that respect, the illustration on the cover of our worship folder is no accident. The manger is deliberately left empty. I could have put someone in there for you, but it is more important that you be the one to decide who you want to be there. We will get guidance from God’s Word – and there we will find the truth. But ultimately you have to decide for yourself who you put there and how you will greet him.
Two weeks ago, at our first Advent service, we listened to God’s Word and it led us to the conclusion that the baby we see in the manger is true God. We looked at evidence from his life that pointed us in that direction. But in the end we heard this clear and unmistakable testimony from the inspired writer of the letter to the Hebrews. He identifies the Baby as the Son of God.
To make certain we don’t miss his meaning or explain his words away, he goes on to define what he means by the term Son of God. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. He now sits at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Clearly, when we look into the manger, we see our God – God in every respect!
Just as clearly, we must greet him as God. Failure to do so is a terrible, even fatal, mistake. You don’t mess around with God. You don’t ignore or slight or cheat him of the glory he is due. God lies in that manger! If he chooses to come to us, then we must greet him in an appropriate manner.
Now, as true as that answer may be, however, it isn’t entirely satisfying. For as we look at the Christ-child, we know very well that he is a child. Our senses don’t lie to us. It is a baby like all the other babies we’ve ever seen or held. His mother is right there and can vouch for a 9 month pregnancy and an uncomfortable delivery. The Baby must be held and fed and cuddled. It is a human being with human needs!
But how can that be? If he is the Son of God, then he cannot be a son of man, can he? The two are such opposites that it seems as if the one can’t also be the other. It seems impossible that divinity and humanity can co-exist in one being. We want to believe it to be so - our reason demands it – but how can it be? And even if it could be, whywould it be that way?
After all, if the Baby, the Son of God, came into our world to do something for us, what more could humanity add to his effectiveness? What more could the Baby do as true God and true man that he could not do just as well as true God, alone? That’s the answer Paul provides in our sermon text. And it is his answer that will complete our understanding of the Baby. We will know exactly who he is and what he’s come to do … and so we’ll know how to greet him!
He writes: When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
God had prophesied a Savior from sin for a long, long time. Thousands of years passed before the promise made to Adam and Eve became a reality for you and me.
At the time known by the Lord to be precisely the right time, God sent his Son into our world! How? One might expect that the Son of God would be born of royalty or born into a family of money and influence. This would seem most appropriate. Instead, he was born of a woman, an ordinary woman, born in circumstances shared by a great majority of mankind. He is as much of a human being as you or I.
As a Baby he needed all the care and attention one normally gives to a baby. Even though he is God and needs nothing, he is human and needs everything a human infant needs. As he grows he will increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men, even though he is the all-knowing Lord who fills the universe. He will learn a trade and work for a living because if he doesn’t he will starve to death.
He has to eat and sleep. He is at times happy or sad – as the occasion calls for. He is viewed by others as just another guy, not unlike all the other guys around him. His enemies don’t fear any consequences if they hurt him. The Son of God is a true human being in every respect. We do not deny it. We dare not deny it. If we do, we are denying a part of him that he must be – if he’s going to be our Savior.
He is born as a man to be under law, just like the human beings he’s come to save. To redeem those under law, he has to be under law himself. This is why he must be born – because as God, alone, he can’t do it! To redeem us, to buyus back from sin, death and hell, he must produce the only redemption price that has any value.
He must provide us with a sinless human life, the kind of life demanded of all human beings by the law of God who want to share heaven with their Lord. What we cannot do for ourselves, he must do for us or we go to hell. And he can only do that as a human being, by living a perfect human life in our place. His gift to us of such a life is what we must have to stand before the final Judge without fear on Judgment Day.
He must remove from us our lifetime of sin and godless rebellion and make their consequences his own. All human beings deserve damnation to hell and separation from God’s love. Someone must suffer that for us, or else we will have to. And our Savior can only do that as a human being who can die – something God cannot do. This is what is demanded from anyone who hopes to be reconciled with the Lord.
Only Christ Jesus, as a true member of mankind can live the life we should and die the death we deserve as our Substitute. Only he, as true God, can live a single human life that is worth more than enough to redeem the lives of all mankind. Only he, as true God, can die the death that more than pays the price needed to redeem the lives of us all.
When you look into the manger, you must see God, but you must also see a human being. He, alone can be your Savior. He, alone, gives you the full rights that belong to a son of God. He is born as a human being in our world, so that we might be born again into his world. He gives it all up, so that we might have it all! He is the Christ, our Lord and Savior!
So, How do I greet him? How do you greet Someone who set aside his glory as eternal God to become an ordinary human being so that you might one day experience his glory with him? How do you greet a Someone who willingly takes the blame and the punishment that comes with every single sin ever committed, even though he is perfectly holy?
How do you greet Someone whose love surpasses our human understanding and gives us the full rights of sons without any merit or worthiness on our part? The answer is not one that requires much thought. It explodes from our heart and soul! We must love him in return. We have to dedicate ourselves and all that we have to serving him in this life. We will stop at nothing to show that he is the rock upon which all our hopes and dreams are built!
The question will not be How shall I greet him … on December 25th? That’s much too short a timeframe! The question is How shall I greet him … every day of my life? I greet him with a grateful heart of love and eagerness to live for him. I greet him with joy produced by a peace no one else can give. I greet the true Son of God and the true son of Mary lying in a manger! Amen.