Everything You Need To Know About Christmas

One of the signs that it is Christmas is the airing of familiar Christmas movies on television. One of our favorites is Will Ferrell’s Elf. But you may also prefer one of the more traditional Christmas movies like Frosty the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life, or, of course, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

You remember the story: Grinch hates Christmas because “his heart was two sizes too small.” He hates the singing, the trees, the lights, the presents, and the feast of roast beast. He hates Christmas so much he decides to steal Christmas from the Whos in Who-ville.

You probably even sing the theme song: “You’re a mean one, Mister Grinch.” Maybe not.  

Most people aren’t aware of it, but did you know that Theodor Geisel—the real Dr. Seuss—wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1957 as a protest against the commercialization of Christmas?

Talking about the commercialization of Christmas seems trite. Everyone talks about it every year—not just preachers but TV commentators and newspaper columnists—and everyone bemoans the greed and self-centeredness that accompany this holiday.

Everyone seems to know that “Christmas . . . means a little bit more.” Yet, few people seem to be able to articulate the real purpose of Christmas clearly. Everybody knows something about a baby born in a stable many years ago. Yet, what does that mean to us who live 2,000 years after the fact? If we understood the true meaning of Christmas, our hearts, like the Grinch’s, would grow “three sizes.”

In Galatians 4:4-5, we find the clearest statement anywhere about the meaning of Christ’s birth to us.

This letter was written to combat the Judaizers—Jewish Christians—who were mixing the gospel of grace with the Law of Moses. Paul’s point is that if you are under the law, you are a slave. You are under a list of requirements you can never meet. But Jesus Christ came to change our status from slaves to sons and daughters of God.

While the Old Testament law was not evil, it was simply preparatory for the coming of Christ, which is described in verses 4-5.

Every journalism student knows that to write an effective story, your lead paragraph should answer six questions: Who, What, When, How, Where, and Why?

In this one sentence, Paul clearly answers all of these questions about Christ’s birth.

1. Who?

First, notice this phrase – “In the fullness of time, God, sent forth His Son.”

The subject of this sentence is very clear: God. God is the initiator of the events that led to the first Christmas. The whole plan of salvation originated with the Creator of the universe. In fact, everything in the world, in general and in your world specifically, begins with “God.” Remember how the opening sentence of the Bible? “In the beginning, God . . .”  When I say that everything begins with God, I mean that He is sovereign over all of life. 

2. What?

What did God do? He sent forth His Son. Notice He does not say, “Sent forth his infant or child.”

Too many times, we focus on the infancy of Christ rather than His deity. People tend to get all sentimental at Christmas for the wrong reasons. We see the nativity scene, the baby wrapped in the swaddling clothes; we get all teary-eyed and sentimental thinking about how sweet babies are and about the birth of our children, etc., syrupy sentimentality.

Listen, the birth of a baby was nothing unusual. Hundreds of babies were born that night in Israel.

But this baby was unique—this baby was God Himself. God, who voluntarily chose to give up His rights, suffered the humiliation of being born in a manger. Born that He might die for our sins. This is what made His birth different.

3. When?

In the fullness of time.” Or, as one paraphrase says, “At just the right time.”

I want us to think for a moment about that phrase. The plan of salvation, the coming of Christ, was not an afterthought. Before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1 tells us God had established a divine timetable for the coming of His Son.

You see, God is never in a hurry. He is never behind the time. He is never surprised by events that would cause Him to say, “Boy, those humans really messed things up. I had better do something fast.”

No, God knows precisely what He is doing, and everything that happens, happens according to His timetable. That ought to give you great comfort.

4. How?  

The Significance of “Born of a Woman”

Why is this phrase important? Two reasons: 

• Jesus’ Virgin Birth (2 Samuel 7:12; Matthew 1:16, 23)
• The Humanity of Jesus (Hebrews 4:15-16)

5. Where?

Look at this next phrase, “born under the law,” which answers the question where. What does this mean? This means that He was born under the requirements of Mosaic law. The law was a representation of the holiness of God.

Some people have the idea that somehow Christ’s coming made God’s strict requirements null and void. They think that because Christ came, we are no longer under obligation to be holy.  Not true. God still requires absolute righteousness on our part. Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.” Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law both for Himself and us. He lived a perfect life. And that qualified Him to be our sin substitute. Otherwise, He would have paid for His own sins instead of ours.

6. Why?

The climax of this sentence is the answer to the question, “Why?” Why did God go to all of this trouble, make all of this elaborate preparation, and make the ultimate sacrifice of sending His Son? 

First, that He might “redeem us.” The Greek word for “redeem” is exagorazo—ex means out of, and agora is the marketplace.  

In Paul’s day, if you wanted to purchase a slave, you would travel to the agora—the marketplace—where slaves were sold like animals.  A slave would be placed on the auction block and sold to the highest bidder.

The purchaser of the slave was free to do with the slave whatever he wanted to once he paid the price—abuse him or even slit his throat.  The slave was simply transferred from one master to another master.

You and I were born into this world as prisoners of Satan. And Satan is a cruel, sadistic master who has nothing good planned for anyone.

But God, for no other reason than the great love with which He loved us, chose to send Christ to pay the ultimate price for our sins that he might purchase us—redeem us from the marketplace of sin and deliver us to God.

Becoming a Christian does not mean we have no master; it means we have a new master and an obligation to serve Him.  

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “You are not your own, you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”

But Paul gives another reason for the coming of Christ to adopt us. 

The whole point of Galatians 4 is this—without Christ, we are slaves of Satan with no rights. But when we enter God’s family through Christ, we are no longer slaves without rights. We aren’t even children with limited privileges.  

We enter God’s family as sons. In Roman culture, a son received his rights as a son between the ages of 14 and 17, at a time specifically decided by the father.

Paul says that at God’s appointed time, we entered His family as sons, which means everything that belongs to Jesus belongs to us.

What does that mean? We enjoy the same benefits as Christ.

Three Benefits of Being an “Adult” Child of God

1. Position. You are sinless, just like Christ, in God’s eyes. There is no need to feel He is going to dredge up something from your past.
2. Privileges. Among other things, this means you can ask God for anything. This doesn’t mean God will answer our every prayer the way we want. God did not answer all of Jesus’ requests. Jesus prayed for deliverance from the experience of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. But here is what we can know. “And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). We can have the confidence that we can ask God for anything and know He will always do what is best for us.   
3. Power. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is in your life to give you victory over sin, over worry, over stress, and ultimately over the grave.  

Those are the reasons for Christ’s coming to Bethlehem—that God might redeem us and adopt us as sons and daughters with full rights and privileges.

Full Passage: Galatians 4:4-5