Christmas: Fully God. Fully Man.

We can recount the Christmas story in several ways: the grace of God in Matthew’s gospel, the power of God in Luke’s gospel, and even the protection of God in John’s Apocalyptic letter in Revelation 12.

This Christmas, we are meditating on Paul’s theological masterpiece in Galatians 4. In two verses, we learn it was God’s plan all along to make a way for us to be fully known and fully loved by a Savior who is fully God and fully man.

So I want you to open your Bibles to Galatians chapter four.

Galatians chapter four is where we gonna be. See, there’s actually so many different ways we can celebrate and remember the birth of Christ. It’s actually the, uh, what’s so hard about being a preacher? You have to only. One, uh, throughout the globe today, churches are gathering together, sharing the story of Christmas in many different ways.

One of them is you look at the gospel of Matthew. Matthew, what he loves to do is share a genealogy. This is actually looking at, uh, who Jesus’s ancestors were, and it’s really a story of grace because it’s pretty incredible. You see the people that Jesus came from. You have someone like, The prostitute people with such hard, difficult, sinful past, and yet were used by God and your life can be used as well, or you can go to Luke’s gospel.

He loves the details. Luke was a doctor, and so actually he says a lot about the Christmas story and specifically a lot about Mary. And this story reassures us of God’s power. The angel says to Mary, nothing is impossible with God. Meaning also the virgin birth, uh, is a beautiful miracle. But then you have the Apostle John.

He has John chapter one, but truly proves that Jesus was here before all things and all things hold together. That’s also in Colossians, but in John one, you see this beautiful picture of God coming down. In the flesh dwelling among us, becoming our neighbor, but also a lot of us don’t know. Revelation 12, I’m here to tell you, it is perfectly fine for you to put a dragon.

At the Nativity. If you have a Dragon boys and you have a man scene, take the dragon and put it at the manger scene. It’s actually biblical. Revelation 12 is this beautiful story of God’s protection. It’s this mother giving birth to this child while a dragon is trying to snatch the child. But Revelation 12 says, the child grew and now he rules with an iron rod and he ascended, and he’s at the right hand of the.

This is the good news of Christmas, victory Protection Promise. But I want us to look at Galatians chapter four. We’re gonna look at just two verses. This is gonna be quick. My daughter Salla says, my preach is boring, and so she’s in the room and I wanna be a good dad today. So we’re gonna be quick about this.

We’re gonna learn from the Apostle Paul. Really a theological treatise. Paul only talks about the birth of Jesus twice. Here is one of those. Uh, one of the times he explains it and it’s incredible the way he describes what happened at Christmas. Let’s look together in verse four of Galatians chapter four.

It says, when the time came to completion already, we have to know God does what he intends, how he intends, and when he intend. When the time comes in completion, the fullness, the fullness of time, we can have hope that God is never early, nor is he ever late. But then it says God sent his son. . The audience here that Paul was writing to would probably know more about the Old Testament.

Those are the first 39 books in our Bible, more than probably you and I today. And so when they heard this, God sent his son. The audience is supposed to remember things about God or in the Hebrew will be called Yahweh. God is our creator, which means he’s in charge and we are not. He is righteous.

Everything he does is right, but also he’s. You see all throughout the Old Testament, a predominant theme is Holy, holy, holy. And because God is holy, and because we have sinned and we are not, there is now a chasm. There is a separation all throughout the Old Testament. There is always a bit of distance between God and man.

For example, the great high priest, he would go once a year to sacrifice in the Holy of Holies, but if he had sin hidden in his heart, he would fall dead at the spot, and that’s why they had a rope tied around his ankles to pull him out in case he was in there too long. This is why you have the story of Aza, who saw the arc tipping over and just like maybe most of us would do to prevent the arc from falling.

He touched the arc and at that moment he was struck dead. Why? Friends, God is holy and we are not. God is powerful and we cannot coexist with him because of our sin. There is a chasm too far for us to reconcile, but now Paul is saying, I got good, good news because this holy God, who has been distant, Has chosen to be with us.

God sent his son Jesus. The second person of the Trinity left his throne in heaven and came down and John one says, dwelled into the neighborhood. Friends, what we have to remember every Christmas is Jesus is fully God. Jesus is not like God. Jesus is. That’s right. Jesus existed before time began. Jesus came to the earth on a mission, a rescue mission for you and for me.

And why is this so important? Because friends, if Jesus isn’t fully God, then you and I are fully hopeless. There’s nothing we can do. Read the Old Testament. Look at life itself, man cannot save itself. We are, our motives are always. Evil always steps in the way we try over and over, but we get filled with pride and arrogance and ego.

We try to slay the dragon, but always it’s the dragon that slays us. So we need a hero that is holy. Other than us. We need Jesus who is fully not half fully God. But that’s not it. He can’t just be fully God. That’s why the next line, it says, born of a. this Christmas. We have to remember, God chose to be with us.

And here’s what’s so crazy. God also chose to be like us, but here’s what’s crucial and you’ll miss it. He is not born of a man. He’s born of a woman. That’s when the woman say, amen. All right, what is that significance? Why is that a big deal? See, the Bible speaks of Adam as our federal. Meaning read Romans five if you want to look into this more yourself, but anyone who is born of man who is from the seed of Adam, ergo has a sinful nature.

If you are from man, which by the way, we all are, if you are from man, then you are born in sin. . John Piper once said, it’s not like we’re a metronome. That might be good, might be bad. And when you have a child, which one? Which way will it go? Is my child gonna be the one of the only children that obeys everything?

And you quickly find out, no way, they’re cute, but they’re evil . It’s not, maybe we’re good. Maybe we’re bad friends. We are born in sin. It is a metronome that is forever broken. We are in trouble. So Jesus had to. Not through the seed of Adam because it would make him guilty. Now, this does not mean Mary was innocent and perfect, but it is the seed that is the federal head that would make Jesus have a sinful nature.

But he skipped through that by having his father as God. God. The Holy Spirit is what gave birth in the womb of Mary, and that’s what makes the virgin birth so crucial. If you skip the virgin birth, you miss out on everyth. See the baby in Mary’s womb is a man, but he was not a son of Adam. He was a son of God.

He is very God and very man. That’s what’s equally as important. Jesus is fully God, but also Jesus is fully man born of a woman. Christopher Watkin, not to be confused with Christopher Wakin. Uh, anyways, uh, I, if I can do the accent, I would a theologian. He. Jesus’s heart was like your heart, his lungs, like your lungs, his brain, like your brain.

No doubt. He caught colds, went through teething and growing pains, got dirt under his fingernails, sweated in hot weather, and was equally subject to all the other stresses and strains of embodied individuals. Strains of which hear me folks, we are ever more frequently reminded of as we get older and older.

Amen. Amen. This, why is this so I. If Jesus isn’t fully man, then you and I are fully helpless. He has to be fully God because man can’t pull it off, but he has to be fully manned because man is the one whose sin man is the one who must bear the punishment of his sin. So we need a savior who fully represents God, but at the very same time, Fully represents man.

This is why we have a Christmas celebration in Christ at Christmas. We finally have a savior who is fully God, holy and righteous, and a creator. But it’s fully man tempted in every way as you and I are, and yet without sin. So what does fully God, fully man mean for you and mean for me? Don’t worry. Say I’m almost done.

Let’s. Born of a woman and then it says, born . I love you. Say that. Born under the law, Jesus was required to follow the law. This is the law. You and I fail at. Even just the 10 Commandments, we can go in this room and we all fail those. He is the only one who did it perfectly and he was expected to. But then it says to redeem those under the law.

This word redeem means to buy. . Martin Luther actually says, this is at Christmas, the ultimate gift exchange. We give Christ our sin, and Christ gives us his righteousness. This is how redemption works. He redeemed those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. And for the ladies in the room, adoption as daughters.

Christmas is all about going from being enslaved to sin, to becoming a son and daughter. Of God. In fact, Paul wants you to know this is a huge deal, that you are not just liked by God. You are a son or a daughter of God. Look at verse seven. It was pretty fascinating. In the Greek, you don’t pick this up in the English, but all throughout Galatians and most of Paul’s letters, when he says you, he actually is saying Y’all okay?

Because it’s plural. This is when the south actually is really helpful here. And so it’s like, Hey, y’all are sinners. Y’all do this, y’all do that. But finally, what’s interesting about Paul’s penmanship is he goes from y’all, y’all, y’all, to verse seven, he is like a preacher who is a pastor. He says this beautiful thing of what Jesus has done fully God, fully man, to redeem us.

And it’s like he steps aside and he begins to look face to face and says, Jimmy, you’re a son of God. Martha, you’re a daughter of God, not just y’all. No. are a son and daughter, an heir through God. So we have to ask ourselves, because family isn’t as tight of a thing as the ancient near East. We don’t really know the significance of inheritance like we used to.

Here’s a couple things why it’s so important this Christmas to know the invitation is out for you to become a son or a daughter of God. First in Christ. You are fully. If you’re in the family of God, friends, there is a joy from being fully known. Jesus knows your pain. He was fully man. He experienced the pain of heartbreak, betrayal, death of a friend, physical, emotional, suffering.

Whatever you’ve gone through, Jesus has gone through it. What I also love though is Jesus knows your desires. He created you for a plan and a purpose. God created you specifically for a specific plan, and he knows that and he roots for that. But not only that, Jesus knows your sin. Jesus is fully God and he knows all your actions and he knows all your intentions, which actually is a good thing because we don’t have to hide or pretend.

The Christmas message is literally just come as you are and you can be a son or daughter of the. See, children aren’t just fully known in the family of God. They’re also fully loved. Most of us only know one at the expense of the other. Some of you today are fully loved, but you know that’s only possible because you’re not fully known.

And so you appreciate the love, but ultimately, you know, it’s comforting but hollow. Every day you think, yeah, you love my pretend version of me, but if you only knew my past, if you only knew what I did yesterday, you would cast me out. Some of us only know that kind of love and, and we were created for a much deeper left.

Some of you are fully known, and because of that, you are no longer fully loved. You opened up about your past to someone. You’ve revealed or maybe you got caught in your sin and you are who you are, and now the people who you loved and they loved you are now keeping you at a distance. Friends, God created us with the ultimate desire to be fully known and fully loved, and the beauty of Christmas is that is now possible because of Jesus.

I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but friends, Jesus loves you on your best day. He loves when you wake up, live your life, loving God, loving your neighbor, and when God looks down at you, he sees the righteousness of Christ. But what’s just as beautiful? It’s Jesus loves you on your worst day, all the same.

When you wake up, you fail to love God. You’re very impatient. You get angry. God looks down at you and he sees the righteousness of Christ. God loves you on your best day, and God loves you on your worst day, and to all who believe this adoption this Christmas season, we have to remember when you surrender to this.

A fully God, fully man receiving what he has given you are forever. In the household of God, you cannot sin your way out of the family. Ultimately, honestly, as an adopted child of God, you can still grieve the father’s heart, but you can never leave the father’s house because Christ left the house so that you and I never would have to.

This is the gift of Christmas, and this is the gift we want to contemplate and think through. We have a savior who is fully God and fully man who came down so that you and I can be fully known. And fully love that is worth celebrating. That is worth praising God for giving your life for him because there is nothing like being fully known.

And fully loved, and that’s why we actually want to end our eve service with candlelight. Hopefully, you guys receive this on your way in. Go ahead and turn that on throughout the world. We do candlelight services on Christmas Eve because it is all about the darkness of the world. We’re supposed to acknowledge the pain, the destruction, the sin that is in our world, that God grief.

But in the midst of the darkness, which is why it’s so dark in the room right now. So these work in the midst of the darkness, we have a light because we have Christ. Our hope is not that we found a way to be smart to get out of our cave. It’s not that we have ingenuity to somehow fabricate a light. No Friends Christmas.

Says is the light came down to us because without God, without Jesus being fully, God, we’re hopeless. Without him being fully man, we’re hopeless. But he is fully God and he is fully man, and he wants you to be fully known and fully loved. And so even in the midst of a dark season, maybe even now for you, you get to turn on this.

Even in the darkness, I have hope because Christ came. That’s a historical fact. He rose again. The tomb is empty and you and I don’t have to live in the darkness of being unknown. Neither do you. And I have to be in the darkness of being unloved, and that’s why we celebrate. So we’re gonna end with one song.

We’re gonna sing Silent Night Together. Invite you now to. Now as we sing this song, I even maybe want you as you sing it, to just thank God, acknowledge the darkness, but praise God for the light that you and I have hope because of what Christ did on our behalf.