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Hometown Legend
There's a legend in my hometown. It goes like this.
Galatians 4:4-5
There’s a legend in my hometown. It goes like this. In order to get through the DMV line, you have to show up at the DMV office, that’s the Department of Motor Vehicles, right when they open. Otherwise, you’re going to be stuck there for an hour. Two hours. When I bought my first car in high school, I got a chance to try out this legend firsthand. I showed up there 15 minutes after they opened, and sure enough, I had to wait an hour and a half.
Certainly many faithful Old Testament believers knew what that was like. They had read in the scriptures how God was going to send the Christ, that he would be coming soon. And yet they looked around and they didn’t see any signs that he was here. The prophets have been silent for over 400 years. Maybe they doubted God’s timing. They wondered when would the Christ come? And we read in the scriptures.
But when the set time had fully come. God sent his Son to be born of a woman, to be born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)
We hear in these verses why Jesus has come. To redeem those under the law. And we see this specifically at Christmas time. We hear about how in the Ten Commandments that we have failed to meet up to God’s expectations, that we have sinned. That we have fallen short of what God expects for us. But Jesus never did this. Jesus was perfect. He always trusted his heavenly Father’s timing. Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly in our place. When God views us, when by faith in Jesus, he sees the perfection of his own son. And that’s why we can claim adoption as God’s own child by faith in Jesus.
Jesus came to the right place at the right time. He came to tiny little Bethlehem in Judea. And yet he came for one purpose to fulfill the law and release us from the bondage of sin. Here at Christmas, we recall the promises that God has set forth. We know that he has sent a Savior to redeem those under the law that is us, and that by faith in him we have perfect righteousness. That there is nothing that stands between us and the glorious throne in heaven.
Let that fill you with joy this Christmas season. Amen.
