If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Galatians chapter 4, Galatians 4, and we'll be reading verses 4 through 7. Last Sunday, we began an Advent sermon series through this passage. where we have said that it summarizes the true meaning of Christmas, why the Son of God came into the world. It's a passage that we don't often think about as a Christmas text, as it's tucked away in the book of Galatians rather than in one of the Gospels. some of the other classical texts that come to mind, but it is a passage where every phrase of it is just packed full of meaning and helping us understand why Christ was born, why He came into the world. Last week, we looked at the phrase, the fullness of time. and we talked about how Jesus was born exactly when the Father had ordained for Him to come, after a certain amount of time had elapsed, and the significance of the timing of the birth of Christ. Today, as we continue to walk through this passage, we're going to be looking more at Not so much the when of Christmas, that he came at the fullness of time, but the who of Christmas. We'll be looking especially at the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If someone were to ask you, who is Jesus? If someone were to ask you, tell me about Jesus, what would you say? How much would you be able to say? How long would you be able to speak about who Jesus is and why he came? And so the passage today is very simple. It's very at the heart of our Christianity, but it's something that we need to be reminded of again and again. And again, so turn to Galatians 4 and let's stand together as we read God's word. We'll start in verse 4 and we'll read to verse 7. Again, just walking through this phrase by phrase. God's word says, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son. born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son than an heir through God. This is God's word, the grass withers, the flower fades, but God's word endures forever and ever. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, as we turn our attention to your word, we simply pray that you would show us the beauty of Jesus. that Your Holy Spirit would illumine our minds to understand things that are not accessible to human reason. Flesh and blood cannot reveal this to us, but only You, the Father, who is in heaven. And so, Lord, we pray that as we ponder the things of Jesus and the incarnation, we acknowledge our dependence on you, we acknowledge our need for illumination of the Holy Spirit. And so speak to us, Lord, through your powerful word, pierce our hearts, and may we rejoice in the good news of who Jesus is. We pray these things in his name, amen. Would you please be seated? This is not the first time I've preached through this passage, but every time I study it and every time I preach this passage, I always kind of feel like I've entered the holy of holies. When you look at this passage, it's really simple and straightforward gospel. It would be a great passage to take an unbeliever through and explain what the meaning is of Christmas and of Christianity. But when you really start to ponder and dig deep into each one of these phrases, you just realize the wonder of it all and the greatness of our God and the greatness of the salvation we have in Jesus. And I think we should often try to keep that fresh. One of the main applications that I have during the Christmas season, I feel like I'm always saying this as Christmas rolls around every year, and that is you should take some time just to get alone with the Lord and ponder the wonder of the incarnation. You should read the scripture passages about who Jesus is. You should discuss them with your family. You should spend some time contemplating the greatness of who Jesus is. You should read some good books about the person of Christ and his incarnation. You should read through the hymnody we have, and you should not waste this time to think about Jesus in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily. And that's what we'll be doing this morning as we continue to walk through Galatians chapter 4. Hopefully, we have a sense of expectation of God's Word and what it has for us in Jesus. Well, as we continue to walk through this, I want to I want to point out three truths in this passage as we continue to look at it phrase by phrase about Jesus as we continue to look at the who of Christmas here this morning. Simple truths, but really profound when you just pause to reflect on them. First of all, I want you to notice as we continue to walk through this passage that it tells us that God has a son. Secondly, I want you to notice that it tells us that God has a mission for His Son. And thirdly, I want you to notice that it tells us that to fulfill the father's mission, the son had to be born of woman. So God has a son, God has a mission for his son, and to fulfill the father's mission, the son had to be born of woman. So we're kind of cheating this morning, we're looking at two phrases, God sent forth his son born of woman. But let's think about this point that God has a son. That line there, God sent forth his son, implies that God has a son. And you may be sitting there thinking, well, that's rather basic, isn't it? That's sort of something you learn when you're a little boy or a little girl growing up in church. It's something that we probably knew walking in the door, most of us, hopefully all of us. And yet, even though this is a simple point, we need to underline it so that we don't take it for granted. And so when you think about the three major monotheistic religions of the world, and I'm talking about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the three major monotheistic religions, religions that believe in one God, only one of those three major monotheistic religions believe that God has a son. In Judaism, they believe there is one God, but also that He is one person. The philosophical word for it is monad. God is a monad, and He doesn't have a son. The only sense in Judaism that God has a son is sometimes you'll hear Jews referring to Israel as being God's son, but that's certainly not in the same category as what Christians mean when we say God has a son. In Islam, it's very adamant in Islam that God does not have a son. He's one in being and one in person. In Islam, in fact, in the Quran, it says in multiple places that it is blasphemous to assert that God has a son, He is one. And yet in Christianity, it's very clear, it's been very clear from the beginning that God has a son. In fact, one of the, in the early church, one of the earliest symbols of Christianity was a fish. And the reason why it was a fish is because the Greek word ichthys. And that word, each by an acronym, each letter in that word stood in Greek for Jesus Christ, God's Son, our Savior. And they would put ichthys, or fish, on the doors of their homes to indicate that they were Christians, that central truth that God is and He has a Son. Of course, the Old Testament intimated that God has a son. We have places like Proverbs 30 in verse 4, where it says this. Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the earth? What is his name? And what is his son's name? Surely you know. Or Isaiah chapter nine and verse six, it says, for to us, a child is born to us, a son is given. And so in the Old Testament intimated that within the one God, there was a son, that God has a son. Now, when we talk about God having a son, we recognize that we're talking about God's unique son. In the Old Testament, of course, it talks about the sons of God, the angels. Of course, that's not what we're talking about. We know that in the New Testament, we're told as believers, we are the adopted sons of God and daughters of God. Of course, we are adopted into the family of God. That's not what it's talking about. So when it's talking about God having a son, we recognize that it's talking about God having what St. John calls an only begotten son. Like when we say in John 3, 16, it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his what? His only begotten son. The word monogamous, it has to do with the fact that God has a unique son, a one of a kind son, only born son. And so that son is totally unique and totally different from any other sense in which we talk about God having a son. And when you think about God having a son, like when we think about sonship, we recognize that the son of God shares fully the nature of God. We see this especially in Hebrews chapter one where it says that Jesus, the son of God is the heir of all things. He's the one through whom God created the world, but also that he is the radiance of the glory of God and he's the exact imprint of God's nature and that he upholds the universe by the word of his power. That's God's son fully sharing in his nature. Our Colossians 115 says he's the image of the invisible God. And so that's what we mean when we say that God has a son. He has a son in a unique sense, an only begotten son. But what do we do with that language of only begotten? Here's where we get into the deep end of the pool. When we talk about God having an only begotten son, Christian theologians from the beginning have said He has to be eternally begotten, eternally begotten of the Father. There's never been a time when God didn't have a son. There has always been the father and there's always been the son. And yet within the one God, the relationship between the father who is uncreated and unbegotten is that he has an eternally begotten son who eternally is generated from the life of the father. And of course, you also have the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the father and the son within the one true and living God. We know about this in the Nicene Creed. We confess the eternal generation of the Son, that He's eternally begotten of the Father. When we say, He was begotten of the Father before all worlds. God of God, light of light, very God of very God. But it's important we say He's begotten, what? Begotten, not made. He is not a created being. When human beings are begotten, they are created, but the Son is eternally begotten. He eternally comes from the life of the Father. So that there's never been a time where God is not Father, and there's never been a time where God is not Son, and God is Holy Spirit. One God and three co-eternal, co-equal persons from all eternity. God is love. There has always been a lover. There's always been a beloved. And there's always been the love that exists between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God didn't have to create the world to be loving, but God has always been love within the fellowship of the Trinity for all eternity. God didn't have to create the world or create people to become a father. but rather fatherhood inheres in his very being because there's always been father and son in the fellowship of the Trinity. In John five and verse 26, Jesus says, as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have life in himself. St. Augustine famously said, that is a baffling thought, isn't it? If the father has life in himself, how can he grant the son to have life in himself? Wouldn't that not be life in himself, but rather life from the father? And Augustine famously said, it is an eternal grant. The Father is self-existent. The Father has life in Himself. He doesn't depend on anything outside of Himself to exist. And yet, by an eternal grant, by the eternal begottenness of the Son, He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And this Son, we know, who is unique, who is uniquely God, He is uniquely divine from all eternity, is eternally preexistent. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was distinct from God, a different person from the Father. He's identified with the Father as one God, but he's also there eternally preexisting even when creation takes place. So that in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the Father was there, the Son was there, the Holy Spirit was there. From all eternity, there's always been the Father, and always been the Son, and always been the Holy Spirit. And even at creation, the Father was creating the heavens and the earth through His Word, through His personal Word, His Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The psalmist says, by the Word of the Lord, the Son of God, the heavens were made by the breath of His mouth, the Spirit, all their hosts, the Holy Trinity. And we are meant to adore that. We quickly read past it and we say God sent forth his son without even thinking he was a son before he was sent forth. He was a son in the bosom of the father. He was a son face to face with the father from all eternity. Before there were stars in the sky, our sun, our moon, our mountains, our men, our beast, there was the father and the son fully sharing in the one single undivided divine essence. And the father sent that son forth. His only begotten Son, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made Son, that Son. And that's the Son we worship. That's the Son we're called to adore during Christmas and throughout the year, that He is the eternal Son. Do you ponder His divine nature? Do you ponder His eternal pre-existence? Do you ponder and contemplate and adore the mystery of His eternal generation from the Father? We should, we are meant to look up and begin our Christology from above, knowing who He is. But not only does this passage tell us that God has a son, it tells us that God has a mission for his son, doesn't it? It says God sent forth his son, which implies that he had a plan. He had an agreement with the son. He had an understanding with the son that the father would do the sending and the son would do the going, if you will. This word sent forth is a word that implies mission. It refers to a purposeful sending forth to accomplish an objective. There's actually two sending forths in our passage. You see, the father sends the son in verse four, and later we'll be told in verse six, God has sent the spirit, same Greek word. He sends the son and he sends the spirit. His plan, this Trinitarian plan, the father, the son, and the spirit. The Son coming from the Father, the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, all of this to accomplish our salvation, all planned by the Trinity. This word sending forth is used by Jesus in Luke 24, 49 to refer to the Holy Spirit being sent to the church. It's used in Acts 7 and verse 12 when Stephen is preaching his sermon to the Sanhedrin and he talks about how Jacob in the time of Joseph sent his sons to Egypt to get grain. He sent them out on a mission to get grain. In Acts 22 and verse 21, the Lord uses this word sent when he tells of Paul, how he's gonna send Paul out among the Gentiles. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and he was sent out among them with a mission. And so this sending forth strongly implies that the father and the son had a plan. We know this as we read, especially through the gospel of John. Continually throughout the gospel of John, Jesus says things like he says in John 6 38. I have come down from heaven, he says, not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. You ever thought about John 6 as a Christmas text? I've come down from heaven. I, the eternal Son of God, have come down. I've taken a true body and a reasonable soul. I've become truly human without ceasing to be divine in one person. I've come down. Why have I come down? Because I'm coming to do the will the Father gave me to do. It's called the covenant of redemption. In eternity past, as one of my seminary professors put it, the Trinity shook hands. The Father chose a people to be saved. The Son agreed with the Father that He would come and take on flesh and blood to save that people. And the Holy Spirit agreed that He would be sent forth at God's time to call that people to Christ to be saved. This covenant of redemption is in the background. A plan from all eternity, the Bible speaks in Titus chapter one, of the eternal life was promised to us before the ages began. Promised to whom? We didn't exist before the ages began. It was promised to His Son in times eternal, before the world was created, God had this plan. And we should think about that when we think about Christmas. We should think deeply about the fact that long before Bethlehem, long before the creation of the world, long before anything existed, there was one God eternally existing in three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and each person knew exactly what they were going to do. before anything else happened. God had it all in His mind, even before Christ was in the cradle, or Christ was on the cross, or Christ was emerging from the empty tomb. And that should give us joy, and it should give us a sense of security. that the things that we're talking about that happened within time were planned by the God who exists outside of time. Remember we talked about last week about God's relationship with time. God is not subject to time, but time is subject to God. Because God always knew that he was going to bring his only begotten son into this world, into the very womb. of the Virgin. God has a Son, an eternal Son, a preexistent Son, a divine Son, a Son that He eternally begotten of the Father, unique Son. And He has a mission for that Son. And you can see from the passage that the mission is redemption. He would have to come and He would have to be born and He would have to live under the law and He would have to fulfill the law. Only a human being can do that, to obey the law, to be subject to it. And He had to die on a cross to atone for the sins of His people and conquer death for us. And then even to appear in the presence of God as our great high priest in our humanity, glorified, all of that, he had to be sent. And then our third and final point here, he had to be born a woman, he had to become man. God has a son, God has a mission for his son, and then to accomplish the father's mission, notice it says here, the son had to be born of woman. It says God sent forth his son, there's the eternal divine nature, he was a son before he was sent forth from all eternity, and there he was born of woman, his human nature. In one person, we call it the hypostatic union. There is one person, Jesus, but he has a truly divine nature from all eternity. He's the son of God, but he has a truly human nature and that he's also the son of the woman, of Mary. This phrase born of woman has been a stumbling block for many commentators. They say, why does Paul say born of woman? Why does he say that? Why doesn't he say born of the virgin? Some commentators, liberal obviously, unbelieving commentators have said maybe Paul didn't believe in the virgin birth or maybe he didn't see the virgin birth being important. We know that is nonsense. The virgin birth is critical. The virgin birth really happened. He was supernaturally conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And that was a miracle that testifies to the uniqueness of Christ's person. And so that is true, but that virgin birth really highlights the divine nature of Christ. The reason why Paul says born of woman here is he's highlighting the human nature of Christ. Yes, he had a divine and supernatural conception, but his birth was very human, very ordinary. He was born of woman like every single person in this room has been born of woman. He identified with us fully in our humanity. In order to accomplish salvation, he had to truly become man, not partially man, not mostly man, not a shell of a man, but a true human body and a true reasonable soul, a true humanity, which he received of the woman, truly born into our race, if you will, the human race. But this phrase born of woman is not just highlighting that human nature. It's again reminding us of that ancient promise that we that we talked about last week. That is that promise that from the seed of the woman would come a serpent crusher. Remember in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve have sinned, and God makes the first promise of the gospel, and it's so cool, it's not made to human beings initially. But God looks the devil right in his face, the serpent, and he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, and he, the Messiah, will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel. The first promise of the gospel was not made by God directly to our first parents. He allowed them to listen in on his words of defiance of the serpent. In that first promise of the gospel, we see that promise that there would come one who would be born of woman, who would crush the head of the serpent. We see some amazing things that were said there. First, God was declaring that there would be a war. between the woman and the devil and between the woman's offspring and the devil's offspring. Right there in Genesis 3, there's a spiritual war going on. God says, I will put enmity, I will put hostility, I will put this war between the two of you. And that spiritual war has been taking place from the very beginning. The devil hates God. The devil hates God's truth, and so he speaks lies. He hates God's name, and so he tries to bring dishonor to it. He hates God's creation, so he tries to pervert it. He hates God's people, and so he tries to destroy them. And that war has been going on from the very beginning of time. Christmas is about spiritual warfare. This one born of woman would come. as a part of spiritual warfare. Second, the Proto-Evangel, that first promise of the gospel, highlights that God is siding with man against the devil. God doesn't come to man and say, I'm gonna put enmity between me and you. There was enmity because of sin. But God says to the serpent, I'm putting enmity between me and you. God is siding with man against the enemy of man who deceived man and led man into sin, Adam and Eve. And He's showing that He's for man, He's on our side. And if God is for us, who can be against us? Thirdly, God is assuring us that man will gain the victory over the devil. through the birth of a child, and this child would grow up and be wounded on the heel. He would bruise the serpent's head, a lethal blow, but he would be wounded on the heel in the process. The reason why the Son of God was born of woman, the reason why the Son of God became human was so that he could do that. That's why 1 John 3,8 says, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. And then it says, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Another way of putting that, the reason the Son of God appeared, the reason the Son of God became man was to crush the head of the serpent. The way that he would do that would be by being wounded on the heel. We recognize that there is a connection between Christmas and Good Friday and Easter. He wasn't just coming to save us by being born a woman and being a little baby. but he was coming to save us by sharing in our nature so that one day he would grow up, he would grow in wisdom and stature in the favor of God and the favor of man, he would grow up so that he could defeat the devil at the devil's own game through his death. It says in Hebrews chapter two, since the children of God share in flesh and blood, he, the son of God, likewise partook of the same things, flesh and blood. so that through death he might defeat the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were held in lifelong captivity. He would gain the victory over Satan by being the one who is born of woman to crush his head at the cross. And how thoroughly did Christ defeat the evil one through his cross work? because all of our sins, all of the basis of the accusation that the devil has against us in the courtroom of God, all of those sins were imputed to Jesus. And Jesus, the sinless, spotless lamb of God was taking away the sin of the world. He was bearing the wrath of an infinite God on the cross. He drank the cup of God's wrath that we deserve for our sins down to the very dregs. And then he entered the outer darkness for us. And he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Because He was bearing the weight of sin, He was bearing the weight of the penalty that is due us for our sin. And He became incarnate to do that for us so that Satan no longer has a basis for accusation. He remains the accuser of the brethren. But the believer now says, when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of my guilt within, upward I look and see him there who made an end of all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just was satisfied to look on him and pardon me. We should adore The person of Christ, the person of Christ. We often talk about when we meditate on Christ, we think about his work and we should think about his birth and his life and his death and his resurrection and his ascension. But what about just the person of Christ? The son that the father sent forth, the one who was born of woman that in this one person, there's true humanity and there is true deity. There's just enough man that he can be sleeping at the bottom of the boat on the storm-tossed Sea of Galilee. And there's just enough God that when he wakes up, he can tell the wind and the waves to be still. There's just enough man that he can be in a house, pressed in on every side by people who've gathered in that house, so that there's no room. And friends can bring a paralytic and lay him before him. And he's just enough God who can say, take heart my sons, your sins are forgiven, rise and walk. He is fully human, He is fully divine, and He's an all-competent, all-glorious, all-sufficient Savior that we can trust and have everlasting life. As the Father has life in Himself, He's granted that life in His Son, but also He gives that life to all who believe in the Son. True life. This is eternal life, Jesus says, that you know, that they know you, the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Do you know Him? Have you trusted in Him? To use the old Puritan phraseology, have you closed with Christ? Have you realized the total bankruptcy of your own life and your own attempts to attain what God would have you to attain and have you fallen into the arms of the Christ who loves you with an everlasting love and died to redeem you and purchase you with His own blood. He's the only Savior because He's the only one who is who He is. All those other so-called saviors or religious teachers or gurus, whoever they are, they are not truly human and truly divine in one person forever. That's who you need. If there was an ad in the paper that said wanted savior of the world, it would say he must be fully God. It would say he must be fully man. And he must be one person. And he must live a perfect life. And he must die a perfect death. And he must conquer the grave by a resurrection. And there's only one man in the history of the world who's done that. and His name is Jesus. And there is no name given among men whereby we might be saved except the name of Jesus. So these are the kinds of things we should be pondering during Christmas. We should be adoring Christ for His deity. We should be adoring Him for His mission and adoring Him, yes, for His humanity. What might that look like? in the days ahead for you and for me. One of the things I would encourage you to do is spend some time during this season, I said get alone with God, but what do you do when you get alone with God? Spend some time reading those key texts about the person of Christ. What am I talking about? John 1, where it gives you that rich Christology from above. Hebrews 1, study that, ponder that, pray through it. Colossians 1, the hymn to Christ there. Philippians 2, the Carmen Christi. Ponder these texts that speak so highly of the person of Christ. Another thing you could do is read a book that focuses on who Jesus is. How long would we talk, what would we say if someone did ask us, who is Jesus? Well, He is Lord, He is the Son of God, He is God and man. But how much can we say? How much do we understand what we're saying when we say it? Read a good book on the person of Christ. John Owen's book, The Glory of Christ, is an excellent one you could read. I'd get a modernized and abridged version of it, but that's a good one. Or a more contemporary book, Mark Jones, Knowing Christ. But read a book that focuses exclusively on who Jesus is so that Christmas doesn't just become sentimentalism for you. Learn to use your hymnal. One of the true treasures we have in the church are the hymns that we have, the words that we sing. Late in time behold him come, offspring of the virgin's womb, veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity. That's good stuff. Read these hymns, pray through these hymns, read them slowly, think through them, talk about them with your family to make sure you know what you're singing. Because there's nothing greater than adoring the person of Christ. Think about what the Bible tells us heaven is, what is the height of glory of heaven? It's the beatific vision. Blessed are the pure in heart for what? They will see God, just seeing who Christ is. Looking unto Jesus, the founder and the finisher of our faith, that is a joy. And that is one of the primary applications of the incarnation of this season, to gaze upon the glory of the God-man that's revealed in Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we think of the words of the hymn, O Come, Let Us Adore Him, Christ the Lord. We pray that you would help us to adore on bended knee Christ the Lord, the newborn King, and that our hearts would be thrilled with the glory of who He is, your Son from all eternity, whom you sent forth to be born of woman to save us from sin and to reconcile us to You. Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.