Every year around Christmas, I start to get questions from
people who want some biblical justification for celebrating
Jesus' birth with a holiday. I'm sure you have heard all the
arguments about Christmas being a pagan holiday that was
adapted by the Romans and Christianized, and all the reasons
Christians shouldn't celebrate a pagan holiday and whatnot.
It's well-known, I think, that most of the puritans opposed
the celebration of Christmas on the grounds that it was a
vestige of Roman Catholicism, there was no biblical mandate
for such a holiday. It's one of a few issues where I think the
Puritans were wrong (even though in most other ways the
Puritans are spiritual heroes of mine).
But there seems to be a growing suspicion of the
Christmas holiday even todayCespecially among
evangelicals who are fed up with the shallowness and
superficiality of worldly worship. If Christmas is just one of
the avenues through which superficial worship finds its way
into the church, they say, maybe we should steer clear of it.
I got an e-mail a few weeks ago from someone in
GraceLife who wanted me to deal with these issues. I can't
really want to devote the whole hour to talking about the
Galatians 4:4-5 2
history of Christmas, I do want to answer the larger question
with two points from Scripture.
First of all, Romans 14:5-6 clearly puts the observance of
holidays in the category of indifferent matters. It's not a sin if
you celebrate, and it's not a sin if you don't: "One person
esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems
all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own
mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the
Lord."
That's the first point: whether you celebrate holidays or
not is up to you. The second point is related to that and
there's a hint of this at the end of the passage I just read: If
you celebrate, do it in a way that honors God. Regard the day
as unto the Lord. Or, in the words of 1 Corinthians 10:31:
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God."
My personal advice: celebrate Christmas, but do it in a
way that honors God and keeps Christ at the center of it.
You've seen, I suppose, a lot of news and commentary this
year about the secular world's campaign to remove Christ
from Christmas and turn it into a humanistic holiday. It
honestly doesn't bother me if there's no Christmas tree in the
public square or no manger scene on the lawn at City Hall. I
don't resent it if the unbeliever checking me out at the
grocery store says, "Have a nice holiday" instead of "Merry
The Real Meaning of Christmas 3
Christmas." It's our duty as Christians to tell the world about
Christ, not vice versa.
And even Christians sometimes need to be reminded of
what Christmas is really about. In 2012, the Washington
Times asked John MacArthur to write an editorial on the real
meaning of Christmas. Here is an excerpt that summarizes
what he had to say:
The fact that people think of Christmas trees as religious
symbols proves Christians have not made their message
clear.
For believers, this surely ought to be a more urgent matter
of concern than the so-called "war on Christmas."
Secularists who can't stand the sight of a Christmas tree
pose no real threat to the church or its mission. It ought to
be troubling to us that in a culture dotted with churches
and filled with professing Christians, we haven't managed
to break through the confusion and commercialization of
the year's biggest holiday and show the world what we're
actually celebrating.
Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ. It's not just a
poignant story about a baby born in a stable because his
family was turned away from an inn. According to the
New Testament, the baby is God in human flesh,
voluntarily stepping down to live among humanity, as a
servant, in order to take the burden of others' guilt and pay
the price for it by sacrificing his life for them.
Galatians 4:4-5 4
I remember when our three boys were small enough that all
five of us fit in a Honda, the whole family to Oklahoma to
celebrate Christmas with my family. In those days we had an
old car without a working cassette player, so for audio
entertainment we were at the mercy of radio stations along
the way. And once you leave Los Angeles, your choices get
pretty thin.
And at one point around Barstow, we tuned in something
so bizarre I have never forgotten it. I was tuning the radio,
trying to pick up something worth listening to. And I tuned
into a Christian radio station. I just caught the tail end of a
familiar Bible-teaching program, so I knew this was a
Christian radio station. And the program was over, so they
broke for a commercial. This commercial sounded like
nothing I had ever heard.
A giddy woman's voice was singing butchered Christmas
songs. She was singing, "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin
laid an egg"Cand a whole bunch of other totally silly stuff.
And she was singing it in a dizzy, dumb, voice.
A more sober man's voice came on and asked, "What are
you so happy about?"
She replied in a sing-songy voice, "It's the birthday of my
favorite person."
And the guy asked, "Who's that?"
I thought she was going to say the Riddler or something.
But she said, "It's Jesus' birthday!" and then she launched
The Real Meaning of Christmas 5
into a giddy little talk about how the real meaning of
Christmas is how it's the season to be jolly, and it's Jesus
who makes real jolliness possible, and we all ought to be
jolly, and that kind of thing. I kept waiting for an announcer
to break in and say something about the real meaning of
Christmas, but it never happened. This was the message of
that little skit produced by a Christian radio station:
Christmas is about feeling jolly, and only Jesus can make
you truly jolly.
This time of year we are bombarded with television
programs, movies, and songs designed to probe the question,
"What is the real meaning of Christmas?" Even the secular
TV networks get in on it. And I guess we can expect the
secular stuff to be a bit off target. After all, these are the most
commercialized minds in AmericaCthe same people who
bring you "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" and "The
Vampire Diaries"Ctrying to teach you a moral and spiritual
lesson about the true meaning of Christmas.
And if you listen to these people, they're all saying
something similar. The true meaning of Christmas is joy. Or
it's giving. Or it's family, and friends, and love, and cheer,
and hope, and peace on earth, and human goodness, and
man's humanity to man.
Again, some of those things may be related to the
message of Christmas, but none of them gets to the real heart
of what Christmas means.
Galatians 4:4-5 6
The Christmas message is not about sentiment. I'm not
trying to be a Grinch or anything, but Christmas is not about
feelings. It is about an objective reality.
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream
to announce the birth of Christ, the angel said (Matthew
1:21), "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins."
That is the real message of Christmas, and it is built right
into the name of Jesus: "He will save his people from their
sins." If you want to write it down in a single word, the real
meaning of Christmas is about redemption.
And this morning I'd like to take a close look at the real
meaning of Christmas from Scripture. And we're going to do
that from a text in Galatians.
Did you realize the apostle Paul wrote about the real
meaning of Christmas? You'll find it in Galatians 4. Turn
with me there, and I'll read verse 4 and the first phrase in
verse 5: "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" (Galatians 4:4-5).
That is the apostle Paul's summary of the real meaning of
Christmas. This morning we're going to break that passage
down into four key phrases and look carefully at what it is
saying. First, notice the phraseC
The Real Meaning of Christmas 7
1. "WHEN THE FULLNESS OF TIME HAD COME"
You know the Christmas carol "Hark the Herald Angels
Sing" by heart. There's a verse in that song that attempts to
echo Paul's words here in Galatians 4:4. The words of the
carol say, "Late in time behold Him come, offspring of the
Virgin's womb." I used to wonder what the songwriter
meant. It sounds like we're saying Jesus came a little late or
somethingCand as a child I thought Christmas always came
too late, so that verse made perfect sense to me. But
unfortunately, I think the songwriter actually missed the
sense of what Paul means in Galatians 4:4. "The fullness of
time" doesn't mean that He came "late in time." It means He
came right on time, at the perfect time, a time appointed by
God.
Let's get the context of this passage in our minds so that it
makes more sense. Look back at Galatians 3:24. There Paul
writes, "the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that
we might be justified by faith." The Greek word translated
"guardian" (translated "schoolmaster" in the King James
Version) is paidagogos. It's the word from which we get our
English word "pedagogue, meaning "teacher."" But the idea
in the Greek word isn't really that of a schoolmaster. The
Greek word refers to a very specific kind of servant. If you
break the word down into its constituent parts, it literally
means "boy-leader." The paidagogos was hired to escort a
young child to and from school. That was his one jobCto see
Galatians 4:4-5 8
to it that his master's children made it safely to and from the
place where they could be taught. This servant was a
guardian and a trustee over the child. So the word guardian
in the ESV is a good translation.
Now look at the beginning of Galatians 4. Continuing in
the same vein of thought, the apostle Paul writes in verses
1-2, "the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a
slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under
guardians and managers until the date set by his father."
In other words, there's a sense in which a child might be
heir of his father's entire kingdom, "the owner of everything"
(as Paul says in verse 1)Cyet while he is a child, he has no
more authority than a slave. In fact, he might be placed under
the authority of a slave for his own good, until he reaches an
age where the father determines that the child is ready to
enjoy the privileges of adulthood.
Now follow carefully what Paul is saying here. The Law
is paidagogos, the trustee responsible for the child's welfare.
The law simply brings us to the place where we can learn
what we're supposed to learn. God is the authority figure, the
Father, who appoints the time for the child to be released
from the trustee's oversight. The children represent all
humanity, and the nation of Israel in particularCunder the
care of the law until the appointed time, the time appointed
by the Father.
The Real Meaning of Christmas 9
Then Paul says (v. 4), "when the fullness of time had come,
God sent forth his Son."
So the idea is not that Christ came "late in time," as the
songwriter says, but that He came right on time, at the time
determined beforehand and appointed by the Father. Paul is
making a statement about the sovereignty of God. This was
the plan and decree of the Father.
Christ's coming to earth in human flesh was not an
afterthought. God was not responding to human history. This
was His plan from the beginning. He appointed the time. He
appointed the means. And now He brings it to pass. So what
we see in the events of the Christmas story is the outworking
of God's eternal plan.
And God's plan did not stop with the birth of Christ. The
ultimate purpose for His coming was not fulfilled in his
birth, but in His death. Remember, we've already seen that
the real meaning of Christmas is redemption. And it was
ultimately the death of Christ, not His birth, that purchased
our redemption.
Even that was planned by God and fulfilled in His perfect
timing. Did you know that it was God who orchestrated the
death of His own son? In Acts 2:23 Peter, preaching at
Pentecost, told the people of Jerusalem that Jesus was "delivered
up [to be crucified] according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God." Acts 4:27 says that God's hand and
God's purpose predestined the events of the crucifixion.
Galatians 4:4-5 10
Why? because those events were necessary for our
redemption.
God is sovereign. He is in control of everything that
occurs. He determines the times, He sets the boundaries of
human action, and, as Paul says in Ephesians 1:11, God
"works all things according to the counsel of his [own] will."
So the coming of Christ was in perfect accord with the
eternal plan of God. Having fixed the time before the
foundation of the earth, He brought it to pass right on time.
John MacArthur writes about this verse,
What was "the fulness of the time"? [It was] God's sovereign
timing. He ordered world events so everything was ready for
Christ's coming . . . . Christ's advent could not have been
timed more propitiously.
Politically, the Roman Empire was at its height. Rome
had given the world good roads, a fair system of
government, and most important, the pax Romana, world
peace under the rule of Rome. For the first time in history,
people could travel with relative ease almost anywhere in
the empireCand the apostles could carry the gospel
message the uttermost parts of the world.
Culturally, the world was becoming more unified. More
people than ever were educated, and . . . even the common
people . . . spoke Koine Greek, the dialect that the New
Testament was written in.
The Real Meaning of Christmas 11
Spiritually, the world was diverse, but open . . . . Among
the Jews, a renewed interest in the Scriptures was leading
to revival on the one hand, typified by the ministry of
John the Baptist, and a strong pharisaic movement on the
other hand. Christ could not have arrived on the scene at a
more opportune time. It was the perfect time, sovereignly
determined by GodC"the fulness of time."
Now look at the next phrase I want to call your attention
to:
2. "GOD SENT FORTH HIS SON, BORN OF WOMAN"
We won't spend long on this phrase, but I want to point
out that it underscores the eternality of Christ; the deity of
Christ; and the humility of Christ. Paul expands on this
thought in Philippians 2:5-7, where he writes that Christ was
in the form of God (eternally). But He considered equality
with God not a thing to be held on to, so He "made himself
nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness
of men." That's the Christmas story again. Eternal God
clothes Himself in humanity, and is born into a humble
family. It is an inconceivable step of unmeasurable humility.
You wouldn't think He could step down any further.
But again, the Christmas story doesn't end in the
mangerCit goes all the way to the cross. Even in Philippians
this is true. The apostle Paul goes on to write, "being found in
human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the
Galatians 4:4-5 12
point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8). (Again the
theme is redemption in the eternal plan of a sovereign God.)
This phrase "God sent forth his Son, born of woman," also
reminds us that Christ was virgin-born. The phrase also
points back to Genesis 3, one of the Bible's first promises
concerning the redeemer who would comeCGenesis 3:15,
where God curses the serpent and prophesies that his head
would one day be crushed by the seed of the womanCnot the
offspring of a man and woman, but the seed of the woman.
Unlike any other person ever born into the world, He
began life without the taint of human sin, without the fallen
nature of Adam. He was God in human flesh, sent by the
Father to accomplish the work of redemption.
Now look at the next phrase, which is where I want to
dwell:
3. "BORN UNDER THE LAW"
What does this mean that Christ was born "under the law"?
Someone says, "It means he was Jewish." And that is true, of
course, but I don't think that is all the apostle has in mind
here.
The phrase "under the law" occurs at least 12 times in
Paul's epistles, so we know it is crucial in his thinking and in
his theology. Most of you will be familiar with Romans
6:14-15, for example, where Paul writes, "you are not under
law but under grace." In Galatians 3, just before the verses we
The Real Meaning of Christmas 13
are looking at, He writes, "before faith came, we were held
captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would
be revealed" (Galatians 3:23). That's the context where he
compares the law to our guardian, and two verses later, he
says, "now that faith has come, we are no longer under a
guardian." So he's talking about being under the guardianship
of the lawClike children with no grown-up privileges.
That conceptCand this phrase "under the law" has a
specific meaning to the apostle Paul, and I want you to see
what it is. So let's look once again at the context of Galatians
4.
Remember what occasioned the writing of Paul's epistle
to the Galatians. Some false teachersClegalistsCthe
Judaizers, were trying to impose the ceremonies and rituals
of the Mosaic law on all Christians. They were in essence
saying that in order to become a true Christian, a person must
also submit to all the Law of Moses. In essence they taught
that only Jews could be saved, so if you were a Gentile, in
order to become a Christian, they said, you needed to
become a proselyte to Judaism.
Circumcision and the dietary laws became the test issues.
Even the apostle Peter compromised on this issue for a brief
time. It was not because he was confused about the doctrine,
but apparently because he was intimidated by the Judaizers,
still squeamish about Old Testament standards of ceremonial
uncleanness, or whatever. And he cut himself off from the
Galatians 4:4-5 14
Gentile Christians in order to eat at a segregated table with
the Judaizers. This was a tragic episode in the later ministry
of Peter, and it led to a public rebuke from the apostle Paul.
Starting in Galatians 2:11, Paul describes how he confronted
Peter:
But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his
face, because he stood condemned.
12 For before certain men came from James, he was
eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew
back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision
party.
13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with
him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their
hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with
the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If
you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew,
how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
The issue at stake was justification. Look at the next two
verses. The ESV punctuates this as if verse 14 is the end of
the rebuke he aimed at Peter. But I don't think so. Most of
the Galatians were Gentiles. I think Paul is still quoting what
he said to Peter. Verse 15:
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;
16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of
the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have
The Real Meaning of Christmas 15
believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in
Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of
the law no one will be justified.
Paul is reminding Peter that the centerpiece of New
Testament theology is the doctrine of justification by faith.
This is the doctrine that makes Christianity distinct. Every
other religion known to man teaches some system of human
merit. Christianity alone teaches that the merit necessary for
our salvation is supplied by God on our behalf.
Now before anyone accuses me of straying too far from
the real meaning of Christmas, let me say that this issue is so
much at the heart of the Christmas message of redemption
that if you have never understood justification by faith, I'd
say you have never really understood what Christmas is all
about.
Justification is defined theologically as the act of God
whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous. When
God justifies a sinner, he looks at the person and says, I
accept that person as completely righteous. It is a divine "not
guilty" verdictCand more. It elevates the sinner from the
condemnation he deserves to a position of divine privilege in
Christ.
Now this poses a huge theological problem. Proverbs
17:15 says, "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns
the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD." In
other words, God Himself strictly forbids us to declare a
Galatians 4:4-5 16
guilty person righteous. God Himself says in Exodus 23:7, "I
will not acquit the wicked." The King James Version translates
it this way: "I will not justify the wicked."
Two obstacles exist with regard to justifying sinners. One
is our sin. We accumulate guilt every time we sin, and true
justice demands that every sin be punished. To let an
evildoer go unpunished is by definition unjust. God is
obligated by His own perfect justice to exact a full penalty
for every sin. We understand this intuitively. It's unjust to
ignore the crimes of an evildoer. That principle is innate even
in the human conscience. Our sense of justice is twisted and
corrupted by sin, but no one believes it's OK to let evil go
unpunished. We all sinCand we sin more often and in worse
ways than we want to admit. We deserve punishment, and
even our own consciences tell us that.
The second obstacle to our redemption is our own utter
lack of merit. Not only do we accumulate guilt (or demerit)
every time we sin, but we also lack the necessary merit. In
other words, even if the slate could be completely wiped
clean, all we would have would be a blank slate. And in
order to be acceptable to God, we are required to have the
full merit that comes with perfect obedience His law.
Forgiveness for our sin isn't enough, we still need the merit
of a perfect righteousness.
Those would seem to be impossible obstacles, wouldn't
they? No one who really contemplates the human dilemma
The Real Meaning of Christmas 17
seriously from a biblical perspective can remain arrogant or
self-righteous.
On top of all that, Scripture says, "all our righteous deeds
are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6). And (1 Corinthians
3:19) "the wisdom of this world is folly with God." The very
best things we do or think are tainted and defiled with selfish
motives, sinful pride, self-love, self-serving agendas, and
wicked self-righteousness. Nothing we do is truly righteous,
because it all comes from a heart tainted with sin. At our
very best, we fall short of loving God with a whole heart,
soul, mind, and strength. And since that's the first and most
basic of all the commandments, none of us can possibly
measure up to God's standard. The Pharisees devoted more
energy than anyone to the pursuit of spiritual merit, and
Jesus said, "I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of
heaven." (Matthew 5:20).
What is God's standard? Matthew 5:48: "You . . . must be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
But there were people in Paul's day who thought if they
could just be as good as they could possibly be, they might
earn enough merit to please God. And there are still people
todayCfor all I know, there may be some in this very
roomCwho think if they're as good as they can possibly be,
God will be merciful, and settle for their righteousness, even
though it's like a defiled garment. In short, they are trying to
Galatians 4:4-5 18
justify themselves before God through their own works, and
in the process, they only insult God and compound their own
guilt. They are trying to earn their own righteousness. That is
the very definition of "self-righteous."
I just quoted twice from Matthew 5. That's part of Jesus'
Sermon on the Mount, and that whole sermon was a full-on
attack against self-righteous religion. He singled out the
Pharisees, not because they represented some kind of
far-fetched paganism. They believed the Bible. They kept the
law more fastidiously than anyone else. By human standards
they were as "good" as it is possible to be. But Jesus said
their goodness is simply not good enough to please God.
That ought to tell us something, right?
Jesus was teaching as plainly as possible that God will be
pleased with nothing but an absolutely perfect righteousness.
He taught that it is not good enough to avoid killing; we
must also avoid the sin of hatred. He said if you lust in your
heart, it's the same as committing adultery. He set the
standard as high as it is possible to set it, and then said if you
don't have a righteousness that perfect, you cannot enter the
kingdom of heaven. Don't you see how that condemns us all?
The apostle James destroyed any vestige of hope we
might have for being justified by law when he wrote,
"whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become
accountable for all of it" (James 2:10).
The Real Meaning of Christmas 19
What are we supposed to conclude? That you cannot be
justified by the works of the law. It is utterly impossible. The
apostle Paul underscores this same truth again and again:
! Acts 13:39: "Y[ou] could not be justified by the law of
Moses."
! Romans 3:19-20: "We know that whatever the law says it
speaks to those who are under the law, so that every
mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held
accountable to God. For by works of the law no human
being will be justified in his sight, since through the law
comes knowledge of sin."
! Romans 4:15: "The law brings wrath."
! Galatians 3:10: "All who rely on works of the law are
under a curse."
! Galatians 3:11: "Now it is evident that no one is justified
before God by the law."
Paul could not state it any more clearly than that. To make
the fatal mistake of thinking you can be justified by being
good enough to make yourself acceptable to God is to put
yourself under the condemnation of the law.
This was the whole problem in Galatia. People were
teaching that it was necessary to obey the law in order to be
justified. In Galatians 1:6, 1 Paul calls this "a different
gospel," and he pronounces a solemn curse on anyone who
would twist the gospel like that.
Galatians 4:4-5 20
Now follow this: When Paul spoke of those who were
"under law," he was speaking of people who thought they
could be justified by obedience to the law. Let me show you
this. Look at a couple of parallel passages, right here in
Galatians. One is Galatians 4:21: "Tell me, you who desire to
be under the law, do you not listen to the law?" Because if they
listened to the law itself, they would hear that it establishes
impossible conditions for justification. It actually condemns
those who fail to obey it. So for sinners, the law could be a
means of condemnation, but never a means of justification.
For a sinner to embrace the law as a means of justification is
sheer folly. Yet there were those who "desire[d] to be under
the law" (4:21).
Now look at the parallel verse in Galatians 5:4. And I'm
going to read it from the New American Standard Bible,
because it gives the sense more clearly. Paul writes: "You
have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be
justified by law; you have fallen from grace."
Do you see the parallel? Those "who are seeking to be
justified by law" in Gal. 5:4 are the same as those who "desire
to be under the law" in 4:21.
Therefore, to be "under the law" in Paul's terminology is to
be under the law as a means of justification. This is very
important. When Paul says we are not under the law but
under grace in Romans 6, he is not condemning the moral
teachings of the law. He is not releasing us from standard of
The Real Meaning of Christmas 21
righteous behavior established by the law. He is not setting
up some sort of libertinism where anything goes. In fact, in
Romans 7:12, he calls the law "holy and righteous and good."
So when Paul says we are not under law, but under grace,
he is not giving the thumbs up to antinomianism. He's not
consigning the Ten Commandments to the dustbin of
outmoded Old Covenant precepts. He is certainly not saying
disobedience to the moral teachings of the law is now OK.
When he says we are "not under law," He is teaching that we
are justified by grace through faith, not by the works of the
law.
So are we clear on this? The phrase "not under law" means
that we are not trying to justify ourselves by obedience to the
law. We are no longer under the condemnation of the law.
And we are released from the duty of trying to attain a
righteous perfection of our own through our own works.
Now think about this: When the apostle says in Galatians
4:4 that Jesus Christ was born "under the law," this is much
more than a statement that Jesus was Jewish. It means that
He was under the law in every sense, obligated to fulfill the
law perfectly.
Look at our passage again (Galatians 4:4): "When the
fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of
woman, born under the law." Jesus was obligated to obey the
law as a means of righteousness.
Galatians 4:4-5 22
That takes us to the final phrase I'd like us to consider this
morning, the first phrase in verse 5:
4. "TO REDEEM THOSE WHO WERE UNDER THE LAW"
Now Paul is clearly making a logical connection between
the last phrase in verse 4 and the first phrase in verse 5:
Christ was "born under the law," in order "To redeem those
who were under the law." There is a close connection between
his being under the law and our being redeemed from the
curse of the law.
Here's why: Christ lived impeccably "under the law." We
studied this truth a couple of months ago when we talked
about the baptism of Jesus, and His determination to "fulfill
all righteousness." Hebrews 4:15 tells us He "in every respect
[He was] tempted as we are, yet without sin." He fulfilled the
law perfectly, to the letter. First Peter 2:22 says, "He
committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth."
Hebrews 7:26 says He is "holy, innocent, unstained, separated
from sinners, and exalted above the heavens."
This is crucial to our redemption, because 2 Corinthians
5:21 says, "For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no
sin, so that in [Christ] we might become the righteousness of
God."
If Christ was perfectly sinless, then He did not deserve to
die. As one born "under the law," He would have been subject
to the curse of the law if He had violated even one command,
The Real Meaning of Christmas 23
but of course He did notCHe could not, because He is God.
He fulfilled every aspect of the law to the letterCto the jot
and tittle.
Yet He did die. More than that, He suffered the wrath of
God on the cross. Why? Scripture tells us it was because the
Father imputed the guilt of our sin to Him, and Christ paid
the price for it. Consequently, the merit of His perfect
obedience can be imputed to our account.
So His death paid the price of our guilt, and His perfect
life supplies us with all the merit we need to be acceptable to
God. That is how God overcame the two great obstacles to
our justification. And as Paul says in Romans 3:26, that is
how God can remain "just and [yet justify sinners through
their] faith in Jesus." He has personally paid the penalty for
their sin, and He has personally obtained a perfect
righteousness on their behalf in Christ. So He alone can
justify sinners.
You say, Does the Bible teach that? Repeatedly.
We could start in Genesis 15:6, where Scripture tells us
Abraham "believed in the LORD; and it was imputed to him for
righteousness." Anytime any sinner is redeemed in Scripture,
it is by an imputed righteousness, not a righteousness that is
somehow earned or achieved by the sinner for his own
redemption.
Galatians 4:4-5 24
Romans 4:6-7 tells us that David also knew the
blessedness "of the one to whom God [imputes] righteousness
apart from works."
This is the whole point Paul is making in Romans 4:
Justification has always been by faith, not by works, and
through a righteousness that is imputed to the believer.
Abraham understood the doctrine of justification that way.
David understood it. So, as Paul points out, from the
beginning of Scripture to the end we see that the only merit
God accepts is a merit that is imputed to our account. He
never pronounces us righteous because of our own works of
righteousness.
On the contrary, remember that God says all our
righteousnesses are imperfect, flawed. To God they aren't
good at all, but defiled, like soiled undergarments. In fact
that verse uses an expression so loathsome that it would be
impolite to describe it in a graphic way in mixed company.
But that is how God sees our worksCno matter how good
they are by human standards. They are unacceptable, filthy,
an offense to a righteous God.
That is why our obedience can never be good enough.
And that is why those who hang their hope of heaven on
their own good works only doom themselves.
Paul says this explicitly. Look at Romans 10. Turn with
me there for a moment. Here Paul is explaining why the
The Real Meaning of Christmas 25
majority of the nation of Israel rejected Christ. His heart was
broken for Israel. He wrote,
1 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them
is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God,
but not according to knowledge.
3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and
seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to
God's righteousness.
Rejecting the perfect righteousness of Christ that would have
been imputed to them if they had believed, they opted instead
for an imperfect righteousness of their own. They mistakenly
assumed, like most people today, that the best they could do
would be good enough for God. There's two obvious
problems with that: 1) our very best can never be good
enough for a perfect God; and 2) none of us can honestly say
we have ever really done our very best. So by any standard
they doomed themselves to failure. Their sin remained
uncovered, and they were condemned by the law.
Here's the good news of the gospel: for everyone who
believes, Christ's fulfillment of the law counts on our behalf,
and His blood counts as payment for our failures. Verse 4 of
Romans 10 says: "For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone who believes." That little word
"end" is translated from the Greek word telos. It is a very
Galatians 4:4-5 26
strong word, meaning that Christ is the fulfillment of
everything the law intended.
In Christ, the ultimate goal of the lawCa perfect
righteousnessCis made available to every believer. His
righteousness is imputed to us by faith, and that is why God
accepts us in Christ and for Christ's sake. That is the doctrine
of justification by faith. That is what makes Christianity
different from every religion ever invented by the human
mind.
In Romans 4:4-5 Paul says this doctrine of justification by
faith makes the difference between heaven and hell. He
writes, "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted
as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but
believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as
righteousness." In other words, if you want to try to earn
your own righteousness, you will failCand you will be paid
the wages of your sin. But if you believe in the God who
justifies the ungodly, full forgiveness for your sin has
already been purchased by Christ, and His perfect
righteousness will be imputed to your account.
The apostle Paul himself learned this truth the hard way.
He had labored his whole life as a Pharisee trying to establish
his own righteousness by the law. (I suspect he came closer
to succeeding than any of us would have.) He described his
efforts in Philippians 3:
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If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the
flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of
the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law,
a Pharisee;
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to
righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of
Christ.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For
his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ . . .
Why? What was so important to Paul about dumping all his
own righteousness on the rubbish heap? Because he knew it
was flawed. In fact, he uses a Greek word, skubalon, that's
much stronger than "rubbish." In the King James Version it's
translated "dung," and that's what it meansCmanure,
excrement, sewage.
And Paul knew that in Christ he would be the recipient of
a perfect righteousness. In verse 9 of Philippians 3, he says:
"[I want to] be found in him, not having a righteousness of my
own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith
in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith."
Galatians 4:4-5 28
That's the real meaning of Christmas according to the
apostle Paul: Christ came to justify sinners who had no way
of justifying themselves.
It is not about emotion, but it certainly stirs my deepest
emotions. It's not just a message of joy, but I don't know any
truth that brings me more joy. And this Christmas, as we
ponder the Christmas message, let's allow our thoughts to go
beyond the Son of Mary in a manger to the Son of God on
the cross, and let our hearts be filled with genuine wonder at
the richness of the real message: "Unto you is born this day
. . . a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).