Readings: Isaiah 11:1-5 | Galatians 4:1-7 | Luke 2:22-40
Text: Galatians 4:1-7
What’s the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament? It’s not a difference where one is Law and the other is Gospel. Both are God’s Word and together make a complete picture of God’s work, so that some educated people call it the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek Scriptures. So what is it? The differences in Testaments, or covenants that God establishes. The Old Testament is a reference to how God worked with Adam, Noah, Abraham, David—He made promises of a Savior who was to come. But now the New Testament has come with that promised Savior, Jesus, our Lord.
With that completion of God’s promised salvation several things have changed. The scope is not just one family line or group of people; it’s all people from every nation. The language changed from that of one ethnic group to one that was spoken throughout the known world at that time (and has continued in earnest to be shared with people of every tongue). But the shift that this section of Galatians focuses on is the language of how God speaks about the people in whom His saving purpose is realized. In the Old Testament, He called them, My people, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, people for His own possession [Exodus 3:7; Ex. 19:6; Deuteronomy 7:6]. In the New, He introduces the truth that we are now sons and that God is our Father.
1I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
This holy family is what we also call the Church. It’s a family that doesn’t have a common last name because it extends beyond bloodlines. It transcends generations and unites its members in such a bond of affection that even death cannot separate them. This is the family of God, which you and I have been adopted into.
Certainly it’s a beautiful thing to have strong family ties, the blood and marriage relations that bring families together for the holidays. At the same time, we have something greater in Christ: “So that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Out of love for every person of every family, He sent His Son Jesus Christ into this broken world. To become our Brother, He too was born of Mary, as you and I were in our mother’s wombs. Yet, He was born to save us from a life that ends in sadness. He was born under the Law of God, and for all the ways that we have disobeyed, ignored, and our hearts have turned away from God—Jesus was condemned. By His death, He redeemed us from the hold evil has on us. But even better than that, through His Son, Jesus, God now adopts you by faith.
He gives you a new Name—the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—as you are born into this family in the waters of Holy Baptism. And it’s a large family too, countless in number, full of brothers and sisters from every tribe, nation, language, and people (Rev. 7:9-10). The bond between these family members is knitted by the Holy Spirit, who influences us in ways even stronger than our best role models. By the example of our Brother, Jesus, the Spirit teaches us “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, [and] self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23)
In God’s family, you see that it’s not just about one’s own relations. There’s a drive to bring more people into this family. Our Father eagerly desires the poor in spirit, orphans and widows, those abandoned by the world, to be part of this great, heavenly family. This is what our Lord aims our affections towards in Matthew 9:
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:36-38)
So this family of God is one that is to be praying, not only for one another in our temporal afflictions like pneumonia and surgeries. We pray earnestly that the Lord would grant repentance and faith to people who don’t yet truly know Him. If He can use us to achieve that, then all the better! Think of your prayers of late. Have they been for people without God as Father? Do you know anyone personally, and have you prayed that you might have the opportunity to be God’s instrument to bring them into His family?
Jesus Christ did come into the world, and He came for you, to give you the gifts of eternal life, peace with God, and an adoptive family that spans time and place. Make no mistake, God is speaking to each of you, from John 1, “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13)
This family of God awaits the return of our Brother and Lord, Jesus, in glory. He will bring with Him the resurrection and the new heaven and new earth. On that Day, it will be one great big family reunion that all will be in attendance, and it will never end. To God alone be the glory now and forever.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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