Understanding Scripture

Born Thy People To Deliver

Christ came to set us free from our own expectations.

Christmas is an incredible and unique time of the year. Many people wait with eager expectation, while others may face unique challenges and anxiety. For some of us, the simple reality of seeing family is enough to raise our blood pressure. For others, family around us is what strikes at the core of our being. This doesn’t even touch on the increased busyness up to and through December 25. Either way, it’s a complex dynamic, where a beautiful season meets the messiness of real life.

In Galatians, Paul writes to a diverse church community, many of whom did not have a background in Judaism like Jesus’ earliest followers. And things got messy quickly when some individuals with a Jewish background began to pressure the Galatian church with the idea that true and genuine obedience to the Messiah involved obedience to the Law of Moses. While many of us might scoff at this, I think it’s worth sympathizing. For a long time, obedience to the law was how God’s people expressed their love for the Lord.

As we celebrate Christmas, this rings true for us: Christ’s birth results in our freedom to be sons and daughters of God.

Still, this push to convolute the gospel sets Paul off, not because the law is bad (Rom 2:20), but because it betrayed the heart of the gospel—that Jesus has finished the work! The weight of certain standards and expectations threatened to crush God’s people and get in the way of seeing what He had done.

As we celebrate Christmas, I believe this rings true for us as well: Christ’s birth results in our freedom to be sons and daughters of God.

I mean that 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 the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 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, then an heir through God.” (Gal 4:1-7, ESV)

In verses 1-3, Paul addresses two questions: How does the Messiah’s birth result in our freedom? and Why does it matter? To answer, Paul gives an analogy of a boy who isn’t ready for his father’s inheritance, so the father temporarily entrusts it to overseers and caretakers.

For Jewish believers, the Law of Moses was like their caretaker, guarding them from compromising their allegiance to God. Gentile believers were not absolved either, as many would most likely be wrapped up in things of the world. The question wasn’t whether they were previously enslaved to different standards or expectations. The question was: What used to enslave you?

This question can obviously be applied to each of us as well. What standards and/or expectations enslave us? Are we so controlled by the overly cheerful emotions of our family and culture that we dare not show any sign that we’re struggling? Are we so enslaved to the need to buy the latest and greatest gifts that we’re willing to take on a life of poverty to do it?

Please don’t mishear me. It’s not that every standard we navigate is inherently bad. Being generous with gifts can be a kind and beautiful gesture. But these things will destroy us when we use them to try to define who we are and make us right with God.

Look at the God-inspired words in verses 4-7. Here, Paul recalls a moment more than 2,000 years ago, when God sent His Son not just to take on flesh and enter the messiness of life, but also to be born under the standard of the law, with the same expectation of complete obedience, that God’s people had failed to live up to for centuries.

We would do well to reflect on the ways we’ve become burdened by a season that celebrates one of the greatest miracles of all time.

For those of us who have trusted Yeshua, I think we would do well to reflect on the ways we’ve become burdened by a season that claims to celebrate one of the greatest miracles of all time. In the same way that Jesus came to set this Galatian church free, He came for us as well—not so our Christmas dinners would run smoothly, but so He could live for us, die in our place, and rise again to affirm and demonstrate that true and new life is found in Him alone.

As we head into Christmas, I want to encourage you that in the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8), we are no longer slaves, but sons and daughters of God. Some of us know this, but let me press us a bit further. Are you living a life that reflects this truth, especially in this season? It’s so easy to say we see ourselves as God’s children and then allow ourselves to be controlled by the expectations of others—or ourselves—during the holiday season. Consider asking yourself: Are there things I need to do to feel ‘okay’ or accepted by others?

Let me challenge you to take a step further this year and pursue what it means to come to grips with those expectations, but also to realize that who you are is not defined by what you do, but by what Christ has done.

The gospel reminds us that despite every one of us falling short of God’s perfect standard (Rom 3:23), God has sent His Son to deliver us. When we trust in Him, we not only release the weight of false expectations, but we also receive new life through the Holy Spirit. In that new life, we can experience true intimacy with our Creator and live in obedience to Him, not crumbling under the lie of needing to earn His love.

This Christmas, it’s my hope that we would put down, if even for a moment, all the other voices telling us who we are and what we have to do, replacing them with the sweet truth that “in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord (Lk 2:11).” And because of who He is and what He did, we are free.

This article was adapted from a sermon preached by Matt Frey at Elmwood Chuch (EFCA) in St. Anthony Village, Minnesota, entitled, "Heirs to the Promise."

Matt Frey

Matt Frey serves as a missionary with Chosen People Ministries and a pastor within the EFCA family. He received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota, where he came to faith in Jesus, and an M. Div. from Bethel Seminary. Matt currently leads Grafted in Edina, Minnesota, which seeks to “cultivate a family of Jews and Gentiles in Messiah Jesus.” Matt, Holly and their children (Danny and Mary) live in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, where they enjoy spending time with family and friends, as they seek to step obediently into each season the Lord has for them. 

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