Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1815
“Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.” Galatians 4:3-6.
THE birth of our Lord Jesus Christ into this world is a wellspring of pure, unmingled joy. We associate with His Crucifixion much of sorrowful regret, but we derive from His birth at Bethlehem nothing but delight. The angelic song was a fit accompaniment to the joyful event and the filling of the whole earth with peace and good will is a suitable consequence of the condescending fact. The stars of Bethlehem cast no baleful light—we may sing with undivided joy, “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” When the Eternal God stooped from Heaven and assumed the nature of His own creature who had rebelled against Him, the deed could mean no harm to man. God, in our nature, is not God against us but God with us! We may take up the young Child in our arms and feel that we have seen the Lord’s salvation—it cannot mean destruction to men.
I do not wonder that the men of the world celebrate the supposed anniversary of the great birthday as a high festival with carols and banquets. Knowing nothing of the spiritual meaning of the mystery, they yet perceive that it means man’s good and so, in their own rough way, they respond to it. We who observe no days which are not appointed of the Lord, rejoice continually in our Prince of Peace and find in our Lord’s Manhood a fountain of consolation. To those who are truly the people of God, the Incarnation is the subject of a thoughtful joy which always increases with our knowledge of its meaning, even as rivers are enlarged by many trickling brooks. The Birth of Jesus not only brings us hope, but the certainty of good things. We do no merely speak of Christ’s coming into relation with our nature, but of His entering into union with ourselves, for He has become one flesh with us for purposes as great as His love! He is one with all of us who have believed in His name.
Let us consider by the light of our text the special effect produced upon the Church of God by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in human flesh. You know, Beloved, that His coming a second time will produce a wonderful change upon the Church. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun.” We are looking forward to His Second Advent for the lifting up of the Church to a higher platform than that upon which it now stands. Then shall the militant become triumphant and laboring become exultant! Now is the time of battle, but the Second Advent shall bring both victory and rest. Today our King commands us to conflict, but soon He shall gloriously reign upon Mount Zion with His ancients! When He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is. Then shall the bride adorn herself with her jewels and stand ready for her Husband!
The whole waiting creation which now groans and travails together in harmony with the birth pangs of the Church shall then come to her time of deliverance and enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God. This is the promise of the Second Advent—but what was the result of the First Advent? Did that make any difference in the dispensation of the Church of God? Beyond all doubt it did! Paul here tells us that we were children in bondage under the elements of the world until the fullness of time was come, when, “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, born under the Law.” Some will say, “He is speaking here of the Jews,” but he expressly warns us in the previous chapter against dividing the Church
into Jews and Gentiles. To Paul, it is only one Church, and when he says we were in bondage, he is talking to the Gala-tian Christians who were, many of them, Gentiles.
But in truth he regards them neither as Jews nor Gentiles, but as part of the one and indivisible Church of God. In those ages in which election mainly embraced the tribes of Israel, there were always some chosen ones beyond that visible line. And in the mind of God, the chosen people were always regarded as neither Jews nor Gentiles, but as one in Christ Jesus. So Paul lets us know that the Church, up to the time of the coming of Christ, was like a child at school under tutors and governors—or like a young man not yet arrived at years of discretion and, therefore, most fitly kept under restraint. When Jesus came, His great birthday was the day of the coming of age of the Church—then Believers remained no more children but became men in Christ Jesus!
Our Lord, by His First Advent, brought the Church up out of her nonage and her pupilage into a condition of maturity in which she was able to take possession of the inheritance and claim and enjoy her rights and liberties. It was a wonderful step from being under the Law as a schoolmaster, to come from under its rod and rule into the freedom and power of a full-grown heir! And such was the change for Believers of the old time and, in consequence, there was a wonderful difference between the highest under the Old Testament and the lowest under the New. Of them that are born of woman there was not born a greater than John the Baptist and yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than