At Christmas, we often picture the manger scene: a quiet night, a young couple, shepherds, and a newborn Child wrapped in swaddling clothes. But if we only see a charming holiday moment, we miss the staggering truth behind it. Our text this Sunday is Galatians 4:4-9.
Paul writes, “But when the right time came, God sent his Son…” (Galatians 4:4). Jesus did not arrive by accident. He came at the precise moment God appointed. And He came in a way no one expected: not as a warrior, ruler, or scholar, but as a baby.
Babies are dependent. Vulnerable. They need to be carried, fed, soothed, and protected. And this is how God chose to come. The Invisible God made Himself visible, not as fire on a mountain, not as a voice from the clouds, but as a child you could hold, touch, and see.
The same God who cannot be seen without overwhelming us (Exodus 33:20) came down to our level. Like a parent kneeling beside a toddler to speak gently and face- to-face, God accommodated Himself to us. He became like us so we could become His.
But the miracle of Christmas is not only that Christ came. It is why He came. Paul continues in his letter to the Galatians: “…to buy freedom for us… so that he could adopt us as his very own children” (Galatians 4:5).
Salvation is not merely subtraction—the removal of sin, guilt, and judgment. It is also addition—the gaining of a Father, a family, an inheritance. God does not simply forgive you and send you on your way. He forgives you and brings you home.
Paul deliberately uses the language of adoption. In the Roman world, adoption was complete and irreversible. The adopted child received full rights and inheritance, and the father assumed responsibility for all debts and failures.
That is what God does for us:
– He takes our sin debt.
– He gives us Christ’s righteousness.
– He brings us into His household.
– He calls us His sons and daughters.
– He takes our sin debt.
– He gives us Christ’s righteousness.
– He brings us into His household.
– He calls us His sons and daughters.
And He doesn’t just tell us this; He makes sure we feel it. “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Galatians 4:6). “Abba” is the cry of a child who trusts, who reaches out expecting to be held. The Holy Spirit awakens that cry in us. He assures us that we belong.
But Paul also gives us a warning in Galatians 4: Do not go back. Don’t return to old sins, old idols, old identities. You are not a slave anymore. You are an heir of the kingdom. The prodigal son tried to find joy in what the Father could give, rather than joy in the Father Himself. Many of us do the same. But God is the Father who runs, embraces, restores, and celebrates the children who come home.
This Christmas, don’t just remember that Christ came. Remember why He came:
To make you His.
To make you family.
To make you an heir.
To make you family.
To make you an heir.