Read
Galatians 4
How many creation stories are there in
the Bible?
There is, of course, Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created… We all know
that one. It describes the creation on a
cosmic or universal level.
Genesis 2
is a continuation of that account but at the same time it is an account all its
own. This account gives us the order in the world that we know.
The two accounts were not reconciled into
one when the oral telling of them was put into writing, probably at the time of
the Babylonian Captivity. With a brief segue, one account transitions to the
other.
There is something of a third account in Genesis 5.
When God created mankind, he made them
in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And
he named them “Mankind” when they were created.
The purpose of this account seems to
be less about creation and more about the continuation of humankind. It’s the
first genealogy in the Bible that goes beyond one generation.
There is one more creation story. Actually, there are several stories
about the creation
that offer different
aspects,
but just one more
that covers
it all. You know it. It begins like the first one.
In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been
made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
And of course, we look forward to the New Creation.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no
longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I
heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now
among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God
himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their
eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old
order of things has passed away.”
That’s a look at the creation stories,
but how about the Christmas stories?
The Gospels of Matthew
and Luke
are where we see those that we know best. We need both to get a good picture of
what happened, but Luke’s gospel usually gets center stage in the Christmas
play.
Mark’s gospel skips the creation entirely. What about John?
We find a very succinct Christmas story in verse 14.
The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son,
who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Merry
Christmas!
So, there are our Christmas stories,
or could there be yet
another?
But when the
fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we
might receive the adoption as sons.
Merry Christmas!
So why all this business about
creation and Christmas? I thought we
were talking about circumcision and feasts and salvation by the law—which is no
salvation at all.
Consider these words: But when the
fullness of the time had come.
When it was just the right time. When God’s clock said, now. When all of the cosmic pieces fell into
place…
We are self-aware beings. That is, we know that we exist and we search
for our purpose, at least some do. Because we know we are living creatures, we
often examine ourselves. We have a
perspective on our lives. We are in awe of everything when we are young. We know everything when we are a teenager.
Sometimes, we find out that everything hurts when we get old.
For many of us, our minds tell us that
we are still in our twenties and thirties.
Our bodies often disagree. One of my grandsons, Levi, likes to remind us
that he’s big.
If we can be honest with ourselves, we
know that we were totally dependent upon our parents for a long time. Then we were allowed to do some things on our
own. We got a job. We got a car.
We got a girlfriend and discovered it’s expensive to have a car and a
girlfriend. But one day, we were pretty much making it on our own. Our parents
were always there to help, but we wanted to make it on our own.
There came a time for us to leave the nest.
Mankind—humankind has also grown. We were under the law for a time. The law was
like a parent or guardian, but when the time became right, we
were ready to live
to the full.
The advent of the Messiah marked that
time. It was time for humankind to truly
live. It was time to step out from under the law. The law would no longer be a guardian who
made the important decisions for us. The
law became a mentor—a lifelong guide—to help us navigate this world.
There was no longer a subordinate
relationship to the law, for where there was such a relationship, we were also
governed by sin. The law is not bad and
there is still sin in the world, but neither has power over us now.
I am crucified with Christ. Christ lives in me.
Paul notes a parallel between Ishmael
and Isaac. Ishmael was Abraham’s son,
but not the son of the promise. That
son, came through Sarah. We know him to
be Isaac.
God still took care of Ishmael, but
the promise of the Seed that would save humankind came through Isaac. Let’s
hear Paul explain it.
Tell me, you who want to be under the
law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had
two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by
the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman
was born as the result of a divine promise.
These things are being taken
figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount
Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands
for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem,
because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is
free, and she is our mother. For it is written:
“Be glad, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
shout for joy and cry aloud,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the
desolate woman
than of her who has a husband.”
Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are
children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh
persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the
slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the
inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are
not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Consider Paul’s Christmas story once
again.
But when the fullness of the time had
come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem
those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
God sent forth his Son who was born
under the law. Christ Jesus was born
under the law. The law was guardian over
humankind until Christ came. Christ fulfilled
the law just
as he said he would.
We are liberated from the guardianship
of the law, not to ignore the law but to receive the law as our mentor and
friend. God gave I for our own good and
now because of the promise that we see first with Abraham and delivered through
Jesus, we are no longer under—subordinate to—the law.
The law is our mentor. The law is our friend. The law shows us where we fall
short of the glory of God, but the law is not our governor.
We are made right with God by grace
that we have been given by the blood of Jesus.
It is truly a gift that we receive
by faith.
Now that we are God’s children, we
know that he will not orphan us. We
will not run away and return to the governance of the law—the slavery of the
law.
The commands of God are good and for our own good, but not our master. We should obey them in response to this grace
that we have received. If we live to the
full, we will fulfill
his commands by loving one another.
The law will show us where we fall
short.
The law will guide us in holy living.
The law will never get us to right
standing with God.
The law will show us how much we need
the grace of God that has been offered freely in the blood of Jesus.
The law is neither master nor governor
of our lives. We have been set free of
the law’s mastery over us and now that we have received salvation by grace
through faith, the law is our friend and mentor, but not our governor.
We live in an age—a wonderful
age—where neither the law, nor sin, nor death, nor anything else on earth can separate us from the love of God that we know in Christ Jesus. I’m wrapping up
with Paul’s words to the Romans.
For I am convinced that neither death
nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor
any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When we get to Ephesians,
we will talk more about what we have in him—Christ Jesus our Lord. For now, start thinking of the law as your
mentor or friend, but never your master.
We have not kicked the law to the
curb. The law is in our inner circle
with the Spirit of God that lives within us as well as the full biblical
witness that we know.
The time became right not only for us,
but for the law as well. The time was
right for the law to become our guide to Godly living.
Now that we are set free from sin and
death and know that nothing can separate us from the love of God that we know
in Christ Jesus, we can seek to bring glory to God with the guidance of the
Spirit, the law, wisdom, and with the support of the body
of Christ.
The law is not our governor and it is not a burden. It is our friend and mentor.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
