Why Was Jesus Born (Part 2)
Text: Galatians 4:1-7
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
Why
was Jesus born? Yes, why was Jesus born?
This is a simple question that we asked last
Wednesday night and from this question we learned that Jesus was born to serve
you and me. In other words, we learned
that Jesus was not born to ‘be served’ but rather ‘to serve.’
Tonight, though, we ask this question once
again. And like last week, we
acknowledge that this simple question can be a bit difficult to answer at
times. For example, people will try to
personally answer this question for themselves and end up with all sorts of
answers. One of the answers that may
come to our mind is that Jesus was born to stand with the poor, work for
justice and stand up against the powerful.
That He was born to teach us about radical love and be an example of how
we should live our lives. Now,
considering this, we do need to admit that Jesus did do these things. He did heal the sick, He did stand with the
downtrodden, and He did fight against the Pharisees. But does this capture the
whole reason why He was born? Was He
born to simply show us how to live our lives?
Dear
friends, while Jesus did righteous things, He did not primarily do these
righteous things to show us how to live,
but rather, He was born to do these righteous things for you. That is to say; He was born to not only die
for you but also to live for you!
It
may be easy to miss the point that I am making here, so let us consider the
significance of this. According to our Epistle reading from this evening, we
read that Jesus was born ‘under’ the Law, to
redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as
children. That is to say; Jesus came not
to be some teacher of the Law, and He was
not born to merely do some good things as a way of being some good moral
example, but rather, He was born so that He could be obedient to the Law. He was born so that His obedience to the Law
might redeem you and me. It is like this, Jesus was born to live for you by being a
servant of the Law, the Law that you and I cannot keep and cannot fulfill.
God’s
Law demands perfection. Indeed, it
demands perfection and holiness. It demands impeccable love towards God and flawless
love towards our neighbors. Furthermore,
God’s Law never quits with its demands.
It thunders with its orders and
threats, constantly coming against our thoughts, words, and deeds. And when we are honest with ourselves, we
must acknowledge that we do not do the good that the Law demands and we do the
very evil that the Law says we should not do.
To the point, we do not follow God’s Law to perfection. And this is why we need Jesus to forgive us
of our sins by dying for us, AND it is
the reason why we need Jesus to live perfectly under the Law in our place.
For
many years, I knew that Jesus had died for my sins and that by faith I would be saved. However, what I did not realize was that
Jesus also lived for me. In other words,
I understood for many years that Jesus forgave me of my sins, wiping my slate
clean, but then I incorrectly believed that it was up to me to fill that slate
with a bunch of good moral works. Jesus got rid of my negative sin, but then it
was up to me to acquire and earn positive righteousness. My problem was not that I didn’t understand
that Jesus died for me, but rather, I did not understand that Jesus lived for
me as well. Maybe tonight you find
yourself confused over this as well.
If
this is the case, hear this evening that Jesus was born to die the death that
you cannot die ‘and’ He was born to live that perfect life that you cannot
live. Jesus avoided the sin that you
cannot avoid, and He did the good that you
fail to do. This means that Jesus was born to not only remove the guilt of your
sins but also
to give you His complete righteousness and goodness as a gift!
You
see, Jesus is our substitute not only in His death but in His life too. He did everything that we cannot do: He lived
in perfect obedience to God and His Law. He didn’t sin. He maintained a perfectly righteous life under
the Law and then He went to Golgotha. And
there at the cross, something incredible happened. There was an exchange. All
of our sins and filthiness were transferred
to Jesus and Jesus’ perfect life under the Law – His righteousness – was credited
to us. It was a great exchange: sin for righteousness.
So
what does this mean? While it is true
that Jesus came and did a lot of righteous things – healing the sick,
comforting the afflicted, helping the poor – many of these things are not
exclusive to Jesus, for many of the prophets of the Old Testament did the same
things as well. But unlike the prophets
and us, Jesus did these righteous and good things to perfection to conquer the Law for you and me.
Dear
friends, the Law always accuses you and me, it demands complete
perfection. It demands perfect thoughts,
perfects words, and perfect deeds. And
because we are not perfect, the Law will always condemn us and threaten us and
accuse us. However, this is not true for you and me when we are in Christ.
By
living perfectly under the Law for you and dying under the Law for you, Jesus
has conquered and strangled the Law.
That means that you do not have to do good things to earn a right relationship with God, for
Jesus is your righteousness. It means that
when you fail, that you do not have to work to acquire God’s approval by your own works, for Christ is your
righteousness. It means that when the
Law crushes you for your sins, which is good, that you can run to Jesus to hear
that He was crushed in your place and lived perfectly for you… and that ‘in Him’ you are not put to shame
but considered righteous.
Because
Jesus Christ was born to not only die for you
but to live for you, you do not have to acquire a bunch of good works to earn salvation somehow, because God is
already well pleased with you on account of Jesus’ life.
In Jesus, your chains are gone.
In Jesus, your burden is gone.
In
Jesus you know that the very perfect, holy and righteous law that condemns you
is the very law that Jesus was born under; so that by His righteousness He
might fulfill it on your behalf.
Jesus’
life completely met up to the standard of God’s holy and perfect will, which
means that you meet up to the holy and perfect will of God, for you are in
Christ – the one who was born to live for you.
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
Note: The final cause of the obedience
of the Law by the righteous is not righteousness in the sight of God, which is
received by faith alone, but the peace of the world, gratitude toward God, and
a good example by which others are invited to believe the Gospel. –Martin
Luther
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