Better Than Instructions

Better Than Instructions by Pastor Tim

Soul Food: Abiding Savior Lutheran Killeen, TX

December 2022

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 - to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to son-ship” (Galatians 4:4, 5).

Pastor Clifford Stewart of Louisville, Kentucky, sent his parents a microwave oven one Christmas. Here’s how he recalls the experience:

“They were excited that now they, too, could be a part of the instant generation. When dad unpacked the microwave and plugged it in, literally within seconds, the microwave transformed two smiles into frowns. Even after reading the owner's manual instructions written by and for nuclear physicists they couldn’t make it work. Two days later, my mother was playing sheepshead with friends and confessed her inability to get that microwave oven to even boil water. ‘To get the stupid thing to work,’ she exclaimed, ‘I really don't need better instructions; I just needed my son to come along with the gift!’”

That first cold Christmas aren’t you glad God gave you the gift of his Son wrapped in flesh rather than more religious instructions?! And at the exact ideal time as well? ‘When the time had come God sent his Son…” (Galatians 4:4a). God gave you his Son at just the right period in human history so we all could become sons instead of slaves. And to everyone who trusts what Christ has done for them, he says, “You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests freely.” The people Paul loved at Galatia desperately needed this reminder.

You see, Paul penned his Christmas card of Galatians 4:4-5 in part to help Gentile Galatians recall that formerly they had not known the true God. They were enslaved to demons, who exercised their power through religious practices. “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods” (Galatians 4:8). The danger they were facing now as new Christians in Galatia was that they might turn back and become enslaved again after having tasted the freedom of Christ. Listen to verse 9: “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more (Galatians 4:9)?”

How would such an enslavement happen? Well, they were being duped into living a faith plus works equals God’s merit kind of Christianity. Judaizers were teaching them to use the law of God as a divine job description to help demonstrate their moral accomplishment to God in the hope of obtaining the wages of his favor. “You are observing special days and months and seasons and years” (Galatians 4:10)!

Religious instructions on keeping Passover, the Sabbath, and New Moons would microwave an acceptable Christianity to Christ. The result? Pride, frustration, and over time a ship wrecked faith. So Paul points them and us back to Christmas - Christ the Creator with a heart is born among us of a woman, under the conditions of the law to redeem us from being kidnapped by a performance bondage that says I somehow earn God’s love by what I do. But do we really need this reminder as Christians today at Christmas?

Honestly, we all long for what the Galatians longed for, don’t we? They wanted to be able to stand confidently before God knowing that they had been approved and accepted. We long to know that we are okay, that we are loved, that our lives count, that they are more than waves on a beach that are there and then gone with nothing left to show for them. And everybody drifts toward self-justification, perhaps especially at Christmas. Remember this classic Christmas card penned for Santa Claus by a 7 year old Norman:

“Dear Santa, there are three little boys who live at our house. There is Jeffrey; he is 2. There is David; he is 4. And there is Norman; he is 7. Jeffrey is good some of the time. David is good some of the time. But Norman is good all of the time. I am Norman.”

We all fancy ourselves at times to be Normans but “good all the time” is not who we are and no amount of keeping religious instructions will make us good. No, we need a Savior and a Savior is what we got in Bethlehem long ago to transform us from slaves to sons. What a gift.

So this Christmas put away the list of how you intend to earn God’s good grace by not being naughty or by being nice and relish a Savior in Christ who has saved you, even adopted you. Whether you have earthly family with you this Christmas or not you are in his family. You are a true child of God, yes, you. And because Jesus became one of us, kept the law perfectly, and took our curse for our violations of the law we now have forgiveness, heaven, and all the right motivation ever needed to want to love him back. One poet put it like this. May his words be your “Put to Memory at Christmas Live in the New Year Challenge.” Jesus see to this.

“To see the law by Christ fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice; Transforms a slave into a child and duty into choice.”