Advent Words Day 13 ~ Redemption

 

Day 13: Redemption

"Praise be to the Lord, 

the God of Israel,

because he has come and has 

redeemed his people."

Luke 1:68

"But when the time had fully come,

God sent his Son,

born of a woman,

born under the law,

to redeem those under the law,

that we might receive

the full rights of sons."

Galatians 4:4-5

The book of Galatians is the story of our redemption - the freedom we have as Christ followers.

 

One of my favorite commentators, John Stott, sets up Galatians chapter 4, this way:

"In Galatians 3 the apostle Paul surveyed 2,000 years of Old Testament history. In particular, he showed the relation between three of the great figures of biblical history - Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ. He explained how God gave Abraham a promise to bless all the families of the earth through his posterity; how he then gave Moses a law which, far from annulling the promise, actually made it more necessary and urgent; and how the promise was fulfilled in Christ, so that everyone whom the law drives to Christ inherits the promise which God made to Abraham."

In today's passage in Galatians 4, we come to that moment in history when God's plan of redemption through His incarnate Son ushers in our freedom.

God sent His Son.

This is our redemption. This is our freedom. This is our gift from heaven.

 

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as as atoning sacrifice for our sins" 1 John 4:9-10

 

God promised to bless all the families of the earth; he fulfilled that promise in Christ. He sent His Son to redeem us from the bondage of sin. Rejoice! He has come and has redeemed his people!

 

Sovereign Grace Music paints a picture of this redemption in verse 2 of their version of the Christmas carol O Holy Night: O Holy Night (Hear the Gospel Story)

 

Humbly He lay, Creator come as creature,

Born on the floor of a hay-scattered stall.

True Son of God, yet bearing human feature,

He entered earth to reverse Adam’s fall.

In towering grace, He laid aside His glory,

And in our place, was sacrificed for sin.

Fall on your knees! O hear the gospel story!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born!

O night, O holy night when Christ was born!

Christ has come and has redeemed His people!

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