Summary
Purchased: The Christmas Gift That Cost the Cross
Christmas is the celebration of a gift that was planned, prepared, and purchased. Galatians 4:4-5 frames the whole story: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children." Every word matters. The timing was God's perfect timing—an era of a common Greek tongue, the Pax Romana, and Roman roads that would carry the Gospel swiftly across the world. Humanly and divinely, the moment was right.
"Born of a woman" confesses that Jesus is truly human; "God sent His Son" confesses that He is truly divine. The eternal Word, who was with God and was God (John 1:1, John 1:14), took on flesh and was laid in a feeding trough in Bethlehem. The second Person of the Trinity entered history as a real human child, the prophesied Messiah, true God and true man in one Person.
But the manger is not the end of the gift; it is its beginning. Jesus was "born under the law"—placed under the obligation to fulfill God's law on our behalf. He did so perfectly. 1 Peter 2:22 testifies, "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth." Hebrews 4:15 confirms He was tested in every way, yet without sin. 1 John 3:5 declares that in Him there is no sin. He had to be sinless—because if Jesus had sinned, He would not be God, and He Himself would need a Savior.
He grew. He taught the Sermon on the Mount. He turned water into wine, raised Lazarus, fed thousands from a boy's lunch, and healed the blind, the lame, the leper, and the feverish. Each miracle revealed His glory. Yet at every stop along the way, the gift was still to be purchased. The price had not yet been paid.
The purchase happened at the cross. 1 Peter 1:18-19 puts it plainly: we were ransomed not with perishable things like silver or gold, "but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." On the cross, the spotless Lamb of God bore the sin of the world; His perfect, sinless life was credited to sinners. His resurrection on the third day is the Father's receipt that the payment was accepted in full. The world has been redeemed.
This is why the manger is rightly read against the backdrop of the cross. The wood of the feeding trough points to the wood of Calvary. The Child given at Bethlehem is the Lamb purchased for us at Golgotha. Joy to the world, indeed—because the gift of the Child was given to purchase the gift of redemption, "so that we might receive adoption as children." Planned. Prepared. Purchased. And that purchase embraces you.
Video citations
- "Purchased" Christmas Eve 2018 Sermon — Several years ago, I served the congregation, and we had our Christmas Eve services at 4 o'clock and 11 o'clock. So there were quite a few hours in between the worship services, and it really helped…