Galatians 4:4-5
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
There are a few things we know about pregnancy. There’s no such thing as a little pregnant. She is or she isn't. Also, a pregnancy eventually leads to a birth. Pregnancies end. They’re supposed to – for the joy of the new birth. Just as it isn't possible to be partially pregnant; neither is it possible to be permanently pregnant. I think there are a lot of women who are glad for that. Lastly, there’s always an explanation behind a pregnancy. They never just happen.
Well, Advent is like pregnancy.
No one can prepare spiritually for the coming of Christ – kinda. That’s like kinda repenting or kinda believing. Which is it? Do you repent this Advent or don’t you? Just as there’s no such thing as being “a little pregnant. there’s no such thing as being a little baptized or a little forgiven.
Since none of us can be sorta wrong, there’s no place in Advent for being partly repentant. Nor are any of us just kinda under the law. If we are human beings, we are totally under the rule of God's law. That goes for Jesus too. When He was born, he didn’t just put a toe into the world. In Mary’s womb, Jesus was already entirely under the law. The embryonic Jesus, the gestational Jesus, the fetal Jesus, the newborn Jesus, the toddler Jesus, the pubescent Jesus, the adolescent Jesus, and certainly the adult Jesus was never just a little bit under the law.
And add on this: God didn’t send his Son to just kinda redeem those under the law. No. He redeemed us -- period.
Advent is like pregnancy. It’s wonderful, but it leads ultimately to the “blessed event.” The fullness of time did eventually come when everything God said would happen did! At the perfect time, God sent His Son to us. Just like pregnancies always lead to a birth, God's promises always lead to their fulfillment in Christ.
If you read this passage carefully it sounds like time itself was pregnant, full of expectancy from God's first promise of a Savior in Genesis right up to Nazareth and Bethlehem.
Pregnancy is always looking forward. We observe the time of Advent looking forward to Christmas … because God really came through for us! Our anticipation isn't wasted. It never is when we cling to God's Word. Christian faith is never disappointed when it nests in the Word.
Yes, those Old Testament years became heavy and heavier with waiting, but faithful believers always knew God’s Word isn't a kind of spiritual Siberia where promises go to die. God's Word is where those promises are made and fulfilled.
Anyone who by-passes Advent never gets to Christmas. There’s never a birth without a pregnancy. Advent is like pregnancy. If you don’t have that first, the result is some sort of Christmas without the birth.
How many misguided folks just think Christmas comes around the same every year in a kind of unending loop where everybody does the holiday thing but never gets around to the baby’s birth? Passing up on Advent, they never really get to Christmas. They don’t see the central Advent significance that God honors His promises in Christ! Christmas is those promises fulfilled.
Advent is like pregnancy bursting with eagerness and expectancy. Why? Because God's Son is coming. And not just coming, but God’s Son is coming to be born of a woman! This isn’t something that just happens inexplicably leaving us to go around scratching our heads and pacing back and forth as if we don’t know what’s happening in the delivery room.
God tells us exactly what’s happening and why.
God's Son is born of a woman, in time, and under the law. This pregnancy and birth isn't more or less about Jesus. It’s all about Jesus. God deliberately sent His Son to be our Savior. So, why? Well; without God Himself coming as a true man (“born of a woman”) in our place there wouldn’t be any redeeming, no saving for any of us from our debt to the law.
So, what’s the real consequence of this pregnancy? It all comes down to this: His coming and living in our flesh and being obedient under the law in our place is the very thing which has made our adoption as God's children possible.
So start getting out those birth announcements that proclaim how He is absolutely one of us and what He’s done is nothing less than re-birth me! That’s not more or less the message of our Christian faith. That IS our Christian faith. Jesus Christ, the one great, perfect, never-to-be-surpassed Gift is coming! And Advent is pregnant with this news.
