Word of Salvation – Vol. 30 No. 42 – Nov 1985
Saved By Mary’s Son
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on Galatians 4:4-5
Reading: Psalm 139, Luke 1:26-38
H. Catechism & Galatians 4:1-5
Singing: Father we love you (BoW.160)
The Lord is King enthroned (BoW.093a)
Tell out my soul (BoW.247)
Glory be to God in heaven (BoW.159)
Theme: Confessing Jesus’ virgin birth is acknowledging
that my salvation begins with removal of my birth sin.
Introd: My opinion of most television programs and movies is not very high
– much is junk food for the mind.
Yet if we are prepared to listen and watch critically and thoughtfully
then they can open up some for us some interesting insights at times.
That struck me again as I briefly watched cartoons with my children recently.
We were sitting down watching Spiderman together.
Movies and cartoons like that say something to us about human nature.
Whether it is Superman or Tarzan there are some lessons to be learnt.
For example many of these comic/cartoon heroes are SAVIOUR figures.
Again and again Tarzan risks his life to save someone else in need.
And Superman even risks the threat of deadly kryptonite to rescue Louis Lane.
Here are saviour figures willing to go even to the death to rescue the distressed.
But there is something else that strikes me repeatedly.
That we want our heroes and saviour figures to human.
So no matter how weird a comic-book hero may be…
there have to be certain human qualities that we can identify with.
So Spiderman also has a human identity.
And Superman is also the mild-mannered Clark Kent.
He works at a very ordinary job as a newspaper reporter.
His daily work and his social life are much like ours… the same as us.
Yet he is also different… he’s the man of steel, faster than a speeding bullet.
All this shows us man’s deep-seated need for a hero and saviour figure…
and yet one who at the same time is nevertheless very much like us.
If only people were willing to look to Jesus Christ
they would see in Him exactly these qualities.
A Hero and Saviour figure… and yet someone very much like us.
A] JESUS CAME AS HE DID.
In Galatians 4:4,5 we have precisely these two features in God’s appointed Saviour and hero-figure.
Like us… one with us… and yet different and far greater than us.
1. First of all there is sameness and identity.
The Bible, in fact, goes to great lengths to show the humanness of Jesus.
– Maybe you know what it’s like to be hungry.
Well, Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights and became desperately hungry.
– Thirst is a human experience and gospels record the agonising thirst of Jesus.
On the cross through parched lips He cried out: I thirst!
– You and I know how draining tiredness can be.
And Jesus was bone weary – as He slept thru a raging gale at sea.
– We know how terrible a feeling of disappointment can be.
And Jesus knew it too as He wept over Jerusalem for its unbelief.
Jesus was fully and totally human.
He could identify with us… and we with him.
A whole wealth of human experience was His.
He ate and drank, He worked and slept, He cried and was angry.
Almost (and with only few exceptions) the whole range of human experience…
from the cradle to the grave… was the experience of Jesus.
Now it’s true of course that Jesus was also fully God… we’ll see that in a moment.
But that never detracted in any way from His full humanity.
He was not half God and half man. He was fully and totally and truly human.
He was Mary of Nazareth’s Son.
He took from the Virgin Mary a human nature – complete.
She was in the fullest sense His mother.
He was in the fullest sense her Son.
From her He drew His very life blood.
As is the case with every other human being…
For 9 months Mary’s lungs supplied the oxygen that gave Him life
as she nurtured within her body the delicate body
that would one day walk the dusty roads of Palestine.
Born of a woman… fully and completely man.
So much so that He was even born subject to the moral and religious demands of Almighty God.
Born of a woman… born under law.
One with us in His humanity…
One with us also in the demand for obedience.
Jesus came as He did… as a human being… to be like us in all things.
2. Yet the church also confesses that when Jesus came as He did
that He was also different from us.
Far greater than us. He was also far more than just a man.
There was already this one thing about His birth that was different.
The birth of any child is a great and wonderful mystery.
Just ask any new parents… they’ll agree… it’s a marvellous miracle.
And all our advances in science and technology haven’t removed the mystery.
All our experiments with test-tube babies have not taken away the miracle of birth.
It’s a truly amazing thing that from a tiny microscopic cell from a father….
and another microscopic cell from the mother there should come new life.
It’s a miracle how that tiny little being no bigger than head of pin…
grows to be a mature man… a mature woman…
who will in turn one day contribute to new life all over again.
These things fill us with profound awe and wonder.
Psalm 139 expresses something of the marvel of it:
You Lord, knit me together in my mother’s womb…
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
But now we have to add something to that great mystery…
we add to that miracle of birth an even the greater mystery.
That when Jesus came there was no human father.
And we who don’t even fully understand the mystery of ordinary human birth…
how will we ever come to grips with the Virgin Birth of Jesus?
The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you
therefore the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God!
In the birth of Jesus God sent His only Son.
The same as us… one of us… and yet… different.
No human father. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and therefore more than human.
Sinless Son of God.
When the time had fully come, God sent His Son….!
No… we can’t work this out. All we can do is confess that this is so.
I believe that Jesus came as He did… as God’s Son… as Mary’s Son.
I believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the virgin Mary.
One with us in His birth… and yet… different.
B] TO BE WHAT HE WAS.
In this season of Advent and Christmas it’s not right for us just to stay with the Baby in the manger.
Advent and Christmas take us on irrevocably to Easter.
The Jesus in the Manger is the Christ of Calvary and of the empty tomb.
So at this time we mustn’t just focus on the FACT of His birth.
Rather we should also consider the MEANING of His special birth.
1. So we move on from the fact that Jesus came as He did.
And we remind ourselves that Scripture clearly teaches that:
He came as He did to be what He was.
Our Mediator.
And that title – Mediator – is a very meaningful title for the Lord Jesus Christ.
A mediator is someone who stands between two parties to bring them together again.
When business and labour are at loggerheads we have an arbitration system to act as Mediator.
In a marriage conflict the Marriage Guidance Counsellor is the mediator.
When you are not on speaking terms with your brother or sister in the church
then an elder or someone else takes on the role of a Mediator.
Quite obviously that Mediator must have the trust of both parties.
He must be able to identify with both sides of the dispute.
Can you imagine an industrial relations arbitrator coming into the place where you work.
But he spends all his time listening to the boss’ gripes about his workers.
And he totally ignores you and the rest of the staff. He’s a poor mediator.
Or consider the marriage counsellor who tries to help a couple work through some problems.
But she listens only to the husband’s complaints about his wife.
And she it totally unable to relate to the wife. She is not a good mediator.
Jesus as God’s Son not only understands God…
and He not only represents God. He is God.
But because He is also Mary’s Son He is also human.
He not only took upon himself a human nature…
but He thereby became like us in all things… sin excepted.
Like His brothers and sisters… a Mediator with whom you and I can identify.
He came as He did to be what He was…
our mediator…. One who can stand in our place.
And that is wonderful news for us.
You and I have this problem… that we are people who are born under law.
We are born in a moral universe called to obey God’s laws for our lives.
But we who are born under the law… have broken the law so often.
We cannot stand before God… or approach Him.
But Jesus was also born of woman… human… and also born under the law.
And as a human who kept the law perfectly He is now my representative.
He is the One who stands in my place.
He stood in my place once already on the cross
when God punished my sin in Him.
And every day again as my Mediator… my substitute,
He represents me before God.
He came as He did to be what He was… our Mediator in our place,
2. For the Christian there is then a close connection
between Christmas and Easter.
Between Advent and Lent… between the birth of Jesus and His work on the cross.
In a sense the cross already overshadows the crib.
Because the whole purpose of His coming
was to make Him a suitable Mediator for us.
And the climax of His work as Mediator was on Calvary.
But I want to show you that the connection between Jesus’ birth and His saving work is even closer.
In fact His saving work already begins with His conception and birth.
Maybe I could explain that by way of asking you a question:
When would you say that sin began in your life?
You may respond by saying: That was too long ago to remember.
So, okay, when does sin begin in the life of a child?
Is it at age three when the first conscious lie is told?
Or earlier… at two.. when junior deliberately turns his soup bowl over onto the floor?
Or maybe it begins at 7 or 8 months with the first temper tantrum.
When does sin begin in the life of a little child?
Today many Christians would look at a new-born child and say:
Wonderful… such a cute, innocent baby.
Well he’s certainly cute and wonderful… but he is not innocent.
Some people would be shocked if we suggested that this baby was a sinner.
But from the Bible’s perspective that is a fact.
David lamented in Psalm 51: In sin was I conceived and born.
We are born with the poison of sin in our system
even if it has never broken out into actual sins.
All human beings ever born, share in the guilt passed on from Adam.
And even a newly baptised baby is accepted by God only thru the work of Jesus.
But… that is just the point of Jesus’ work as your Mediator and mine.
He is already our representative in His sinless birth.
That’s something that is good for us to remember as we move on to Christmas.
God’s saving work begins right there where our sin begins.
Doesn’t that make the gospel beautiful good news?
My sins that I do every day were paid for by the saving work of Jesus.
But even the sin I was born with… that I inherited in my being…
that has been dealt with too
because Jesus was not only my substitute in His death on the cross…
He was also my substitute in His holy and sinless birth.
His sinless and holy birth covers my unholy birth in sin.
Jesus is my Mediator… also in His birth as Mary’s Son.
He came as He did to be what He was… my Mediator in every part of my life.
C] SO THAT WE MIGHT BE WHAT HE IS.
This morning I don’t want to stop there either.
Because obviously what Jesus was for us as a Mediator
is something that has a tremendous impact on those of us who believe in Him.
All this has meant a change in our lives… a radical change.
In fact we could put it this way:
Jesus came as He did…
to be what He was…
so that we might be what He is.
1. Let me put it this way:
Jesus by His holy birth became my Mediator
who dealt with the sin I was already born with.
In actual fact He stands in my place already at my birth…
already there He is my substitute.
If that is true then I have – in principle – been given the birth of Christ.
If you like… I have, in a real sense, been born again.
Do you see how important it is for us to confess the virgin Birth of Jesus?
Some people say that it doesn’t matter too much whether you believe the miracle of the virgin birth.
They say that it’s an early Christian myth.
And ultimately that it doesn’t matter all that much whether it’s true or not.
What really matters is the way Jesus lived and died.
We’re told that it’s His teaching… and the wonderful example He left us that matters.
So don’t get too hung up about the biological impossibility of a virgin birth.
Rubbish! The mystery of the virgin birth is absolutely essential for our faith.
You must come to the point where you believe
that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.
You must hold on to that confession.
Because the Virgin birth of Jesus is a vital link in His saving work.
It was His miraculous birth in our place that makes possible for you a new start.
And it makes possible for you a new relationship with God.
Jesus came as He did to be what He was…
but it was so that we might be what He is – children of the living God.
Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary
so that we too might become sons and daughters of God.
Jesus redeemed us so that we might receive the right to adoption into God’s family.
Born again… into His eternal Kingdom.
2. In fact, let me take this just one step further.
Just as Jesus once became one of us… fully human… just like us.
So now we become more and more like Him.
When we are born anew of the Spirit of God…
…and when we are adopted as God’s sons and daughters
…then we are also made more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus.
He became like us… so that now we might become more and more like Him.
He came as He did to be what He was so that we might be what He is…
children of God… reflecting the image of our older brother.
I began by saying that some of our comic and cartoon heroes
show us man’s search for a hero and Saviour figure
one who is like us… and yet someone who is somehow far greater than us…
so as to be able to help us in our need.
In Jesus… Mary’s Son, God gives you the hero and Saviour figure you need.
Like us in all things, sin excepted… yet, at the same time the very Son of God.
And the benefits of trusting in Him are not fictional or imaginary.
Because then we too become what no cartoon or comic could imagine.
Children of Almighty God…!
That’s not comic make believe… that’s gospel truth.
Amen.