Redemption through Incarnation

An excerpt from this morning's sermon: "Redemption Through the Son" (Ephesians 1:7-10)

 

There is no redemption without Incarnation because only a blood-relative could be our kinsman-redeemer and pay the price to get us out of hock and out of jail. That’s why Jesus was born as a little human baby in Bethlehem.

It was 25 years ago that 16 year old Anissa Ayala found lumps on her ankles and began having severe stomach pains. Her parents took her to the hospital and she was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. If she couldn’t get a bone marrow transplant she would die. Her older brother wasn’t a match, her parents weren’t a match. Others were tested, but no match.

So her parents made a huge decision: they decided to try and conceive a child who might be a match for Anissa. Mary Ayala was already 42 years old – so her odds of a successful pregnancy were only 40%. Abe Ayala had to have his vasectomy reversed, and even if they could conceive, there was only a 23% chance that the baby would be a match. And they got all sorts of criticism and hate mail for what they were doing. But for the sake of their daughter, they did it. Little Marissa was born in 1990, and she was a match. 14 months later, they fed her marrow into sister Anissa’s veins, and her cancer was completely cured. Today, Anissa and Marissa are best friends.

Marissa said about her sister, Anissa. “Without her and her sickness, I wouldn’t be here. And if I hadn’t been born, she wouldn’t be here.”

She was born because of her sister’s terminal disease, so that her sister might live.

We are all born with a terminal disease – literally. It’s in our blood from our father Adam, and it’s sin. It’s killing us from the inside out from the day we are born. We needed a cure for our disease – blood atonement – but there was no match. We needed a blood-relative. So God decided to bring His own Son into the world to be our kinsman-redeemer. What a sacrifice for the Son, yes, but what a sacrifice for His Father. So Jesus came, and He was a perfect match for us because He’s a real human being, just like us. He could pay the price to redeem us because He is God and had no sin. Jesus was born as a little baby so that He might give His blood, so that we might live forever. We have redemption because of Incarnation.  Isn’t that Christmas?

Abba Father

And because you are sons,

God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,

crying, “Abba! Father!”

Galatians 4:6

 

I’ve been a Christian now for almost 45 years, and I’ve read this passage hundreds of times., I’ve taught it in seminary and preached it from the pulpit. But God spoke it to my own heart it at a dark, low, sad time in my life. I cried out, “Abba, Father!” And I talked to my Father as His child.

I had always read this as describing the joyful, exuberant cry of a Christian who grasps his sonship, is overwhelmed with excitement that God is his Father, and so he comes into the Father’s presence with his head held high, shouting out, “Abba! Father!” But maybe Paul was describing just what I was going through: a child of God feeling weak, spiritually depleted and helpless—but at that moment, still knowing that I could cry out “Abba, Father!” and my Father would be there for me, and hear me, and love me.

That’s when Jesus cried out to His Abba Father.

It was at the darkest lowest moment of His life. He was on His knees, face on the ground, sweating drops of blood as He looked ahead to the physical torture, and emotional abandonment of the cross. But He knew that His Abba Father was there. He could go to Him, He could pour out His broken heart, He could even ask Him if the cup could pass Him by. At that moment the Holy Spirit was flooding Jesus with assurance that He was the beloved Son of God, and He could cry out to His Father.

So that’s the way I read this passage now, not so much as the joyful cry of a Christian on a sun-shiny day, but as the whimpering cry of a child of God on a dark, terrible night who knows that His Father is there for him.

Our 4 kids are grown now, but during the years that we were raising our 4 kids, we always left our bedroom door open a crack because we never knew when we might hear, in the middle of the night, “Mom! Dad!” When Rachel was in high school she came down with a severe bone infection that put her in the hospital for two weeks. She was so sick. And when she came home from the hospital I remember in the middle of the night, hearing that faint cry. I would fly into her room—my feet hardly touched the floor.

How much more our heavenly Father hears our cries. His door is always open, and if you are His child, He is waiting to hear your faintest whimper, in the darkest night: “Abba, Father!” Do you cry out to Him? You can. It’s part of your birthright as a child of God. You can say with the Psalmist in Ps. 116:1,2: “I love the Lord, because He hears My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live!”