Holy Trinity Church – Tom Mount

Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 21, 2025

 

Scripture reading: John 1:1-4, 14

Introduction

  • The Word who is Light and Life is also Love, Today’s Advent theme is love. Out of his sheer love and overflowing grace God became a man that man might become like God.
  • But why did God do it? What was his purpose? I want answer in two parts:
  1. Jesus came to restore our ruptured relationship with the triune God (today).
  2. Jesus came to reestablish our royal authority over the earth (next week).

The biblical backdrop

  1. Gen 1:26-28: God made us in his image to live in loving covenant relationship with him and to co-reign over the earth. Two parts: be with and reign. Relationship: Face-to-face.
  2. Gen 3:1-7: Humans yielded to the temptation to stop trusting God. Relational rupture.
  3. Gen 3-4: God graciously addressed their problem in three ways: 1) with a permanent solution (3:15); 2) with a temporary “shame covering” (3:21), and, 3) with immediate eviction/exile (3:22-23). Promise + Provision + Protection. Such love!
  4. In the “fullness of time,” God sent his Son as the permanent solution (cf. Gal 4:4-5).

Jesus came to restore our ruptured relationship with God

  • A massive problem requiring God’s intervention on three levels: legal, relational, ontological.
  1. Jesus fixes our legal problem. Out of sheer love and overflowing grace, God repays the debt we owe, fully satisfying God’s judgment on sin and settling all the legal demands of justice for having offended God’s majesty and violated His holy covenant.
  • Jesus lived and died for our sins in our place (Is 53:4-6; Mt 26:28; Lk 22:37; Jn 1:29; Rom 8:3-4; Heb 2:9).
  • Jesus became the one, final sacrifice for human sin (1 Cor 5:7; Eph 5:2; Heb 7:27).
  • Jesus is now our high priest who intercedes for us (Heb 4:14-16; 5:9-10; 7:25-27).
  • God redeems us (Luke 1:68; Gal 3:13-14; Eph 1:7; Eph 4:30).
  • God ransoms us (Matt 20:28; Acts 20:28; 1 Cor 6:20; 1 Pt 1:18-19).
  • God pronounces us “not guilty” and declares us to be “righteous“ (Rom 3:23-24; Rom 4:3-5; Rom 5:1; Rom 5:9; Gal 2:16).
  • God cleanses and purifies us (Eph 5:26-27; Titus 2:13-14).
  • God delivers us from all future wrath and judgment (John 3:17-18; John 5:24; 1 Thess 1:10).
  1. Jesus fixes our relationship. Out of sheer love and overflowing grace, God repairs our damaged relationship with Him in the person of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
  • God freely forgives our personal offences (Mt 26:28; Acts 10:43; Eph 1:7; Heb 9:22).
  • God reconciled us—former enemies—to Himself (Rom 5:10-11; 2 Cor 5:18-20).
  • God makes us His “children” (teknon), both legally and organically, in love (Rom 8:29-30; Rom 8:15; Rom 8:23; Eph 1:5; 1 Jn 3:1-2).
  • God “marries” us to His Son, Jesus Christ (Eph 5:31-32; Rev 19:7-9).
  • God chose us for Himself in Christ (Jn 15:15-16; Jn 17:6; Eph 1:3-6).
  • God made us His heirs of an eternal inheritance (Rom 8:16-17; Gal 4:6-7; 1 Ptr 1:4).
  • God made us His inheritance (Eph 1:18; 1 Peter 2:9).
  • God called us back into “face to face” fellowship with Himself and one another (John 14:2-3; 1 Cor 1:9; 1 Cor 13:12; 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 2:18; Phil 3:12; 1 Jn 1:3; Jude 1:1b).
  1. Jesus fixes us. Out of sheer love and overflowing grace, God refashions His image in us, uniting us to Himself in Christ by the Holy Spirit, sharing with us the divine life in an eternal embrace of love.
  • God “puts to death” our “old self” in the crucifixion of Christ (Rom 6:6-11; Gal 2:19-20; Col 2:20; 1 Pet 2:24.
  • God resurrects us and makes us alive with Christ (Rom 6:4-5; Eph 2:4-6).
  • God “re-births” us in Christ by the Holy Spirit “recreating” us in God’s image (Jn 1:12-13; 3-8; Rom 8:11; Tit 3:5-6; 1 Jn 5:3-4; 5:182 Cor 5:1; Gal 6:15; 2 Cor 4:16; Ep 2:1-5a, 8-10, 15; 4:21-24; Col 3:10; 1 Thess 5:4-5; 2 Pt 1:4; 1 John 3:9).
  • God makes us “one” with Himself in Christ in the most intimate way (Jn 15:5; 1 Cor 6:17; Ep 5:23, 29-30).
  • God places us “in” Christ and Christ in us (John 14:20; Eph 1:3-4, 7, 11; Col 3:3; John 15:4-5; Gal 2:20; Gal 4:19).
  • God will glorify us, transfiguring our nature to bear His glory (Jn 17:22; Rom 8:29-32; 1 Cor 15:49; Col 3:4.

Takeaway

Practice “abiding” in face-to-face fellowship with “the Word made flesh” this week. As Christmas nears, take time to meditate on the wonder of God’s love and grace for you!