RAP SHEET Luke 2:21–24

SERIES: The Chosen King

SERMON: The Lamb We Couldn’t Afford

SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:21–24

REVIEW

In one of the shortest passages in Luke’s Gospel, we saw some of the most profound theological truths about Jesus and what He came to do. Luke tells us that after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph obeyed the Law of Moses by circumcising Him, naming Him Jesus, and presenting Him at the temple. Mary also made the required offering for purification, but instead of offering a lamb (as the Law prescribed), they brought the alternate offering allowed for the poor: two birds.

This detail reveals Mary and Joseph’s deep poverty, and yet it’s precisely in their lack that the story takes on incredible meaning. They couldn’t afford a lamb, but they were holding the Lamb of God.

Luke emphasizes that Jesus was born under the Law—dedicated, named, and raised in full observance of its requirements. But Paul explains in Galatians that Jesus came under the Law so that He could redeem us from it. He perfectly fulfilled what we never could and offered Himself as the final, all-sufficient sacrifice.

And in doing so, He made a way for us to be adopted as sons and daughters of God, not based on our ability to keep the Law, but entirely by grace through faith. Just like Joseph naming Jesus was a legal act of adoption that secured His royal lineage, our faith in Christ secures our place in God’s family forever.

APPLY

• Are you trying to earn God’s approval by your own effort or performance?

• Do you feel like you need to clean yourself up or get your life together before God will accept you?

• Where have you believed the lie that your lack, your past, your status, or your failure disqualifies you?

  
  

What is ONE WAY you are going to stop striving to be enough and start trusting that Jesus is enough for you?

PRAY

• Thank God that He meets you right where you are—even when you feel like you don’t have enough.

• Reflect on what it means that Jesus came under the Law to free you from it.

• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you rest in your identity as a fully adopted child of God.

• Pray for the courage to let go of shame and live in the freedom of grace.