In the Fullness of Time

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit
of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba Father’." (Galatians 4:4-6)

Isn’t this a marvelous couple of verses to describe the gospel and the relevance of
the coming of Jesus!

(1) Why did Jesus have to come?

a. Paul reminds us in Galatians 4, that when the time was right, God sent Jesus to inhabit the earth. This Jesus – “Son of God” – was both fully God – the second person of the ‘Trinity’, and fully human – “born of a woman”. In saying “born under the law”, Paul was referring to Jesus being born into the world in a specific time, culture, and religious & political atmosphere. We read here also of the particular purpose of Jesus’ incarnation – to re-unite us with our loving creator parent.

From the earliest beginnings of the Hebrew nation, the people had been given a moral and ethical code under which to live – referred to here by Paul as the “law”. The purpose of the “law” was to keep humanity on the straight and narrow until ‘the fullness of time’ and the appearance of the Christ. Whereas the sacrificial system attached to the “law” provided a way to express regret for sin and gain ‘atonement’, this “law” could never be described as life-changing. And if ever the people of God were really going to be the people they were created to be, and truly experience the depth of God’s love, something else was going to have to fulfill and supercede this “law”.

In itself this “law” was powerless to make any real difference in a person’s life.
You just obeyed it, or not. You either felt vindicated through obedience, or (given
an active conscience) guilty through rebellion. A person could try harder to obey,
but given this was dependent upon their own mortal efforts, it was a never-ending battle. So, this was an arrangement based on fear and works, not a relationship of commitment and love. There needed to be an avenue of personal inward change, based not on effort but rather on a gift of grace – the unmerited favour of God; where a desire for forgiveness would truly lead to a reformed life.

Such a reformed life would lead to healthier attitudes to the needs of others. When challenged by God’s prophets concerning a better response towards poverty and injustice, ‘the people of the law’ (of Old Testament times) generally refused to listen; and as a result, their society degenerated.

We perhaps could sense this from our own experience in life. Since our first acknowledgement of a “fall” from God’s best, it became very hard to actually make any spiritual, moral or ethical advancements … in our own strength. We found life just too complicated, too problematical, and too easily fell into some sort of survival mode … just as long as we can access forgiveness when we need it. What we actually needed was a Saviour – someone to rescue us from this battle within ourselves!

[Some Old Testament characters, through a committed closeness to God, made significant impact at certain times, but very few excelled consistently.]

God is interested in far more than survival mode. For we were created “very good”, and we have been called to make a positive difference as “salt and light” in the world. How are we going to reach this great God-given potential God? The “law” was never going to do it – we needed a personal experience of the Divine Triune God.

Human beings need to be able to identify with a person, not a set of rules. Each
person needs to be in receipt of the sort of grace which will carry them beyond all
the human limitations that had previously entrapped them. We need the ‘sinless Son of God’ to take away from us the fear of judgment and death!

We can then learn what ‘repentance’ really is, not just feeling sorry, but being willing to have a change of mindset in terms of how we shall live – a mindset open to new possibilities never before thought possible, empowered by the Holy Spirit traveling with us. We needed to be able to put our faith in something beyond ourselves, and be drawn out of drudgery into all sorts of exciting possibilities … of community, of ministry, and of mission.

Through Jesus, God was redeeming us to Himself. This is like God going to “Cash Converters” to use the currency of Jesus to buy back what we had sold off – our very lives / our very souls! This is like God paying the ransom to the kidnapper that had taken us away from our Parent. Our master could have been our selfish desires or destructive behaviours or feelings of hopelessness, and we had become enslaved to these things, yet Jesus has bought us out of these into freedom.

b. God, in human form, could also model life as it should be lived, ie. with integrity, faithfulness and compassion; becoming a friend to the outcast; offering healing of mind and body to the afflicted; teaching eternal truths and principles for living. As well, God in human form could experience all the complexities involved in living in such a “fallen” world (suffering rejection, betrayal and pain), such that we could never again say … that God doesn’t understand how hard it is (Hebrews 2:17-8, 4:14-6). Yet, Jesus also offers us an example of overcoming life’s negatives, showing that he can lead others beyond human limitations. Jesus is able to reveal God to humanity – if you want to know what God is like … look at Jesus. Jesus informed his disciple Philip, that having seen him [Jesus], he has also seen the Father (John 14:9).

(2) Why did Jesus come at the time he did?

Or - Why did God choose the time in history He did to send Jesus into the world?

Have you ever wondered about this? It’s very interesting!

Of course this would have been determined in the all-knowingness of God, yet we can see various factors impacting this timing.

a. The Religious Malaise – ie. God’s people were under various unhelpful influences
at the time of Jesus’ actual coming – the ‘Pharisees’ were small-minded … fixated on petty detailed matters of the “law” & outward acts of piety; the ‘Sadducees’ preferred to maintain their acceptability to the Roman authorities rather than listen for God’s voice; the ‘Zealots’ resorted to violence; and the ‘Essenes’ withdrew from society rather than actively seeking a better world.

Many thoughtful Jews were dissatisfied with such a state of affairs, and longed for a religious movement without prejudice, such burdensome rules, political alignments, violence or invisibility. And certainly the ‘gods’ of the Roman world did not satisfy the longing hearts and hungering souls. May non-Jews were attracted to the mono-theistic religion of the Jews, but were not admitted to the synagogue without circumcision; and so they would be ready to embrace the freedom Christianity
would offer.

b. The “Pax Romana” – Jesus came at a time of unprecedented peace, civil harmony & political stability in the Roman Empire; thus there was such a freedom of movement that Jesus was able to travel around the various towns as he chose to share his message. (A century earlier, the then known world was intensely localized and subdivided, and suspicions & jealousies led to constant conflicts and closed borders.)

The Roman authorities didn’t mind what religious philosophy their citizens followed along as they remained loyal to the emperor.

{Ironically, it was the same world setting that set the stage for Jesus’ coming that also set the scene for Jesus’ crucifixion, as the agenda and leadership of the religious elite was being threatened, leading to the threat to the peace of Roman rule – “Pax Romana”.}

c. Also, subsequent to Jesus 33 years on earth, due to this easy movement around Palestine (and the wide knowledge of the greek language), there would follow further time in which his disciples could be effective in spreading the gospel. Even as some were persecuted, they would be able to take the good news with them where they fled and eventually settled. As the gospel was shared and discussed on the highways and byways, those traveling for business would come into contact with it, receive it, and take the news of Jesus back to their own home towns. As the teaching about Jesus
was shared with enthusiasm, courage, integrity and social conscience, many thousands had the opportunity to come to faith; Christian teaching proving to be popular among women and slaves due to its emphasis on equality.

[In a sense, God couldn’t wait any longer, and here was an opportunity where the arrival of Jesus would make a real impact for all time to come. The whole of history led up to this decisive moment. For those who had (properly) heard the prophets like Isaiah and were expectant – their waiting was over! Jesus himself said: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near…" (Mark 1:15a)]

(3) God does know best!

I think that when we read the words: … when the fullness of time had come (4:4), we have to acknowledge that God knows best when to act – only God knows best when to respond to our prayers; only God has all the information to hand, we don’t have anywhere near the appreciation of the big picture that God has!

We probably don’t even understand our own personal needs clearly enough, let alone the needs of the world as a whole. This shouldn’t stop us praying, even praying specifically, yet we need to understand that God will bring change ‘in the fullness of time’. Part of this ‘fullness of time’ however, may be our personal readiness to recognize God’s activity and our preparedness to cooperate with God … in bringing about solutions (just like the 1st Century disciples).

We could utilize this philosophy as we continue to pray for rain. We passionately
pray for our country’s obvious need for rain, yet we acknowledge that God will provide His response ‘in the fullness of time’. We don’t understand the delay, but
we don’t have to, we just keep trusting and praying. They may be things standing in the way that need to be dealt with, eg. ‘repentance’ concerning our failure to live up to our responsibility for caring for God’s creation. There also may not be enough signs that we are prepared to conserve God’s resources in the future.

Thus, there are many factors that may impinge on God’s timing.

There was an obvious need for God’s intervention given that the ‘religious law’ had not really advanced humankind toward the purposes of God; however there would not have been much point if Jesus came at a time when there was no-one prepared to follow him. When God responded to the need of the world in sending Jesus, there had to be a realistic expectation that the fisherman and the tax collector and the zealot and the others would actually respond to the call to follow Jesus. There also had to be the expectation that Peter would preach on the ‘Day of Pentecost’ to inaugurate the church, and that Paul’s mindset would change towards being a missionary for Christ.

(4) Being a child of God

Or, Traveling a New Road

Jesus came, and as I said last week, his coming is as relevant today as it was when it actually happened. What can we do with this today?

We mentioned earlier that this coming of Jesus had a particular purpose – to
re-unite us with our loving creator; we have been “redeemed” to be taken into God’s (eternal) family – to become a member of the household of God.

We don’t have to strive to impress God anymore – just be trusting, & open and ready to learn. He just loves us as His child, and we can call Him Daddy! And God is not confined to some of the negative experiences of fatherhood we may have experienced. God never abuses, God never stops loving us, God never fails us; when we experience His correction – it is always for our good. God accepts us, God values us, and we belong to Him. This is because God looks at us through Jesus, and God will honour the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf.

So, we can acknowledge and embrace that we are children of God, and pray that the Holy Spirit within us will change us in every way toward being in the image of Christ Jesus; committing ourselves to our part of this process: prayerful communication with God, study of His Word, membership of the local church, involvement in ministry and mission.

For any who are yet to experience being adopted into God’s family, today would be a good day to open yourselves afresh to becoming a child of God – to begin the wonderful journey of acceptance and nurture and purposeful living.