“When the time had fully come” Gal 4:4 23/12/01 am
Gal 4:4 as long as an heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Why did it happen then? Why choose 4AD… 6AD, God?
- why not sooner?
Well- the way this passage describes it is:
- “the time was full”, “the fullness of time”
- “ripe”, like fruit
- “pregnant” & about to give birth
- gestating for centuries
- planned for centuries
- “RIGHT”. For some reason
Some reasons seem obvious… to US… and make sense
Fullness of time- culturally
The world… the then, so called ‘modern world’ was ready culturally. - - The stage was set
In 350BC the son of a Macedonian (Gk) king, Philip, was born. He was called Alexander. We know him as ‘Alexander the great’. He conquered the ‘known world’ in 12 years and brought tremendous changes to Europe & middle East. Brought:
- Gk culture: philosophy, institutions, art, drama, literature, architecture & thought. All took a leap forward
- Gk language
The culture brought radical changes. It broke down some of the barriers of nationalism. Folks from other cultures were more readily accepted. Travelling folks sharing philosophical concepts were more readily entertained- both them and their ideas
Gk language became a language that united that part of the world. 2nd language to all people. Became the language of writing, commerce. Could be read and understood by many
- & in 280 BC the OT was translated into Gk (LXX)
- people were getting used to reading not only philosophical ideas in Gk- but Jewish, monotheistic scriptures as well
Fullness of time- politically
The Romans had taken over the (by then) divided and declining territories that Alexander had conquered and had imposed
- the Pax Romana. Enforced peace! Woe betide you if you stepped out of line. But peace there was
- for only 2nd time in their history the doors of the temple of the god ‘Janus’… the god of war… were closed. There was no war.
They were the Iron Fist- but actually were v Broad and eclectic, culturally
- allowed keeping of own culture, while engendering acceptance of others
They brought roads (all roads lead to Rome. A network of roads (that we still benefit from, esp around here)
- and a postal system that worked on them
- and protection for those who travelled on them
- with privileges never known before
Paul travelled on semi-paved roads… sometimes protected by Roman guards (as he was a Roman)… with privileges unheard of!
Little did the Rome know the part they played in putting US here, today…. In God’s plans
- little did Caesar Augustus know that his census would cause the fulfilment of an 800 yr old Jewish prophecy about where the Messiah would be born…
- …. Cause Mary to give birth in Bethlehem
Fullness of time- spiritually
For the Jews
They were ready for the one true God
- Abraham (2000BC) had an understanding/revelation of the One true God… given in the midst of a polytheistic culture
- So HE understood
- But his offspring kept on going after as many as they could!
- That was the struggle
-
- Moses (1400BC) had a further revelation of there being only one real God… & His nature
- But even as he receives the revelation… the Jewish people are getting tucked in to worshipping a calf
- & there’s the real battle of the books of Joshua and Judges.
- Who do you worship?
- David (100BC) was a man after the heart of the One true God, and his son Solomon was wise- but even Solomon ended up building shrines to stacks of other gods
But the 6C Babylonian exile of the S kingdom of Judah had really brought them up short… as hard times often do
- it’s funny how (when things are going well) we can be pretty lax on what we believe, think important, worship… our faith ‘identity’
- but cart us off to problems… captivity and
- we tighten up our belt buckles/theology
- become more zealous for our cultural, religious identity/uniqueness
… and it is true to say that in the furnace of Babylon the Jews cling to… identify with –the One true God, monotheism, their true roots
And when the Persian Empire (Cyrus) took over, the monotheistic influence was increased as the Persians were Zoroastrians. Monotheists
- in fact, some think the Magi were Zoroastrian priests
… whatever- the Jews were finally delivered from following the idols of the pagan nations around them
At the end of the exile the Jewish scriptures (the Tanakh), OT as we call it, were collated into their Canon
But- get on one side of the log…and fall off the other!
- at last they paid attention to God… the law he had given
- but (as happens with religion)- they took it to the extreme
- 10 commandments had become 613 do’s and don’ts
- and the law (which was good)… instead of being a giver of life (which it should) was strangling them
- they had made it put a stranglehold on them
- here in Gal: implication ‘under law’ like slaves
… and it was ready to be replaced (no- that’s not the right word!)… FULFILLED with God’s fuller revelation
MT 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
- It had served its purpose. Done its time
- Gal 4:4 – guardian for ‘the children’
- Trustee
… until the time of maturity when folks could handle… better understand… a fuller revelation of God
- Gal 3:24 “law put in charge to leads us to Christ” (paedogogos)
-so they were ready: for freedom… to be come sons! (not ‘children)
- here: to be redeemed… for adoption (lit “placed in a family”)… to cry ”Abba”
- crying out for it “O come O come Immanuel”
they were ready, too, with a great messianic expectation
- you know the term ‘fullness of time’ implied ‘gestation’?
- well. The seed had been sown 1000s of years earlier (long gestation period!)
- story of the fall tells of a seed being sown that will bring deliverance from the serpent to individuals
- Gen 3:15 “you will strike at his heel, but He will crush your head”
In fact… from the minute mankind (individuals) said (say!) ‘get stuffed’ to God he plans a way to bring them back
- rev 3:8 ‘the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world’
So- if you think (like I do) that God created the universe 15 Bn years ago… then God planned/planted the seed for THIS… man’s salvation… THIS baby- THEN!
And the Jews… who had a better glimpse of it than others… had been crying out for 100s of years
- the prophesies had been given that gave hints along the journey
- THEN came 400 years of SILENCE (intertestamental period)
- God setting the international scene
- And what does silence make you do? It makes you cry out!
- Speak! Come! Do it!
The Jews were ripe, pregnant… crying out, spiritually. Ready at last
For the gentiles
And so was the gentile world. Maybe not ‘crying out’ (didn’t know what they were missing like the Jews did!)- but ‘prepared’, at least
- Diaspora of the Jewish people had taken:
- OT, monotheism, the synagogues (again, from bab exile: a decentralised way of learning)
…. To all the surrounding nations
- many had become proselytes… ‘god-fearers’
- and this passage implies that the Galatians (gentiles) were feeling enslaved to ‘the basic principles of the world’. In slavery, themselves… longing inside for something more: freedom.
- Ready… ripe for more of the story. His-Story
- Ready for the progressive revelation of God to His world
Athens was in the late afternoon of its glory. The gods of Greece and Rome no longer could command the blind allegiance of the masses. Education, philosophy and great art created desires they could not fill. In the end the verdict was clear. Athens could produce Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides, and Aristophanes. Rome produced Seneca, Cicero, Juvenal, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Julius Caesar. But the best man could do was not enough. Nothing could fill the "God-shaped vacuum" inside the human heart. Art, literature, poetry, music, architecture, and the greatest military machine the world had ever known, all of it taken together could not provide meaning to life, or point the way to lasting forgiveness, or offer any answer to three questions we all must answer: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?
1999 Ray Pritchard
SING: El-shaddai?
The fullness of time
the time was right. Socially. Politically. Culturally. Spiritually.
- and into this preparation, God sends His Son. God comes Himself
I don’t mean there was just this abstract, coincidental, socio-political, cultural wave that “happened” to propel Jesus into the limelight… and the good news about Him to the ends of the earth
- that’s how it might look without the eyes of faith… understanding
(and it is true that other socio-political waves/vacuums have produced movements)
But- though from our aspect (the aspect of an ant, really!) it may appear that culture & fate produced the timing… birth… person… character… movement that has had the greatest impact EVER on this earth (I mean- Imagine how different things would be if Jesus hadn’t come!)
… God has been above all that: working, planning, strategising
Charles Spurgeon said it; "There are no loose threads in the providence of God … The great clock of the universe keeps good time."
Illustr: Ants. Each ant only sees it’s horizon… task… bit of mud it’s carrying. To it: it’s its daily task, chore, ‘fate’. But somehow, in the overarching purposes of God and genetics- they build an ant-hill that towers up.
So- from our ant-like perspective: please don’t think of this as just a cultural wave
- which came first- the chicken or the egg? The cultural wave that brought God into our world, or the God who produced the cultural wave?
- The latter. The God who engineered the wave. Definitely. God came first.
He is Lord of strategy, time and eternity… and at this time… His time… the fullness of His time- time and eternity meet as God visits earth to:
- show His face.. true likeness… love compassion… saving power
- Surely this is the major point. He is the centre of history. History is really His Story, planned and told by God. Secular history gives us dates and times and places and people, but only God can give meaning to history. His birth is the hinge on which the door of history swings. (Ray Pritchard)
-
“God sent His Son” (Gal 4)
- lit “sent forth” His Son
- while the world was busy moving away from Him in it’s: busyness, distraction, sin, searching… Adamic attitude..
… God stepped out to meet us…and into our time because it was TIME
- and the domino affect, and it’s sheer power, led to the movement that has… can… is changing the world
Get the PICTURE? The Big picture? The story? His-Story?
- that’s what this is
And let me encourage you on a personal level
- God knows about time in our lives, too. His time IS different to our time.
- Anytime is good to us! NOW is not fast enough for ME!
But in the BIG picture- God is working His purpose in our lives, to
- our failing is we often
- expect to understand too much (We’re only ants!)
- look at the fine brush strokes
- “Oi! That hurt! I don’t understand!”
- can be enhanced by our picture of the Bible
- (my little book of individual promises. Sometime I just wonder if the way we read our ‘daily light’/snippet is much different from our ‘daily stars’ ME… at centre of cosmic book!)
But our faith is that in the BIG picture… with the BIG brush strokes God is
- in control
- working His purpose out
- strategising
- in charge of HIS story
Gosh. I love this God!… and I want to know Him through Jesus. Don’t you?
SING:
Hark the Herald
Beautiful Lord, wonderful saviour
