Galatians 4:4-5: "In The Fullness Of Time"
"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born* of a woman, born under the law. To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons".
When we talk about the “fullness of time,” we make reference to "that time" when the "Mosaic Law" would give way to our "Divine lawgiver.” God mapped out his redemption plan by first giving us his Law through Moses. God then gave us in the fulness of time the “Lawgiver” our Messiah Jesus Christ. "Dispensationally speaking", the Dispensation of Law was given to us first, then, in the course of time that God designated, that dispensation gave way to the current dispensation; the "Dispensation of Grace", commonly called the "Church Age".
The Bible said in Matthew 1:21: that "God sent forth his son to deliver man from his sin". God's "predicted prophetic event" that lead up to the birth of Jesus Christ our Messiah began in the Garden of Eden with the fall of Adam and the subsequent promise (first prophecy) made by God to Adam (Gen 3: 15) pertaining to the "seed of the woman".
It is often asked why he did not come sooner? Why didn't man have the benefit of his incarnation and atonement immediately after the fall? Why did ti take four thousand dark and gloomy years of trials, tribulations, wars, and rumors of wars before he came?, While the world was waiting for hope, healing and help from the Messiah, from the Divine Deliverer, the world continued to spiral down in a sinfulled cesspool. The people (not all, but a great number) continued to suffer and sink deeper and deeper in ignorance and idolatry. Sin continued to reign and death continued to reign along aside it. (Romans 5:12-14)
Obviously, God had his reasons, many of which we cannot see, immediately grasp or even comprehend. Our ways are not like His ways and certainly, our thoughts are not like His thoughts. People in their carnality searched high and low,up and down in the earth among their ranks, looking for their blessed hope, looking for a very present help in all their times of trouble, needing a healing for their sin-sick souls, yet because it wasn't the right time, for centuries, they suffered and died in want, sufferring from disease, encountering the evils of ignorance, hatred, treachery, jealousy and strife. Their salvation was in desperate need for the Messiah's incarnation. So when the "fulness of time finally came, it was seen by God to be the best time when the whole the race would be most benefited by Jesus' coming. Despite our limited and imperfect vision, we can see the following things in regard to its being the most fit and proper time.
(1) The fullness of time was when all prophecies centered on him, and when there could be no doubt about their fulfillment.
It was important that such an event should be predicted in order that there might be full evidence that Jesus came from heaven; and yet in order that prophecy may be seen to have been uttered by God, it must be so far before the event as to make it impossible to have been the result of mere human conjecture.
(2) The fulness of time came when the world needed to see the "need" for a Saviour.
For the fulness of time to become a reality, God had to give man a fair chance and ample opportunity over the course of time and history to try to devise other schemes and methods for salvation that man believed woulds work. So after man had experienced much pain, suffering and futility, they would finally be prepared and would gladly welcome God's 'only provision (Jesus) for man's salvation.. This had been done. According to God's view of "the state and status" of man, 4,000 years was "sufficient time" to show to man the futility of his feeble efforts to save himself from the "penalty" of sin and the wrath and hands of an angry Jehovah- God.
All of man's opportunities in his quest for "self redemption" was given "seemingly" under every favorable circumstance and condition.. The most profound and splendid of man's talents of the world had been brought to bear on it, especially in Greece and Rome. Ample opportunity had been given to man to try "various religious systems"; "Religions" and "systematic beliefs" that focussed on national happiness and individual welfare; their ability and power to meet and arrest crime; to purify men's heart; to promote public morality and to support man in his trials, even their power to conduct him to the true God, and to give him a wellfounded hope of immortality. All of man's religions and religious systems had failed; It was in the time of all of their failures that God determined that proper time for the Son of God had come.
(3) The fulness of time came at a time when the world was at peace.
The Temple of "Janus", closed only in times of peace, was then shut, though it had been but once closed before during the Roman history. What an appropriate time for the "Prince of Peace" to come! The world was, to a great extent, under the Roman sceptre. Communication between different parts of the world was then more rapid and secure than they had been at any former period. This meant that the gospel could be more easily propagated. Second,, the Jews were scattered in almost every lands, yet still acquainted with the promises, looking for the Messiah. They furnished facilities to their own countrymen, the apostles to preach the gospel in numerous synagogues, and were qualified, if they embraced the Messiah, to become most zealous and devoted missionaries. The same language, the Greek, was, moreover, after the time of Alexander the Great, the common language of no small part of the world, or at least was spoken and understood among a considerable portion of the nations of the earth. At no period before had there been so extensive a use of the same language.
(4) The fulness of time came in the "proper time period" (About 4 or 3 bc.) to make the new system known (AD.).
It accorded with the" B.C.nevolence of God", that it Jesus' coming would not be delayed any longer than that the world should be in a suitable state for receiving the Redeemer. When that period, therefore, had arrived, God did not delay, but sent his Son on the great work of the world's redemption.God sent forth his Son. This implies that the Son of God had an existence before his "incarnation"; ( John 16:28). Jesus once said about himself in John 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I AM!"
The Saviour is often represented as sent into the world, and as coming forth from God, "made of a woman". In human nature;" born of a woman", implies that Jesus had another nature than that which was derived from the woman. On the supposition that he was a mere man, how unmeaning would this assertion be! How natural to ask, in what other way could he appear than to be born of a woman? Why was he particularly designated as coming into the world in this manner? How strange would it sound if it were said,. What was there special in their birth and origin that rendered such language necessary? The language implies that there were other ways in which the Saviour might have come; that there was something special in the fact that he was born of a woman; and that there was some special reason why that fact should be made prominently a matter of record. The promise was (Gen 3:15) that the Messiah should be the "seed" or the descendant of woman; and Paul probably here alludes to the fulfillment of that promise.
Christ then was "made under the law, that is, as one of the human race, partaking of human nature. He was subject to the Law of God. As a man, he was bound by all its requirements, and subject to all its control. This is why Jesus told the crowd in Matthew 5:17: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill".
He took his place under the Law that he might accomplish an important purpose for everyone else who were under it. He made himself subject to it that he might become one of them, and secure their redemption. Jesus came to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons whereby we can now cry out: "Abba Father"! Jesus came to redeem them by his death on the cross as an "atoning sacrifice" for our sins;that is all sinners that were under the Law, who had violated the Law, and who were exposed to its dreaded penalty. He took upon our sins and paid their debt in our placd hat we might receive the adoption of sons and be adopted into the family of God as the sons or the children of God. He did all of this in "the fulness of time"!
"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born* of a woman, born under the law. To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons".
When we talk about the “fullness of time,” we make reference to "that time" when the "Mosaic Law" would give way to our "Divine lawgiver.” God mapped out his redemption plan by first giving us his Law through Moses. God then gave us in the fulness of time the “Lawgiver” our Messiah Jesus Christ. "Dispensationally speaking", the Dispensation of Law was given to us first, then, in the course of time that God designated, that dispensation gave way to the current dispensation; the "Dispensation of Grace", commonly called the "Church Age".
The Bible said in Matthew 1:21: that "God sent forth his son to deliver man from his sin". God's "predicted prophetic event" that lead up to the birth of Jesus Christ our Messiah began in the Garden of Eden with the fall of Adam and the subsequent promise (first prophecy) made by God to Adam (Gen 3: 15) pertaining to the "seed of the woman".
It is often asked why he did not come sooner? Why didn't man have the benefit of his incarnation and atonement immediately after the fall? Why did ti take four thousand dark and gloomy years of trials, tribulations, wars, and rumors of wars before he came?, While the world was waiting for hope, healing and help from the Messiah, from the Divine Deliverer, the world continued to spiral down in a sinfulled cesspool. The people (not all, but a great number) continued to suffer and sink deeper and deeper in ignorance and idolatry. Sin continued to reign and death continued to reign along aside it. (Romans 5:12-14)
Obviously, God had his reasons, many of which we cannot see, immediately grasp or even comprehend. Our ways are not like His ways and certainly, our thoughts are not like His thoughts. People in their carnality searched high and low,up and down in the earth among their ranks, looking for their blessed hope, looking for a very present help in all their times of trouble, needing a healing for their sin-sick souls, yet because it wasn't the right time, for centuries, they suffered and died in want, sufferring from disease, encountering the evils of ignorance, hatred, treachery, jealousy and strife. Their salvation was in desperate need for the Messiah's incarnation. So when the "fulness of time finally came, it was seen by God to be the best time when the whole the race would be most benefited by Jesus' coming. Despite our limited and imperfect vision, we can see the following things in regard to its being the most fit and proper time.
(1) The fullness of time was when all prophecies centered on him, and when there could be no doubt about their fulfillment.
It was important that such an event should be predicted in order that there might be full evidence that Jesus came from heaven; and yet in order that prophecy may be seen to have been uttered by God, it must be so far before the event as to make it impossible to have been the result of mere human conjecture.
(2) The fulness of time came when the world needed to see the "need" for a Saviour.
For the fulness of time to become a reality, God had to give man a fair chance and ample opportunity over the course of time and history to try to devise other schemes and methods for salvation that man believed woulds work. So after man had experienced much pain, suffering and futility, they would finally be prepared and would gladly welcome God's 'only provision (Jesus) for man's salvation.. This had been done. According to God's view of "the state and status" of man, 4,000 years was "sufficient time" to show to man the futility of his feeble efforts to save himself from the "penalty" of sin and the wrath and hands of an angry Jehovah- God.
All of man's opportunities in his quest for "self redemption" was given "seemingly" under every favorable circumstance and condition.. The most profound and splendid of man's talents of the world had been brought to bear on it, especially in Greece and Rome. Ample opportunity had been given to man to try "various religious systems"; "Religions" and "systematic beliefs" that focussed on national happiness and individual welfare; their ability and power to meet and arrest crime; to purify men's heart; to promote public morality and to support man in his trials, even their power to conduct him to the true God, and to give him a wellfounded hope of immortality. All of man's religions and religious systems had failed; It was in the time of all of their failures that God determined that proper time for the Son of God had come.
(3) The fulness of time came at a time when the world was at peace.
The Temple of "Janus", closed only in times of peace, was then shut, though it had been but once closed before during the Roman history. What an appropriate time for the "Prince of Peace" to come! The world was, to a great extent, under the Roman sceptre. Communication between different parts of the world was then more rapid and secure than they had been at any former period. This meant that the gospel could be more easily propagated. Second,, the Jews were scattered in almost every lands, yet still acquainted with the promises, looking for the Messiah. They furnished facilities to their own countrymen, the apostles to preach the gospel in numerous synagogues, and were qualified, if they embraced the Messiah, to become most zealous and devoted missionaries. The same language, the Greek, was, moreover, after the time of Alexander the Great, the common language of no small part of the world, or at least was spoken and understood among a considerable portion of the nations of the earth. At no period before had there been so extensive a use of the same language.
(4) The fulness of time came in the "proper time period" (About 4 or 3 bc.) to make the new system known (AD.).
It accorded with the" B.C.nevolence of God", that it Jesus' coming would not be delayed any longer than that the world should be in a suitable state for receiving the Redeemer. When that period, therefore, had arrived, God did not delay, but sent his Son on the great work of the world's redemption.God sent forth his Son. This implies that the Son of God had an existence before his "incarnation"; ( John 16:28). Jesus once said about himself in John 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I AM!"
The Saviour is often represented as sent into the world, and as coming forth from God, "made of a woman". In human nature;" born of a woman", implies that Jesus had another nature than that which was derived from the woman. On the supposition that he was a mere man, how unmeaning would this assertion be! How natural to ask, in what other way could he appear than to be born of a woman? Why was he particularly designated as coming into the world in this manner? How strange would it sound if it were said,. What was there special in their birth and origin that rendered such language necessary? The language implies that there were other ways in which the Saviour might have come; that there was something special in the fact that he was born of a woman; and that there was some special reason why that fact should be made prominently a matter of record. The promise was (Gen 3:15) that the Messiah should be the "seed" or the descendant of woman; and Paul probably here alludes to the fulfillment of that promise.
Christ then was "made under the law, that is, as one of the human race, partaking of human nature. He was subject to the Law of God. As a man, he was bound by all its requirements, and subject to all its control. This is why Jesus told the crowd in Matthew 5:17: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill".
He took his place under the Law that he might accomplish an important purpose for everyone else who were under it. He made himself subject to it that he might become one of them, and secure their redemption. Jesus came to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons whereby we can now cry out: "Abba Father"! Jesus came to redeem them by his death on the cross as an "atoning sacrifice" for our sins;that is all sinners that were under the Law, who had violated the Law, and who were exposed to its dreaded penalty. He took upon our sins and paid their debt in our placd hat we might receive the adoption of sons and be adopted into the family of God as the sons or the children of God. He did all of this in "the fulness of time"!
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