SUNDAY 8th
Galatians 4
NIV (vv4-5) ‘But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.’
ESV (vv4-5) ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’
The phrase ‘when the fulness of time had come’ indicates to us that Paul clearly understood that God had a set programme which he was outworking, especially regarding eternal redemption. We have recorded for us in Mark’s gospel account, ‘. . . Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’ (Mark 1:14-15) and in 1 Timothy 2:5-6, ‘For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.’ We have also Romans 5:5, ‘For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly’ and Ephesians 1:0-10, ‘. . . making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.’
God’s timing is always perfect, for we are reminded that all is ways are perfect and his ways are just. (‘For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.’ Deuteronomy 32:3-4) And in his perfect timing he was faithful in bringing the promised redemption, which would redeem those who were under the law to receive adoption to sonship.
We continue in a similar vein as we have done for this is a continuation of Pauls correcting the Galatian Church. The law had its purpose, but now someone greater and moreimportant than the law had come, Jesus the Christ, the free gift of grace, he was born under the law, he lived to fulfil the law and he died to supersede the law so that those who were under the law might receive adoption as sons.
A fuller reading of the previous chapter, Galatians 3, implies many things concerning the role of the law in particular, we read in verse 19 that it was ‘added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made’, the ‘until’, is pointing to the fulness of time, when Jesus arrived and by his death and resurrection brought in a new and better way.
So in correcting the Galatian Church, Paul was wanting to instruct the members toward keeping the faith that they had responded to when the gospel had been preached, he wanted them to be aware that the mission of the ‘Judaizers’ was like a trap that would side track them from the truth of the Scripture which is that ‘the just will live by faith’, and he wanted them to U-turn and come back to the true gospel, which was the only gospel, that is that it is the Cross and not the law that is the power of God unto salvation.
Today there is probably very little chance of us getting side tracked with the same issues of the early Church in Galatia, for a start we have never been steeped in religious practise such as the Jews were, we haven’t come out of a system of sacrifice or of the requirement to keep every jot and tittle of the law, but there could be many other modern applications, where having come to genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and knowing his saving power we can fall into. The trap of legalism, the trap of lukewarmness or half-heartedness, the trap of being allured by the pleasures of the world instead of seeking after righteousness, it may even be the trap of apathy towards the things of God, but it could also be through man’s invention where doctrine is distorted or skewed or misinterpreted leading to heresy and error.
I repeat as the other day the words of a hymn, Jesus keep me near the Cross, maybe as you are reading this you may realise that you are like the Galatian believers, you did run well, but someone or something has or is hindering you, come back to the Cross, come back onto the road that you know you should be travelling on, the path that is the path of righteousness, which leads up to God.