Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from Gal. 4. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- The concept of the “fullness of time” is quite interesting. We are all well aware of the importance of “timing.” Of course, we don’t always get our timing right, but we know it’s important to try. We try to be on time for work. We try to be on time for appointments. We want to be on time for class. The same is true of worship!
- We eagerly await “THE FULLNESS OF TIME” when we can get our driver’s license, or when it comes time to graduate, or when it is time to retire. The same is true for vacations that we’ve looked forward to for a long time.
- The biblical concept of “THE FULLNESS OF TIME” is similar. The Greek word for time – like the time of day – is “chronos.” However, the word used in our text is not “chronos” but “kairos,” which means “just the right time, the perfect moment.”
- God, of course, is outside of time and not bound by it. Time is an aspect of the created world, of how we experience life. Still, God is fully aware of how we experience time, and of the entire course of human history. It is within this context, our context, that just the right time came for Jesus, the Savior of the world, to be born.
- I’m not sure what all the criteria were to determine that some 2,000 years ago was “just the right time.” That is God’s business, His knowledge. However, it is comforting to know that God is in charge of human history, and that He knows the perfect timing for everything, including the Last Day!
- In the meantime, what a blessing it is that we are living at a time and in a place where we can take full advantage of what God accomplished for humanity in the gift of His Son, His only-begotten Son! For:
I. God Sent His Son Jesus For Our Redemption
Text: “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.”
Statement: He was born of woman – the virgin Mary, without help of man, just as God promised Adam and Eve. He became flesh, human flesh, to redeem human beings. He was born under law – His own law which condemns our sin and sentences us to death – to redeem those who were under the law. Deny it as much as we do, all human beings were “under” God’s law. Paul wrote to the Romans: “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” It is these people, all of us, the whole world, that is accountable to God. It is these same people, all of us, that Christ came to redeem – from the condemnation of His own Law.
Application: Note that Paul writes in our text “those who WERE under the law.” Now that Christ has redeemed us we are no longer under the law – unless we demand it. Rather, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses to them.” So Paul reminds us that through faith in Christ “you are not under law, but under grace.” We have been redeemed – by Jesus, God’s Son, at just the right time!
Transition: God was reconciling us to Himself for a most blessed and precious reason:
II. Christ Has Redeemed Us So That We Would Be Adopted As God’s Dear Children
Text: “to redeem those who were under law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
A. We Have Been Given The Gift Of The Holy Spirit In Our Hearts – So That We Know God As Our Father
Text: “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!”
B. We Are No Longer Slaves, But Free Sons And Heirs Of God
Text: “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Romans 8:16,17 “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.”
Statement: I am not adopted, and don’t like to think of myself as being an “outsider” who had to be accepted. I like to take pride in thinking of myself as having a rightful claim to being a member of my family. However, what good really does this do for me? My parents were sinful human beings, subject to death. My siblings are sinful human beings, also subject to death and futility. So what’s the big claim? There is really no grounds for pride, and certainly no future in that natural family.
What we all need is an eternal family. But we are sinners, and the wages of sin is death. We are not, by nature, part of God’s eternal family. Nor are we deserving of being His children, at least not on the basis of our own “goodness and morality.” If we are going to be part of God’s family, His eternal family, we need “adoption.” Could we be so blessed and fortunate that God would “adopt” us?
Application: Christ came “at just the right time” so that it could be so, to provide us with “adoption as sons.” He redeemed us so that it could be so. He reconciled God to us so that it could be so.
Then God “sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts” telling us that God has adopted us, that He is our Abba, our Father. Not only so, but He assures us that we have the full right of sons, full inheritance from our Father. That Father, Who we are heirs of, is the Almighty God, Creator and Owner of everything! We not only escaped the orphanage of our sin and lowliness, we were adopted by the richest Parent of all, our Heavenly Father!
This is the great blessedness that was provided for us in the gift of Jesus – His birth, His perfect life, His suffering, death, and resurrection! The inheritance is passed out on the Last Day – and as sons and daughters of the King, our inheritance will be royal, cosmically royal! Just as God provided this bounty for us “at just the right time,” so also we can be absolutely sure and certain that He will distribute it to us “at just the right time.”
Conclusion: So we are excused from our efforts and labors to discern times and seasons, and to insure that our “timing” is perfect. We are in God’s hands, our time in this world, and our time in His Paradise. He will see to the timing – for He is full of gracious love, kindness, and goodness.
In the meantime, we are blessed to live as royal children of the King of the universe. At any time, all the time, we cry out to Him “Abba, Father.” We know His love, and we lay claim to His grace, all of His promises.
And in the fullness of time we will know with absolute clarity just how blessed we are because God sent forth His Son to redeem us. Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.