God's Perfect Timing

Galatians 4:4-7

Waiting.  That is something most of us don’t like to do, especially in this day and age when everything is designed to be done fast - fast foods, microwaves, high-speed internet, fast this, instant that. Waiting patiently is even more difficult.  God had promised the Messiah to His people many, many years before.  After centuries of waiting, the Son of God was finally born.  Why the long wait, many must have wondered.  Why not send Him right away after the promise was made?  The Apostle Paul gives us an answer here in our passage today.

In verse 4 we read “when the fullness of time had come”, which means when it was just the right time.  The world needed to be in just the right condition before it was the best time, and that was when Jesus was born.  At the time of His birth there was one language that was spoken and understood by a vast majority of people, and that was Greek.  Approximately 300 years prior to the birth of Jesus, Alexander the Great had conquered most of the eastern Mediterranean and into central Asia, spreading the Greek language and culture throughout.  Also, by the time of Jesus’s birth the Romans had conquered a large portion of Europe, North Africa, and a large portion of western Asia, bringing with them another language, Latin, which was readily understood by many.  They also brought superior roads and bridges, making travel vastly improved and safer.  A common language and ease of travel were necessary for the spread of the Gospel, which only a short time before the birth of Jesus would have been so much more difficult.  God knew this and sent His Son at just the right time, so that the message of salvation could spread throughout the world.  If sometimes we feel that God is so slow in answering our prayers, remember that God’s timing is always right!

Also of importance, verse 4 states that God sent His Son to be “born of a woman”.  There are some heresies that teach that Jesus was only a man, not divine, and some others that teach that He was only a god-like being, not human.  Both are wrong, as Paul teaches.  Jesus was both fully divine and also fully human.  Jesus had to be fully God for His sacrificial death to be of the infinite worth it needed to atone for our sins.  He also needed to be fully man so that He could take on Himself the penalty of our sins as our substitute.  If Jesus was not both fully divine and fully human He could never have sufficiently atoned for our sins, and we would all be lost.  Unlike anyone else who lived, Jesus perfectly obeyed the Old Testament Law.  Because He was perfectly sinless, He could be the unblemished sacrifice for sin.  It is this perfect righteousness that is imputed to believers at salvation.

Jesus’s death on the cross brought pardon for our sins.  Through it we are also adopted into God’s family forever (vs. 5).  Jesus was the perfect sacrifice because, though He was fully human, He did not sin. His death brought freedom for us, who were enslaved to sin and children of the devil.  Now, when we accept His salvation for ourselves personally, we are adopted into His family.

We have the great privilege to be considered God’s true sons and daughters. We are blessed as His heirs (Romans 8:15-17).  Roman law at the time that Paul wrote this guaranteed a person who was adopted all of the legal rights to his adopted father’s property, even if he was once a slave.  He was not a second-class person.  He was equal to other biological children.  We who are born-again are even more equally adopted into God’s family (vs. 6-7).  We share with Jesus all rights to God’s resources.  We are equal heirs, and we can claim what He has provided for us.

We can now have almighty God as our true father.  Paul states here in verse 6 that we can call out to Him as our “Abba, Father”.  Abba is the Aramaic word for “Daddy”, which suggests a warmth, tenderness and closeness that God wants to have with us.  He wants that close, loving, tender, and approachable relationship with us.  He wants to be our “daddy”!