Timing is very important. The chef has to be careful of how long something stays in the oven. The coach selects the best time to send in certain players. It is very important that the general selects just the right time for his military maneuvers. Taking the cake out too early because one is too anxious is no good. Bad timing can cost a team the game, and even more serious, bad timing can cost many lives in a war. We might wonder why God waits so long to do things, such as answering our prayers. And when we think of it, why did He wait so long in sending the Messiah?
In our Scripture passage today the Apostle Paul states that “when the fullness of time had come”, God sent the Messiah (vs. 4). God is always very particular about timing. At the time of Jesus’s birth, the conditions of the world were just right. A few hundred years before Jesus’s birth, Alexander the Great had conquered a large part of the known world at the time, and made Greek the common language of that time. When Jesus was born, most people had at least a working knowledge of Greek. With the coming of the Roman Empire, Latin, as well, was becoming spoken by a majority of people. This made it possible for those seeking to spread the Gospel to do so in at least two very familiar languages, spoken by a majority of people, rather than dozens of mutually unintelligible languages.
Also, at the time of Jesus, the Roman empire stretched from the British Isles to the borders of India, from eastern Europe to North Africa. The Romans built sturdy roads all across the empire, some remnants still remaining today, over 2,000 years later. This made travel the easiest it had ever been, and their military presence made it the safest. The location of where Jesus was born was right at the crossroads of three continents, again facilitating an ease for sending the Gospel around the world.
Had Jesus been born several centuries earlier none of this would have been in place. Several centuries later and the Roman Empire would have fallen, bringing the start of the Dark Ages, when civilization stepped backwards quite a bit. God’s timing was just right.
Furthermore, Paul states in verse 4 that Jesus was born of a woman. Jesus had to be both fully man and fully God. He had to be fully man in order to take our penalty, as a substitute sacrifice for our sins. Jesus had to also be fully God for His sacrifice to be of the infinite worth necessary to fully atone for our sins. As a human, He was subject to God’s Law, and fulfilled it perfectly.
Paul continues on by telling us that, as believers, we have been adopted into God’s family (vs. 5-7). In the culture of the Roman Empire, adoption was a serious business. Adoption wasn’t only of young children. Teens and adults were often adopted, as well as slaves being adopted into the family. When a person was adopted they left their old family and became a part of the new one. When we are saved we leave the devil’s family which brings damnation and become part of God’s family with salvation. The adopted person became a legitimate heir to the estate. Nobody could take away these benefits. No one can take away what we get when we join God’s family (Romans 8:38-39)! Any debts the adopted person had were wiped away at the time of the adoption. The old life was put away. When we are saved and become a part of God’s family. Jesus took our sins upon Himself and paid the penalty in full.
When we accept Jesus as our Savior we are set free (vs. 7). We are delivered from the authority and power of darkness. We are brought into the light of Jesus. Salvation makes us an heir of God. An heir means we have rights, standing, access, power and authority in the Name of Jesus. We have the right to approach the throne of God (Hebrews 4:16). We have been set free from sin’s curse, and all enslavement to Satan. We were slaves to sin, but once we call upon Jesus as our Savior we are now God’s children!
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