On the back of seed packets sold in the U.S. there is often a small, color-coded map of the country showing when the best time is to plant the seeds, based on when all danger of freezing or cold weather has passed. Planting earlier than recommended can kill the plant when a freeze or cold snap comes. Doing things at just the right time is important in many matters. Though we are often impatient to speed things up, that frequently doesn’t bring good results. If the recipe says to cook something for a certain amount of time, if we take it out earlier, it is raw or underdone. As we see in our Scripture today, God is careful to do things at just the right time. We may often think that He takes too long, but we will see as we look into this passage, His timing is perfect.
Have you ever wondered why God didn’t send the Savior, the Messiah, earlier than He did? Why not send Him shortly after mankind started going bad again after the days of Noah and the Flood? Why not in the days of the Patriarchs? As our Scripture from Paul’s letter to the Galatian church opens, the Apostle relates that God sent His Son “when the fullness of the time had come” (vs 4). God’s timetable is usually not the same as ours. If we look at history and where civilizations developed, we can see how God’s plan was just perfect.
When Jesus was born, probably around 4-6 BC, certain developments in the “known world” had been set in place so that the spread of the Gospel message would be possible. Since the days of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) the Greek language and Greek culture spread throughout the whole Mediterranean world, and throughout western Asia. By the days of Jesus, Greek was understood and spoken by the majority of people, and with the expansion of the Roman Empire, Latin was quickly becoming a world language, as well. Prior to that, only a limited few spoke more than their own ethnic language. With the rise of the Roman Empire, roadways were developed, making travel easier, quicker, and safer. Both of these developments helped in the spread of the Gospel. Also, if we look at a map, where Jesus was born in Israel, that is at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and would be easier for the early believers to spread the message of the Gospel.
Paul continues by writing that “God sent forth His Son” (vs. 4). The fact that the Father sent Jesus into the world teaches His pre-existence as the eternal second Person of the Trinity. Jesus was also “born of a woman”. He was fully God and fully man. Jesus had to be fully God for His sacrifice to be of the infinite worth needed to atone for sin. He also had to be fully man so that He could take upon Himself the penalty of sin as the substitute for man. Paul also teaches that Jesus was “born under the law”. Jesus perfectly obeyed the Law. Thus, He could be the unblemished sacrifice for sin. His perfect righteousness is what is imputed to all who believe in Him.
Scripture teaches us that all those who believe are redeemed from sin’s power, and become adopted children of God (vs. 5-7). Under Roman law, an adopted child had all the legal rights of a natural born child. This was even the case if they came from a poor or slave background. They were not second-class family members. I once knew a family who had two sons, one was natural born, the other adopted. The parents made it painfully obvious that the natural born son was highly favored, and the adopted one wasn’t. This is definitely not the case with God’s family!
When we are saved we are adopted by God and we share with Jesus all of God’s resources. We are God’s heirs, and can claim what He has provided for us. When we were saved we were set free. We were delivered from the authority and the power of darkness, and brought into the light of Jesus. Salvation makes us an heir of God. We have the right to approach the Throne of God (Hebrews 4:16). We can be certain of our inheritance because we have been bought and paid for by the Blood of Jesus.
As we close this brief Scripture passage, we see that God had everything in place when He sent His Son Jesus to be born. Everything was ready for the Gospel message to be spread throughout the world. And spread it did, down through the past twenty centuries, to where you and I have now heard the message. Have you responded to that message? Have you accepted Jesus as Savior, and been adopted into His family? With the new year started, now would be the perfect time to do so if you haven’t.
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