Galatians 4:1-7
Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
At Just the Right Time
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Have you ever wondered why some ideas catch on and some do not? Some people with great talent seem to struggle and some who appear to have lesser talent fire the imagination and catch on? The answer is probably more complex than we can imagine, but at least part of the answer is found in the timing. God has a time for everything, and when it is time, things work, and when it is not time, they just don't seem to jell. Ideas catch on, and fads come and go because it is just the right time.
God's timing also was at work in the arrival of Jesus. The timing of men is always different. We want to hurry up, and we tend to think that things will work just the same at any time, but it doesn't appear to be so. Our text tells us that Jesus came "in the fulness of time." So our theme this morning is, "At Just the Right Time."
The time was right for Jesus to come. He had been promised for generations and generations. Adam and Eve looked for Him. The Patriarchs looked for Him. The entire history of Israel is the history of a people waiting for the deliverer, the messiah to come. They did not know who He would be, and they did not know when He would come. Only God knew. While they waited, God had given them rituals and signs to remind them of the coming One and of all that He was going to accomplish. The annual Passover celebration was pointing forward to Jesus just as much as it pointed back to the saving acts of God when Israel was in Egypt. Some of them lost track of the forward looking part of the Passover, and saw it simply as an historical event they celebrated each year, much as modern Judaism does today, but the truth didn't change because they lost sight of it.
Before Jesus came, there were a number of self-anointed "messiah's" that arose in Israel. The Children of Israel wanted the Messiah so badly, that the ambitious unbeliever would pretend to be the One, and some of the people would follow without any substantive reason to do so. Of course, part of the reason that they followed the various false messiahs was that the false messiahs were acting the way the people wanted their messiah to act, and promising the sorts of things that the people wanted to hear. But none of the false messiahs really caught on, or had any lasting power because they were not the Messiah. Until Jesus came, none of them could. Only Jesus was the One promised.
He did come, though. We celebrated His advent at Bethlehem just a few short days ago. He came. He lived among us. He died in our place and for our sins, and, as they say, the rest is history. Paul writes to the Galatians that Jesus came at just the right time - "when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman."
We can speculate on the reasons behind the timing. Scholars and preachers have been doing so for centuries. Some speculate it was the right time because of the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome imposed on the world at that time. Some point to the convenience of travel at that time in the world, with all of the roads of Rome stretching throughout the Empire. Some speculate that it was the right time in the psyche of men, and that religion had gotten to the point where people were just ripe for the pickings. Jesus said, "The fields are white into harvest. Pray the Lord of the Harvest that He may send workers into His harvest." The truth is that we just don't know what made it "the fulness of time". It might have been all of those things, and it might have been none of those things. But the time was right. That much we know from God's Word.
The people of Israel, and of the whole world, had been kept under the Law until that right time had come. The Law had been a guardian. It had helped men to understand something of holiness, and something about the will of God. It had forced Israel to preserve the Word of God which had been written down by the prophets. But when the time was right, God sent His Son to be our Savior.
He sent Jesus. Our text describes a mystery - something we would not have considered except that God revealed it to us. He sent Jesus to be born of a woman so that He would be "born under the law." That means that because Jesus was born of Mary, He was born obligated to keep the Law of God just the same as you and I are. The same promises and curses applied - promises if He kept the whole law and will of God, and curses if He were to sin and break the law of God. The promise is life without end for those who keep it, and the curse is death and hell for those who break it - "for the wages of sin is death."
If the Messiah had not been born of Mary, born of a woman, He would not have been truly human, and whether or not He kept the Law, the promises and the curses would not apply to Him. They were given to mankind. So, Jesus had to be genuinely human, and to do that He had to be born just like everyone else. That way, when He kept the Law of God, He earned eternal life, and He could trade with someone - anyone - and take their death and let them live. Because His Father is not a mere man, but God Himself, Jesus was worth all of us in trade, and then some. I suspect that the sinful nature is inherited not from the mother, but through the father because Jesus did not inherit original sin - not having a human father.
Before Jesus came, all men were slaves of sin. Because Jesus died for us, now all men are forgiven, and life eternal is poured out for them. The means appointed to receive this forgiveness and life - to lay hold of it and grasp it, if you will - is faith. John writes in the opening of his Gospel, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Those who "received Him" are defined here as "those who believe in His name." "He that believes and is Baptized shall be saved." Paul writes that Jesus became man and placed Himself under the Law "to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons." That is how we become the children of God. And that adoption takes place in baptism - we "put on Christ" in our baptism, and God calls us His children - and when God says so, it is so.
Now Paul writes that since we are adopted, we are no longer slaves, but sons. Slaves serve in the house, but they are not inheritors. We are sons, and we inherit from God. We inherit life and peace and joy. We inherit the right to call upon God in prayer and expect Him to answer and to take care of us and to bless us. And it is that truth that we look to for comfort and encouragement. We are the chosen of God, claimed not just as His servants, but as His children. He has filled us with His Holy Spirit so that we might cry out to Him "Abba, Father." "Abba", of course, is the Aramaic word for "Pappa" or "Daddy." God wants us to think of Him, and trust in Him, and call upon Him just like a little child trusts and calls upon his or her loving father.
All of this is at just the right time. That is what Paul says in our text. God's goodness to us should comfort us in every situation, and His timing should help us face the uncertainties of life. There are always things that we want right now, blessings which God has chosen to give us when the time is right. God would have us learn to trust Him, and not worry. He knows our needs and our desires, and when the time is right, He will bless us with each thing that we need.
We may be tempted to wonder when some blessing will come, or worry about when Christ will return. God tells us about His timing so that we will take comfort and not worry about it. God calls us to trust Him and live faithfully as His holy people. When things happen is not our decision. God will cause all things to happen just as He has planned them when the time is right. Our congregation will grow and prosper, according to His plan, for example. Growth and success for our congregation is not to be our worry. Our task is faithfully to be His people - loving one another and standing firmly on His Word and sharing our hope in Him as He gives us opportunity.
As to the end, when He will bring us home, that is in His hands. It cannot come too soon, nor can it arrive too late. It will happen just as the coming of Jesus did - at just the right time. While we wait, we can be sure that there will be temptations to give up on God. Things will look bad for a time, and we might get quite uncomfortable waiting, but God's promises are sure. Jesus warned His disciples that we would hear people say "Here is Christ" or "Christ is over there." Jesus said that our response should be "Do not believe them." His return will happen at just the right time.
We can learn from the children of Israel. Looking too hard - or too eagerly - for God to act can lead us away from Him, and cause us to try to force His hand by chasing after false things. We cannot force the hand of God, and we should not want to try. God's timing is always right - and everything He has promised to us in Jesus Christ is true - forgiveness, protection, resurrection from our graves, and life eternal. God doesn't call on us to make things happen - not our own spiritual things, and not the church's things. He calls on us to be faithful. Trust God and be His people, doing the things He gives us to do as He unfolds His work. It can become a mighty temptation to "make it happen", and we have seen that temptation overcome individuals and entire church bodies over and over again. That is often what so many church programs in evangelism or stewardship or church growth end up being, attempts to make 'stuff' happen according to our time table.
We cannot make the church grow, for example. That is the work of God through the power of His Word. We can attend. We can invite others to come and see and hear. We can tell others about our gracious God. Those are faithful things God has given us to do. But the results of our faithfulness are going to be what God has planned to do through us, and those things will happen when He has planned for them to be effective.
Don't worry. Just trust God. He has forgiven you and claimed you as His own. He will bring all things to fruition at just the right time. He will bless us with just the right blessings. He will feed us with His body and give us to drink of His blood, and fill us with His Word through faithful preaching, and cause all the good to happen for us that He has planned. So, don't panic. Don't try to see into the future too far, or try to force His hand. Many Christians do, thinking that they know what is next. Only God knows, and all He calls on us to do is take Him at His Word, and do the good works which He lays in our paths to do - and trust Him. When we finally stand with Him in glory, you will be able to look back, I suspect, and see that everything happened as it should and when it should have. Jesus came in Bethlehem at just the right time, and He will bless us now, each blessing when the time is right, and He will come again in glory to bring us home, at just the right time.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)
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