Part LXXXIV on The Study of Galatians

Galatians 4:4a
"But when the fulness of the time was come,..."
That means according to God's schedule, at the exact right day and hour and year the Messiah was born in Bethlehem. When we look at this verse, we have to remember the time someone asked his pastor why he didn't spend more time in the Apostle Paul's writing and less in the Four Gospels? And his answer was, "Well, if I leave the Four Gospels then I don't have anything to say about the Christmas story." How ridiculous can you get? This is referring to Christ's birth in Bethlehem, but Paul doesn't have to rehearse all the details of Joseph and Mary because that's already been implied as it was prophesied. But now Paul brings us to the crucial point of Christ's birth in Bethlehem. Why did it happen? Because it was in God's timetable. It was all part and parcel of God's plan for the ages, and at the exact right moment in time, Christ was born of a woman and became the fullness of time. Hebrews tell us it was called "the time of reformation" in chapter 9 verse 10 which means this: Greek, “the season of rectification,” when the reality should supersede the type. This then is what His Gospel does it sets right that which had been twisted or corrupted by man, the priest's of Israel. This we see in Titus.


Galatians 4:4b
"God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law."
Now let's go all the way back to Genesis chapter 3. We've looked at it many times but we also know that you can't repeat these things often enough. We always hope that once you've said something that people have it, but it doesn't work that way because that's part of our human makeup. It takes a long time for these things to get soaked in, and we have to be reminded of them from time to time. In this verse the Lord is now dealing with the serpent, Satan, after Adam and Eve have fallen. And God comes right back, as Romans 8 makes it so plain, with hope for the race and that is the promise of a Redeemer. God is talking to Satan through the serpent here.


Genesis 3:15
"And I (God, this is Yehovah-Christ) will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; (the Christ, the Son of God, the promised seed of Abraham, with His body) it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt (Satan) bruise his heel." (caused the suffering that Christ had to go through and we as believers have to go through on the cross)
This is the promise of the coming Redeemer. As soon as man sinned, God came right back with the remedy, and it's the only remedy. Now coming back to Galatians chapter 4 we see, then, in the fullness of time, right on God's timetable the Son was born. We were just explaining to someone that when you watch the timing of things back in the Old Testament, God was never a day late! God was also never a day early, and we can always give examples. You take Abraham, at exactly the right time God brought him out of Ur, and set him on his path toward going into Canaan and becoming the father of the Hebrew race. And exactly 430 years after is the night of the Passover in Egypt. Moses is then ready to lead Israel out of captivity. 

Now we also know that there was to be a 40 year span of time from the time they left Egypt until they would finally get into the Promised Land. Which of course was 40 years to the day. Now as we were studying this some years ago we found it amazing that on the Passover night in Egypt it was the same day and the same month, but 40 years later, when they celebrated the Passover with Joshua leading them across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. God's timing is right on. Sir Robert Anderson was one of the first to realize that from the decree to Nehemiah to go back and rebuild the city of Jerusalem as it's recorded in Nehemiah chapter 2. From that date until the triumphant entry or Palm Sunday is exactly 483 years as it was prophesied. God is always right on schedule. Now according to Paul then, Christ's birth is the same way. At the exact moment in human history when the fullness of time was now fulfilled Christ was born in Bethlehem. Not an accident, but totally according to God's program.
 
Now then the other part that is so amazing was that not only was the Son made of a woman, but under the Law of Moses. And we wish people would understand that. Everything concerning Christ's first coming, the Law was in place, and we're going to see in an allegory, that as Paul wrote this Book of Galatians the Temple was operating full speed ahead there in Jerusalem. The priests were performing the rites; they were bringing the animal sacrifices the whole Nation of Israel was under the Law. Now it was a degenerated and very corrupt religious system, totally degenerated.

Instead of now operating under the basic Ten Commandments we want to remember that Temple worship at the time of Christ was now under 613 rules and regulations which comprised the Law. And that's what made it that much harder. Instead of 10 to keep, they had 613, that's almost a life-long education to learn that many rules and regulations, but that was the Law under which Christ came. And not one time did He ever tell the Hebrews of His day to forget keeping the Law because they were under Grace. He never said that because He couldn't. You see Israel was not yet in a place where the Law was set aside. That couldn't happen until Christ died, why because He fulfilled all of its lawful requirements. The Cross was where the Law was finally crucified. The Nation of Israel at that time could see nothing but their own self-righteousness and they could brag about how they were Law-keepers. Just as many do now in ignorance to what God has done through His Son.

We don't expect everybody to agree with us, but if we can just cause people to start searching the Scriptures. We don't have to agree on every little detail because there's room for disagreement, but hopefully we try to stay as close to the truth as we possibly can. We're not here for any particular denomination. We're only here to teach the Word of God. Now in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4.