Part LXXXV on The Study of Galatians

Galatians 4:4
"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law."
That verse falls in line with what we've been stressing over and over and that is that Christ's earthly ministry was under the Law of Moses. Everything that Christ said and instructed was in compliance with the Mosaic system. Not a word of this Gospel of Grace, you see it couldn't be because He hadn't died for the sins of the world. He couldn't speak of His death, burial, and resurrection and have faith in that for salvation because He hadn't died yet. We don't get those instructions for the Church Age believer until we get to Paul. That revelation (divine illumination) was given only to that apostle because he was appointed and became the steward of the message. This is the rock upon which Christ builds His Church as He told Peter back in Matthew chapter 16 verse 18.

Oh, Christ did mention the fact that He was going to die, in fact let's look at it again in Luke chapter 18. These are verses that we know most people don't even realize are in the Bible. And this is why we emphasize that when people continue to preach in the Four Gospels and totally ignore the writings of the Apostle Paul, that those preaching and teaching must realize that His death, burial, and resurrection hadn't taken place yet. They couldn't preach our Gospel as found in I Corinthians 15:1-4. It had to be completed, and you can't preach something until God reveals it, and at that time He hadn't revealed it. And it's so obvious here in Luke 18. This is at the end of His earthly ministry.


Luke 18:31-34
"Then he (Jesus) took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, `Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. (hadn't happened yet but it will) For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, (the Romans) and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:  And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.'  And they (the Twelve) understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken,"

These disciples had no idea that He was going to die on that Roman Cross. And as we've shown so often in John's gospel chapter 20, we might as well stop there on your way back to the Book of Galatians. Here Peter and John have now run to the tomb. Everybody is shocked at what Mary Magdalene had told them (that the tomb is empty). They had no idea that He was going to rise from the dead but remember He had told them. But what had happened? It was hidden from them. God kept it secret even though He said it out in plain language. So here we are now on resurrection morning, and Peter and John run to that empty sepulcher.


John 20:8-9
"Then went in also that other disciple, (John) which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. (then the next verse tells it all) For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." (Psalm 16:10, 22:15, 22-31; Isaiah 25:8, 26:19, 53:10-12)

Do you see how plain all that is? They didn't know, they had no concept of a saving Gospel of Grace based on His death, burial, and resurrection. Yet most churches spend most of their time teaching and preaching exclusively from the Four Gospels. No wonder the Church is dying on the vine. No wonder we're going into such apostasy, because there's no power in this. It has faded off the scene. His earthly ministry is part and parcel of the past just like the Old Testament economy because it is tied together. And now we've got to come into the letters and writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul, for the doctrines of Grace and the New Covenant in which we now live. Now come back with us to the Book of Galatians chapter 4 where it says He came, made of the woman, made under the Law, but what was the purpose?


Galatians 4:5
"To redeem (buy back, pay the required ransom price) for them that were under the law, that we (the whole world) might receive the adoption (position restored) of sons."
Now, let's go back to Romans. We'll be coming back here more than once in these next few verses in Galatians. But in Romans chapter 3 verse 23 for this moment:


Romans 3:23
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."  That means everyone - Hebrew and Gentile, black and white, rich and poor. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Where and How because of the command spoken to Adam, “eat not of” and the the over flow of the Ten commandments, (the spiritual with the earthy). Verse 24.



Romans 3:24
"Being justified freely by his grace (how could He justify us?) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

Redemption is the process of buying us back, of paying the required ransom price. Now the first thing we always have to qualify is why does the word "redemption" have to be used? Why did God have to buy something back? Because you don't buy something back unless you've owned it and lost it, right? In other words, you take something to the pawn shop; it was yours, you sold it, took a loan against it and they took over control. You cannot get it back and have control of that, whatever it is, until you pay the price of redemption. In this case the required ransom price, mans blood and his death because life is in the blood.


It's the same way in Scripture. The reason God had to pay a price of redemption, first for Israel, nationally, and for the whole world in general, was because that which was once God's - He lost it. Satan picked it up. And so he's holding it tight until God pays the price of redemption or ransom. Now when we say that Israel was lost, that goes back to when Jacobs sons, the brothers, sold Joseph into slavery. It was sinful, it was wrong. But when they did that, God lost control of the little Nation of Israel, although it was still embryonic. But God lost control. They ended up in Egypt and for those 215 years they were under the control of the Egyptian yoke. And when they finally come out, as it's recorded in the Book of Exodus, what do we call Exodus? The book of redemption, because what is God doing? He is paying the price to bring Israel out from under the yoke of bondage, out from Egyptian control, and back to Himself where He originally had them. Of course, the price of redemption there is more symbolic than actual, because it was the blood of the lamb that kept them safe on the night of the Passover. And it was the power of opening the Red Sea that brought the nation out to God Himself. It was there He redeemed them. He paid the price and He brought them back. But they rebelled and fell into gross sinfulness out of unbelief.


Now the whole world is in population in general, He paid the price with His own Blood. In the Last Supper and then shortly there after the Cross of Calvary is where Christ paid the price of redemption. When Adam sinned, the whole human race fell under the control of Satan. Satan was the ransomer as the Egyptians were ransomers of Israel. And so He, Christ Jesus has paid the price of redemption for how many? All. You've heard us stress for the last several chapters, that when Christ died, He paid the price for every human being's sin. He has paid the price of redemption for everyone. But you can't appropriate it until faith comes into the picture. Now back to Romans chapter 3. So He has justified the believer, freely, because of that price that He paid to bring them back from under the control of Satan. Now verse 25.