In the Fullness of Time

 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.

Sermon for the Sunday after Christmas                                              12/29/25

In the Fullness of Time

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Have you ever tried to explain something and found that you couldn't because the words just didn't seem adequate?   Usually, the words are adequate, we simply don't know how to use them effectively, or we want to describe something worth a short story in a sentence or two.  Frankly, that is the temptation this morning.  Our theme is "In the Fulness of Time."  I am tempted to give you part of the meaning of that phrase in brief, so we can get on to other parts of the sermon.  It is a temptation I will try to resist, because in the phrase, "in the fulness of time", lies so many wonderful details.

‘The "fulness" of time' is one of those antique sayings we just don't use any more.  I think the devil keeps mankind marching forward linguistically, so that we lose the wonder of the Gospel in the confusion of language and words.  After all, what does it mean that time was full?  How do you fill time?  Well, I guess we talk about time being filled, "She filled her time with knitting and sewing and other hand-work."  We also talk about empty time - those empty hours that fill the lyrics of so many broken-hearted ballads, for example.  But that isn't what ‘the fulness of time' refers to yet.

The fulness of time suggests that things happened at just the right time.  God had prepared the world and constrained conditions so that it was just right - a world ready to hear the message of Jesus, the Gospel of forgiveness and salvation and resurrection to everlasting life.  Culturally, it appears that all of the major themes of the Christian faith were echoed in some way in another religion - except the theme of grace.  Resurrection was part of one, the Greeks and Romans were accustomed to god taking on human form – and having children.  The redemption theme played out in some religions, although in significantly different ways - no other religion had a god dying for their redemption.  The closest to that idea was Prometheus, who brought fire to man from the gods, and was tortured at length for his misdeed, according to Greek mythology.

The time was just right, as well, because men struggled with the meaninglessness of life.  The old religions, with many deities, were falling out of favor with most people.  They believed that there was a God, maybe many of them, but they did not believe the old stories of Zeus, or Jupiter, and company.  Many had begun to see life as pointless suffering with no purpose, and death was the bitter end.  The people wore shame and regret – and a sense of doom – like an overcoat.  The time was right to hear the message of hope, of life, of divine favor, or God-given purpose for their existence.  God had primed the world by means of man's own evil, short-sightedness and spiritual emptiness.  It was just the right time.

It was the right time – everything was ready – even geo-politically.  The Roman Empire had brought relative peace, of a rough sort, to the world, the Pax Romana.  The whole inhabited earth - well, at least the majority of men, spoke one language – Greek, Koine Greek, to be precise.  It was the language of the government, and it was the language of commerce, much like English is today.  Travel was fairly safe and relatively easy.   There were good roads most everywhere, and shipping was more or less relieved of piracy for a time.  The stage was set for the spread of the Gospel as we know it spread in the early church.  God even used the most powerful man in the world - Caesar Augustus, to compel His chosen Virgin Mary to travel to Bethlehem so that the prophecy of the place of the birth of His Messiah would be fulfilled.  It was just the right time.  But that isn't exactly what the fulness of time means either, exactly.

What it means, precisely, is that the time had come appointed by God for all these things.  It wasn't that conditions were right, although they were, and God had guided events to that end.  It wasn't the spiritual poverty of man at that particular point in time, although it was truly deep.  It was that God had appointed a specific day and time for the Incarnation and the birth of His Son, and that day had come.  The day of the crucifixion was specifically appointed too, as was the day of the Ascension - and is the day of the return of Christ to judge the world and bring us home, and destroy this creation and create a new heaven and a new earth.  The fulness of time simply means that the day had come that God had chosen before the foundation of the world.

We look at things from a peculiar perspective.  We often think of prophecy as something that has to be done, and then the prophecy is fulfilled.  But what if it is that God looked at the future, which is future for man, but all of time is present before God, and simply described what had happened in prophetic language, and revealed it to those living before the evens occurred.  Then fulfilling prophecy would be like fulfilling history.  Before God, it has already happened.  Our perspective is like watch a movie.  Nothing can happen, and nothing will happen in the movie that wasn't recorded and prepared before we picked up the DVD.  We view it as unfolding, but we know that it is unfolded and complete from the perspective of the studio that produced it.  Our view of time is like watching a movie that we have never seen before, but the Maker of the movie of time has released certain details of the movie in advance, like a movie trailer.

So, in the fulness of time, that is, when the day had come which God had chosen from before creation, God sent forth His Son.  The analogy of a movie breaks down, of course, because God did not compel every detail, nor script all human conduct.  He exercised divine influence and guided events and nations so that everything was just right when the appointed day arrived, but man freely walked through history.  God only reported on what He had witnessed in the unfolding of time - all of which is equally present to Him in eternity.  Your life is not entirely determined - you have to live it to make it happen - but God knows.

Anyhow, God sent His Son, Jesus.  He was born of a woman in order to be human.  He had to be born of a woman to be born under the burden of the Law - a burden you and I and all humanity has refused to carry faithfully.  Jesus had to be responsible to keep the law or else, just like us, so that when He did, He could earn rightfully the reward of righteousness and pure holiness.  He kept the Law without sin and earned eternal life.  It is His by right.  Then He could trade and take what we have earned, and what is our by right and divine justice: death and hell.  He could trade with us because He is human, and He could take the place of the whole lot of us because He is true God.  By His death, He redeemed us - those who were under the law.

"To Redeem" means to buy back.  His death purchased us from sin by fulfilling God's law and eternal decree against sin for us, in our favor, and on our behalf.  Now He owns us.  That is part of the source of the "slave" language of the Bible.  We are wholly owned, and therefore "bond-slaves".  Jesus can do with us what He wishes - after all, we are now property.  And Jesus wishes to set us free from sin and death.  He has determined that everyone who hears about what He has done and trusts Him to forgive them their sins, and raise them from the dead, and bring them to eternal life with Him shall receive exactly that.  If they take Him at His Word, He makes them part of the family – which Paul describes in the phrase, "that we might receive the adoption as sons".

Unbelief simply continues the offense of sin - it calls God a liar, and chooses something less that the wonders that God would pour out on them.  Consequently, the one that rejects God in unbelief also refuses the redemption of Christ and demands that God deal with him or her according to their own righteousness and reward them according to their just desserts.  And so He does.  He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that does not believe shall be condemned.

But for us, the ones who believe, we possess as a gift all that Jesus won for us - forgiveness, life, and salvation.  We share in that adoption, sealed to us in our Baptism, and so, now we are Sons of God.  Among the many blessings that come with this adoption is to have within us the Spirit of His Son.  We call that "the Holy Spirit", of course.  Because Jesus had redeemed us, and God has claimed us as His sons by adopting us, He sends His Holy Spirit to us, to dwell within us, and teach us to call God "Father".  He has to teach us, because we would not dare to call God "our Father" on our own, if we took it seriously.  I mean, look at the trouble it caused Jesus.

The Spirit cries, "Abba, Father".   "Abba" is Aramaic for the child's familiar and affectionate name for his or her Father - like "Papa", or "Daddy".  The Spirit teaches us to call God "Dad", and to rest our hopes and confidence in Him and His love for us and His good will toward us, just like a child will toward a patient and loving father.  Some people do not have fathers like this, and so their ability to treasure this relationship is injured in some way, but it is the way things ought to be - loving, affectionate, safe, warm, and good.  It is this relationship with the heavenly Father that gives us confidence in every situation, even the darkest hours.  No matter what it may seem, we are in His arms, and under His protection for everlasting life and peace and health.

Remember Jesus bought us, and so we are wholly owned, and should be called slaves, and servants.  But Paul tells us that because of the love of God, you are no longer a slave, but a son.  It has not always been so.  Before Jesus, God gave the Law to keep men and guide them, but now, since Jesus, we have the Gospel.  We are no longer to allow ourselves to be ruled by the elemental things of this world.  We serve God freely and willingly, not according to some set of rules.  We do not allow men - whomever they may pretend to be - to put us into boxes and limit our freedom in Christ.  We do not allow them to cause us to fear.  We are God's own sons.  He has claimed us and adopted us, and this world, which is His, belongs also to us.

And we are heirs of God.  We stand to inherit everything.  Now, the world and everything in it belongs to us - but is not given to our direct control.  We have not yet inherited.  We are not free to do anything we wish with our inheritance, yet.  But it is still ours, and we can do anything that our heavenly Father would have us do with it.  And one day, called the Day of the Lord, we shall receive the inheritance.  We shall rise from our graves, if we have died, and shall receive everlasting life and health and peace and joy - and we shall finally be free of the infection of sin in our flesh, and our desires and thoughts will be completely holy and righteous, and we shall be pleased to be so.

Today, we are heirs.  We know its is ours, but only at the appointed time - in the fulness of time, if you will.  The fact that everything has gone according to plan so far should comfort us when life tries to frighten us.  God has it planned.  The day may seem to be delaying - "tarrying" is the King James word for it, but it coming.  It is set for a specific and special day, and it will not fail.  And knowing that Christmas came at the fulness of time - on just the right day - the day appointed - shores up our confidence that the Day of the Lord, our day of inheritance, will not be late.  It is coming, as Christ came, in the fulness of time.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)