CHRIST IS BORN IN THE FULNESS OF TIME

Dear Friends,

Soon we hope, the Lord willing, to commemorate again the birth of Christ. This commemoration has become more a feast of the world than of the church. In our days every opportunity is taken to make a feast, and in this way the seriousness of life is placed in the background. It should not be so with Christmas, when the birth of the Savior is commemorated. It could be an opportunity par excellence to have a feast, but then in the right sense of the word, to celebrate the greatest miracle, that the Son of God has come upon earth. Of His coming the prophets and poets have spoken.

In our text from the epistle to the Galatians, the apostle Paul also speaks about Him. The Christians in Galatia were soon charmed by the gospel, but were also soon made to waver. A number of them had withdrawn from the Christian doctrine which Paul had preached and followed the false teachers among the Jews. These men denied Paul as an apostle of the Lord, and taught that the works of the law were a necessary part of the meriting of salvation. In writing to them, Paul defended his apostleship, repeating how the Lord had called him near Damascus.

In this chapter of our text Paul writes that the believers under the law are as children under tutors and governors (verses 1 & 2). But now the fulness of time had come. What is really the meaning of the fulness of time? It is the time wherein the prophecies about the coming of Christ were fulfilled. The fulness of time is also the time determined by God, which had to pass by before Christ would appear in the flesh. That measure of time must be full according to God’s decree. “The counsel of the Lord stand-eth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.” God fulfilled this counsel, although the enemy tried to hinder it.

“But when the fulness of time was come.” Many things had to happen to Israel before the fulness of time came. By the patriarchs, poets and prophets the Lord had made known what would happen before, in and after the fulness of time. In Paradise He was promised as the seed of the woman. Jacob had spoken of the scepter which would not depart before Shiloh would come. Daniel spoke of an everlasting kingdom. Micah made known that Bethlehem would be the city where He would be born; there the second Person in the Divine Being would assume our human nature, an event which is such a great wonder.

Until then Israel was under the law, which is also the schoolmaster which brings to Christ. The time of the New Testament, when all the precious promises about Christ were fulfilled, is called the fulness of time. It is the time of the passing away of the Old Testament ceremonies and institutions. It is sad that so many of God’s people who live under the New Testament dispensation still stand as children under tutors and governors. To live under the severe requirements of the law, which shows our sins and requires our condemnation, is a difficult life, since we are unable to give satisfaction and have no farthing to pay. It is possible that the Lord has given promises in our life, but the application is missing.

We read of Mary that her days were accomplished, and it has to become this likewise in the lives of God’s people. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son.” He is the only begotten Son of the Father; He is God Himself. He is Light of light, Life of life; He is the Way and the Truth. Without Him we cannot draw nigh to the Father. Of Him Isaiah said, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Gabriel the angel spoke of Him to Mary, saying, “He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David.”

At His baptism in the river Jordan the Father testified, “This is My beloved Son.” The Lord Himself spoke to Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” He did not become the Son by obedience, as some say, but from eternity He was the Son of the Father, even before the foundation of the world. All these truths are fulfilled in the words of our text, “God sent forth His Son.”

He was sent from heaven, the place of the highest glory. He gave Himself to be sent to the world and to come under the curse of the sin resting upon the earth in order to fulfill the Father’s pleasure. Of this pleasure the angels sang in Bethlehem, but from before the world He already spoke of it; “Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me; I delight to do Thy will, O My God.” When He was on earth He confirmed this; “he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”

To be the Savior, He had to be the Son of God! Thereof is written in our text, “God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.” The margin says, “Out of the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary.” This was foretold by Isaiah, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” That He was born means that He had a weak human nature, which He assumed out of the virgin Mary. He did not bring this nature from heaven, but assumed it out of the virgin Mary under the administration of the Holy Ghost. His humble birth was the first step of His humiliation.

This is also related in the following part of our text; “Made under the law.” The margin says here that Christ not only subjected Himself to the ceremonial law, but also to keep the moral law and to take the curse upon Himself in order to deliver us from it. He was made under the law to bear the curse of the law; He was born in a stable and laid in a manger, but He also had to go to Gethsemane and Golgotha in order to fulfill the requirements of the Father for the salvation of sinners. Bethlehem without Golgotha has no meaning. Christ is not only the Kinsman, having assumed our human nature, but He is also the Deliverer because He also supplies the merited salvation subjectively by His Spirit.

By the discovering light of the Spirit we learn our sin and unrighteousness. Thus it becomes hopeless on our side, but then to see the wonder of that which is written here, “To redeem them that were under the law.” Redeemer, Deliverer, Savior are the names of the Messiah. Whom will He redeem? Them that are under the law. By this Paul means those under the power and the curse of the law. Christ was made under the law to redeem from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13). When it pleases the Lord to reveal something of Him, then He becomes so precious, there is such a fulness seen in Him, that God will receive the honor and lost sinners can be saved. How precious He is in His coming in His substitution, in His humiliation and exaltation. He is the chief among ten thousand, He is altogether lovely. He has borne the wrath of God, He has silenced God’s anger; He destroyed the head of Satan, He overcame death and so He brought on life everlasting for His children.

In His resurrection He was acquitted. When we may learn this, then we are cut off in the Divine justice of our own life, so that we may personally receive the blessed application of the forgiveness of sin and a right to life. What a wonder to be redeemed from that law, which at first has reproved of sin, then became a schoolmaster to bring to Christ, but now by faith the sinner is freed from the law by Christ in order to take part in God’s favor. The church assured may know of this in their own experience, which is a great privilege; but there are also moments, when faith is in exercise, that the church concerned may taste something of it. This surety is not in the benefit, but in the Benefactor, Who makes His children free from the law. To be redeemed from the law does not mean a loose life, but rather to live according to the law out of gratitude. “How love I Thy law.”

The apostle continues, “That we might receive the adoption of sons.” The adoption is not limited to Israel, but is also for the heathen. The Son of God made Himself of no reputation; He came under the law, He became a slave to redeem His elect who were slaves of sin and Satan, to make them sons of God by adoption. In the resurrection the sins are forgiven, in the ascension they are adopted as children. Justification is a judicial deed of the Father, but to be assured of the communion with God is also a Fatherly deed; we receive a place to come home and may know God the Father as our Father. Then the separation between God and our soul is taken away and we may come boldly to the throne of grace. How great is the love of the Father in the sending of His Son; how great is the love of the Son in giving Himself to be born out of a woman and to come under the law; how great is the love of the Holy Spirit to give the assurance of being children of God.

Thus the whole way of salvation is explained in these few words about the coming of Christ in the fulness of time. What is our Christmas, my friends? What is the most important for us? So often it is only a worldly feast, which has no depth, because the world passes away. How far world conformity has come into our midst without our realizing it. It has gone on so gradually that many do not see anything wrong with all those things surrounding Christmas. And the main thing, which is that God has given His only begotten Son to come upon this earth, which is under the curse, is no longer a wonder.

In Him only can we be saved, although many think it is possible to be saved in our own way. There is no other way than through the Mediator between God and man, Who was willing to give Himself and to come upon this earth so full of enmity against Him. Is that true, even though we hear so much about the Child of Bethlehem during this season of the year? Yes, for in that child about whom they speak I cannot find the scriptural Christ at all; it is an imitation. Not in the way the world speaks of Him, but as Scripture describes Him can He truly be the Savior. It is in the way of humiliation; His humble birth was the first step. Deeper and deeper He descended into the misery of man until He cried out, “It is finished.”

The shadow of the cross was visible in the manger, but then the Holy Spirit has to open our eyes for Him. The same Spirit Who reproves of sin, righteousness and judgment, also shows the glory of this Child of Bethlehem in His willingness to come for lost sinners. Blessed is the people who really may become a lost sinner under the operation of the Holy Spirit, because they will begin to seek for help by another, which can only be Christ. This is learned in the way of mortification—that we decrease, but Christ may increase.

What a wonder for such persons when they may hear of that only Name to salvation. The angels have sung of good will toward men, but this must be experienced in us shall it be well. Indescribable is the wonder when they may hear, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Then it really becomes Christmas for our heart.

We hope and pray that the Lord may give for many that it may become such a blessed day, a day that Christ is born in the stable of their heart. It would be to the glory of God, but also to the welfare of the church which is so often in darkness. Then in the darkness, a great light may be seen.

Sioux Center, Iowa

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