Introduction: many of us are familiar with the stories of Jesus’ birth, as recorded in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. Paul seemed to know the story, too, but he never seemed to say much about it in his messages or his letters. He did explain the story to the Galatian believers, though, and this passage gives us a glimpse into what he thought about the Christmas story.
Text, Galatians 4:1-5, KJV: 1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
1 The fullness of time
For the bulk of this message, I am indebted to several Bible teachers and preachers, and a set of notes prepared years ago by my now-deceased father. The Galatians may not have known exactly what Paul meant when he mentioned “the fullness of time” but we can look back and see. For one thing, the Roman rule of most of the Near- and Middle East meant peace—an enforced peace, perhaps, but still there was peace. The New Testament does not mention any wars during these early days of the Church Age and it is very possible that God used the Romans to prepare and maintain peace. Travel was not without risk but we do not read that Paul was ever robbed, held up, or anything like that.
Besides the peace, the Romans had built many miles of “Roman roads” that were no doubt the marvel of many engineers. How many of these roads Paul and his friends used, even at this relatively early stage of the Church’s history, is not known but he had the opportunity. Why risk going off on your own, when reliable roads were in place already?
And even better, the Romans had built a well-planned infrastructure. They had built not only the roads, but other buildings, even aqueducts, carrying water from one location to another. The theaters, forums, and other things—some of these last to this day.
Besides this, the Greeks had contributed to the “fullness of time” by providing the world a common language. Even a few Romans could speak Greek (example, Claudius Lysias when Paul spoke to him in Acts 21:37) and the New Testament writers produced their works in Greek too. Without going into too much detail, Greek is a descriptive, but difficult, language to master; even so, there is a vividness in the construction of Greek sentences lost in most translations.
But that wasn’t all the Greeks had contributed. They had a number of philosophies, ranging from pleasure is everything (Epicureans) to life is to be free of pleasure (Stoics); Paul would dialogue with both groups in Athens and try to share the Gospel (Acts 17). How many, if any, of these men believed the Gospel and followed Jesus is not known but Paul did all he could while he was staying in Athens.
The Greeks and Romans had control of most of the known world, politically and culturally, but there was still another group of people who had the most to contribute.
These were the Jews.
They had a unique position, keeping their identity basically intact for over 1000 years—ever since the days of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the entry into Canaan. Numbers of Jews had settled, voluntarily or otherwise, in various parts of the known world. The list of places where they Jews lived, when they were in Jerusalem in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost, are arrayed like almost every point of the compass: Elam (Persia), for example, far to the northeast and Rome, about as far west as anyone had ever gone in those days. But no matter where they lived, they kept their identity intact so that everybody knew they were Jews.
The Jews also had a very significant contribution, namely, the worship of only One God. This “monotheism”, as it’s called, stood in a real contrast to the worship of multiple “deities” as practiced by, at least, the Greeks and Romans. The Sabbath worship in dedicated synagogues, as opposed to pagan temples, is yet another contrast between the Jews’ religious beliefs and those of the pagans around them.
And one of the greatest things the Jews were able to contribute was the belief in a coming Messiah, Who would establish God’s Kingdom on this earth. Besides Daniel 2 and 7, and numerous prophecies in Isaiah alone (9:6, chapter 11, and more), the Jews knew that one day the Kingdom would come and the prophecies left unfulfilled would be fulfilled completely.
Thus, the world was at peace, there was a nearly universal language, and an expectation from a small but influential group of people scattered throughout the known world. Truly, this was the “fullness of time”, but what was going to happen next?
2 God sent forth His Son
Now Paul explains, in very brief terms, just why Jesus came into this world. He knew, as the Scriptures plainly indicate, that Jesus had always existed as God, and always will (e.g., Psalm 2:7). We don’t know why he didn’t list various Scriptures specifically as proof of the prophecy of Jesus’ birth (examples: Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2, and Jeremiah 31:15 to list a few).
Still, Paul demonstrated that he knew or at least had a working knowledge of that first Christmas day. He stated that Jesus, the Son of God, was “made of a woman”, which of course speaks of the human body of our Lord. Jesus, the Son of God, had no beginning and will never have an end; He was and is God, the Eternal One. Matthew had either already written in his gospel, or if not would do so later, “And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ (Matthew 1:16).” Luke 2 has more information for the reader.
The important thing is that Jesus had no earthly father. Joseph was not the father of Jesus but was the foster father, as some have called him. It is true that some called Jesus “the son of Joseph (Luke 3:23, John 1:45, and John 6:42)” but this was either because they saw Jesus under Joseph’s care or they honestly didn’t understand that Jesus was and is God in flesh.
Paul further states that Jesus was not only “made of a woman” but also “made under the Law.” This has a double application: when Jesus was born, the dispensation of Law was still in effect. Months before He was born, Zacharias was chosen to offer incense in the Temple (Luke 1). Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, had one of three choices under the Law once he found out Mary was pregnant and he was not the father. Joseph chose the most difficult choice, namely, to take Mary as his wife, anyway, and endure whatever came his way.
Think about it: what kind of comments did people throw at Joseph? They might have said something like this: “Hey, how’s the baby, Joe? Couldn’t wait to start that family, could ya, Joe? Bet the kid’ll look like you, won’t it, Joe? Yeah, you’re just like old David, aren’t ya, Joe? Got a name picked out, Joe? We’ll give you one if you don’t! Whatta ya think about that, Joe?” Maybe this didn’t happen, but maybe it was even worse, the insults they threw at Joseph—and he was innocent. To his credit, there is not one word spoken against him in the New Testament. He truly was a righteous man, and God honored that.
And Jesus Himself not only followed the Law, as written, He explained where some of the religious leaders had allowed their own traditions, opinions, and the like instead of the plain teaching of the Law. Jesus was circumcised according to the Law, He attended the Temple services as required by the Law, and even instructed the lepers He had healed to show themselves to the priests and offer what was required in the Law. Made under the Law? He certainly was, but that wasn’t all. He came to fulfill the Law—and even more.
He came to redeem those under the law!
3 To redeem those under the Law
Now Paul explains not only the “what”, or the facts, about the birth of Jesus, to explain part of the ‘why”. This was to redeem or buy back something or someone that was previously in one’s possession but had become lost, and the owner wanted it back. Paul is focusing on those “under the Law” at this moment because he knew first-hand what this meant!
Paul certainly knew that not every Israelite or descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was righteous. The Old Testament has any number of examples of Israelites who abandoned God to worship idols, some even taking part in horrible deeds (e.g., Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, who did much evil in the early years of his reign, 2 Chronicles 33:1-20). Indeed, there were Israelites who were “saved” or were believers, such as David, Jehoshaphat, Samuel, and others but the exact number of those who died in faith may never be known this side of eternity.
And note how he uses the concept of “to redeem” those (people) who were under the Law. In the original language, there were three words for “to redeem”, one meaning simply “to purchase”, for example, something from the marketplace. The buyer probably had no prior ownership of anything in the marked (why, then, would he buy it if it was already his?). Then there is a third word, meaning to purchase something with the idea of setting it free., after paying a ransom Here Paul used the second word, meaning to buy back or re-purchase something that had belonged to the owner but was not in his possession at the time.
Here’s an example: suppose I have something of value, say, a gold watch or my wedding band. If I’m in really dire straits, I could sell (okay, “pawn”) something I own in order to get some money or something else. Once I hand over my personal item, it isn’t mine any longer—I’ve given it away for money. Now, if I can find my wedding band, camera, or whatever I had sold or “pawned”, and if it’s still for sale, I could possibly repurchase the item so that it’s mine again.
I would have “redeemed” the item—it used to be mine, then it wasn’t, and now it’s mine again. Full disclosure: I have never done this and I don’t intend to unless I’m really in bad shape, in terms of finances or something else!
There’s another example, one that I remember seeing parts of on a TV program many years ago. The gist of it was that a man was preaching outside and explaining how someone had stolen his camera. He was somehow able to find it (remember, I only saw bits and pieces of his “message” way back when) but was asked (!) to pay a rather large sum of money to get it back. He did this, asking why he was being charged to get his own camera. The reply, incredibly, went something like, “To prove it’s yours; if it wasn’t yours, you wouldn’t pay the fee” or words to that effect.
He redeemed his own camera by paying the price for it.
Now, Paul would surely have known the difference between being a Jewish believer in Jesus and being a non-believer. He had been the one, even persecuting the church (read his mini-autobiography in Philippians 3) but he saw the risen Lord on the road to Damascus (Acts 9) and was a changed man afterwards. He knew that the Jewish people had much to be grateful for, but that they had never, nor could ever, receive salvation simply by being “children of Abraham”. He had seen many Jewish people become believers, and he had seen many reject the message of salvation. He knew that the difference was Jesus and what people thought about Him. He had experienced this redemption himself and wanted others to have it, too.
This, then, was his own Christmas story: Jesus was sent forth from God when everything was at the right moment (“the fullness of time”). Jesus was physically born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem (fulfilling Micah 5:2, by the way) and was born under the Law. He kept the Law until He fulfilled it, years later, when He died for our sins. What a Savior!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
