Galatians 3:23-4:7 – It’s About Time
When was Jesus born? The one that Isaiah called Wonderful - when was this child born, and when was this Son given? There are many ways to answer that question.
Was Jesus born on December 25th? For about 1800 years, that has been the date assigned to His birth. However, December 25th was also widely celebrated day in the Roman world. On that date, citizens celebrated the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun in honor of the Sun god, Mithras. The festival took place just after the winter solstace. Many modern Christmas customs, such as decorating a house with greenery, exchanging gifts and enjoying festive meals, originated with this pagan celebration. Scholars believe that Pope Julius selected December 25th as the date of the nativity in order to win followers of Mithras as well as giving Christians an opportunity to honor Christ on his birth date.
Well, maybe it was some other time in winter, then. It’s possible that the sheep in the fields were kept outside year round. However, I have also read that sheep were kept inside during the winter, from November to March. So, it may have been winter, maybe not.
Well, what about the year then? Did Jesus’ birth cleanly split BC and AD? Our modern calendar came about in 525AD, when Pope John the 1st asked the monk Dionysius to prepare a standardized calendar. Unfortunately, the monk missed some history classes in his schooling, and he forgot to take into account that Herod died shortly after Jesus’ birth. Herod’s death was fairly well-documented. So, according to our calendar today, Jesus was born in either late 5BC or early 4BC.
So where do we go from here? Jesus may or may not have been born on December 25, He may or may not have been born in the winter, and He was born 4 or 5 years before the era we call, “in the year of our Lord.” What do we know? We do know one thing: He was born at just the right time.
Two weeks ago, we saw that Jesus was born at the right time culturally. Most of the world spoke one common language, Greek, so the message of God’s love could spread easily. Last week we saw that Jesus was born at the right time politically. There was one government, the Roman government, which brought many blessings to the spread of the message: peace, roads, citizenship, protection, privileges, a postal system, and so on. And this week we will see that Jesus was born at the right time spiritually. The world was as ready as they would ever be to hear and receive the message of the birth and death of a Savior.
Our passage of scripture today is a little longer than normal, but it reflects the longing that was in people’s hearts before Christ came. Let’s read Galatians 3:23-4:7, one paragraph at a time. V23-25.
It starts off by comparing “faith” or “this faith” (v23) to what it was like before. Faith set us free from the prison, the confinements that we had when we tried to get right with God by being good enough. The new way to God, by faith in His Son, was better by far than what the people had been living for so long. The world was ready to understand the one true God as He really was. Let’s recap some of the Israelite history.
In 2000BC, Abraham had an understanding and a revelation of the one true God. Considering he was in the midst of a polytheistic culture, he understood that there was only one God. He understood, but his children kept on following after as many gods as they could!
Skip ahead 600 years. In 1400BC, Moses had a further revelation of there being only one real God. Moses came to understood God’s nature. But at the same time Moses received the revelation, the Hebrew people at the bottom of the mountain were worshipping a golden calf. And the battle continued as the question lingered: Whom will you worship?
400 years later, David was a man after the heart of the one true God. However, even though David’s son Solomon had more wisdom than anyone, he ended up building shrines to stacks of other gods. Under his son, Rehoboam, the kingdom split, and idolatry flourished.
The northern kingdom was overrun by the Assyrians in 722BC, some 200 years after the kingdoms split. And the southern kingdom was overrun Babylonians in 586, almost 350 years later. But the Babylonian exile of the Southern kingdom of Judah really smartened them up, as hard times often do. It’s funny how, when things are going well, we can be pretty lazy on what we believe, what we think is important, what we worship, all the things that make up our faith “identity”. But send us into problems, and we tighten up our theological belt buckles. We begin to cling again to things that really matter. And it is true to say that in the furnace of Babylon the Jews began to cling to, to identify with once again, the One true God and monotheism, their true roots.
And when the Persian Empire under Cyrus took over the Babylonians, the monotheistic influence was increased again, as the Persians were Zoroastrians, monotheists. In fact, some think the Magi were Zoroastrian priests. At any rate, the Jews were finally delivered from following the idols of the pagan nations around them.
At the end of the exile, when the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland, the Jewish scriptures, the OT as we call it, were collected into their Canon. And they certainly tightened up their spiritual belt buckles. But what happened was, they got on one side of the log, and fell off the other. They began to pay attention to God again, and the law He had given, but, as often happens with religion, they took it to the extreme. The 10 commandments became 613 do’s and don’ts. And the law, which was good, instead of being a giver of life, which it was meant to be, began to strangle them.
The Law was intended to be freedom, but as with most things, a holy thing in the hands of men becomes dirty and putrid. The Law was good, holy and perfect. But how it was interpreted by the leaders left a lot to be desired. The Law was interpreted to mean that God favored the strong over the weak, the man over the woman, the healthy over the sick, the rich over the poor, the religious over the irreligious, the fit-ins over the misfits, the Jews over the Gentiles. And so, if you weren’t the right person, you were left out.
Our passage today shows that the Law was meant to be a schoolmaster or a tutor – “put in charge”, “supervision”. It was the guardian of God’s people until something better happened. Now, the thing about a schoolmaster is that he or she is useful, but you can’t stay there forever. You are not meant to be under a teacher for your whole life. The schoolmaster is meant to prepare you to live productive and fruitful lives without hounding you. The goal is not to forget what you have learned when you leave, but to apply it and live it because you want to. That’s where faith comes in.
Jesus changed that. Because of His death, our sins could be forgiven, not just covered over. We could be changed, and not just reformed. And we could be called God’s children, not just His servants or pupils. School is meant to prepare us to live, not to be the only place we ever live. God had something better in store. Chuck Swindoll put it this way: “If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.” And this saving act of Jesus changed everything. It leveled the playing field. We all gained equal access to God. Read v26-29.
It had been the longing in people’s hearts to be right with God, but the way the religion was running actually kept people away from Him. Sometimes churches are like that. Emile Wolfaart said, “There is something wrong when people are leaving the church to find God.” Christmas can be like that too. So much to say, so little really said.
Do our lives so the same thing? Do our lives so that what we could have is deep meaning, purpose and satisfaction in life, but all that I’m going to show you is that I just want it my own way? Do we show that there is something more, but I’m going to hide it from you? Do our own 613 extra laws put up unnecessary barriers: Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t play cards, don’t go to movies, read only my Bible translation… Is this what we choose to be about?
Ah, but I’m glad that God didn’t stop there, merely teasing us with the thought that things could be better, but never really giving it to us. Read 4:1-7. At just the right time, He brought a better way. No more checklists of what makes God happy and what makes Him mad. Away with the endless rules of how to stay off His naughty list. Jesus introduced the way of faith, of trusting in Him and in His goodness, not worrying so much about ours.
We don’t forget the rules we learned when we were underneath the schoolmaster – we don’t turn our backs on what the Bible says we are to do and not to do. But rather, we find freedom in going to Him for forgiveness. We walk in grace. We rely on His love. We give and receive mercy. These are the full rights as children, as 4:5 says. This is the life God has now called us to.
Christmas shows us that Jesus alone can fulfill the longing in our hearts. Not more friends, not more money, not more stuff. We don’t need more rules and traditions. We need more substance in what we have. And Jesus is that substance. He is why we have Christmas – don’t leave Him out of your celebrations. He is why we can have faith – don’t take Him for granted. He is why you can be forgiven – don’t try to go on your own steam. This is what we call Christmas… the gift of God’s Son into our world and into our hearts. Jesus came at just the right time. Make sure you give Him your time.
