START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Galatians 4:4-7
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OBSERVE:
These verses from the letter to the Galatians might be called Paul’s Nativity Story. Unlike the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Paul doesn’t offer dramatic stories of stars and angels and Magi and shepherds. However, like John’s prologue, Paul offers a profound theological interpretation of the birth of Jesus.
He begins with the intersection of time and eternity, and the intersection of the divine and human:
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman…
The phrase that catches our attention is the fullness of the time. The Greek phrase is pleroma tou chronou. Pleroma — meaning fullness — has a rich philosophical and thelogical meaning. It denotes perfect fullness, or completion. And the word chronos — time — may have been understood by Paul as a span of time or even an epoch, or an age. In other words, there is more here than the mere fairy tale meaning “Once upon a time.” Time has reached a preordained goal.
Paul recognizes that the birth of Jesus is the culmination of God’s plan for history. No doubt he implies a connection between the Messianic prophecies of his own people’s Scriptures and the coming of Jesus. In his letter to the Ephesians, he elaborates on this plan, exploring similar concepts. He says that God has:
predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him (Ephesians 1:5-10).
Paul also hints at the unique nature of Jesus as fully human and fully divine. He is God’s Son, who is born of a woman. Once again, this theology of the incarnation is made clear elsewhere, not only in the Gospels but also in Paul’s epistles. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is the eternal Word who is God, through whom all things were made, who also became flesh (John 1:1-2, 14). And Paul tells us that Jesus is equal with God, but takes upon himself the form of human flesh (Philippians 2:5-7).
Paul then makes clear that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Hebrew covenant. Jesus is:
born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law…
Jesus is not only Son of God and Son of Mary, he is clearly the Jewish Messiah who has come to redeem not only the people of Israel but all who believe.
And his redeeming work creates a new relationship between God and those who are redeemed. The legal covenant is replaced with a familial relationship:
that we might receive the adoption of children.
To be clear — only Jesus has a real, organic relationship with God the Father as God the Son. He is, as the King James Version eloquently expresses it, the only begotten Son of the Father (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18). Those who are adopted as children of God are adopted for the sake of Jesus the Son of God.
And Paul further explores the Trinitarian nature of God. Believers in Jesus are adopted as children of God for his sake, and they can know that they are children of God through the witness of the Holy Spirit. Note that the Spirit here is called the Spirit of his Son.
The Spirit bears witness in the heart of the believer in a vivid manner:
crying, “Abba, Father!”
**Because the believer has been adopted as a child of God, he/she knows in their spirit through the inner voice of the Spirit of God that they belong to God. They are made heirs of God through Christ, and have the privilege of calling the Sovereign Lord of the Universe Father!
There have been various interpretations of the Aramaic word Abba in Biblical scholarship. Some have said that it is the affectionate term that a child might have called a father in ancient Judaism — like an American child saying “Daddy!”. Others say it simply means father and nothing more. But the intimacy of Paul’s description here, where the Spirit speaks in the heart of the believer, leads me to believe that something more intimate is meant.
The fact is, the believer has been transferred in status from a detached relationship as a bondservant to the intimate relationship of a child and heir of God.
APPLY:
Through these brief verses from Paul’s unique Nativity Story, we receive a glimpse of many dimensions of Biblical doctrine. There is an allusion to God’s plan for history, revealed in the fullness of time through the birth of Jesus. There is the work that God does in the heart of the believer through his Son and through his Spirit. And there is a hint about the character and interrelation of God as Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Paul clearly believes in God’s plan for history. His references to the prophets throughout his letters makes this faith clear. History has a beginning, a middle, and an end. History is not, as Shakespeare’s Macbeth might say “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” This is comforting when so much in our world seems to make no sense. God has a purpose for his creation, and for us.
An enormous part of that plan is worked out in our lives. The Son of God has been sent at the right time, born of a woman, to redeem those who are condemned by the rigorous standards of the law — which means all of us. Jesus fulfills the law on our behalf so that his righteousness becomes our righteousness (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). And because of the redemption of Jesus, we may be adopted as children of God. Even more, we can know that we are adopted as children of God, because like children excited to see their Father, we can cry out Abba, Father! The Spirit of God’s Son bears witness in our very hearts that we are his children! As Paul writes in a passage that closely parallels Galatians 4:4-7:
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17).
Perhaps the most astounding claim that we have is that we are co-heirs with Christ. This implies that whatever Christ inherits from the Father, we inherit — a glorified resurrection body, eternal life, and heaven itself!
And, finally, we gain an insight into the inner working of the Trinity. God the Father sends his Son, who is God incarnate, to redeem us and provide the means of our adoption as his children. And God’s own Spirit testifies to us that God is our Abba, Father. The work of salvation, redemption, and adoption, are the work of the Triune God from inception to consummation.
RESPOND:
This passage seems appropriate for this season, as the calendar year comes to an end. Paul’s poignant phrase — the fullness of the time — reminds us of the convergence of important dates in our season. We have only very recently celebrated Christmas Day, the remembrance of the only begotten Son of the Father, born of a woman at Bethlehem.
And as the New Year begins, we look forward to the “great unknown” — the future. The future is like a frontier which we will not understand until we experience it — when the future becomes the present with each passing day. We have no idea what the weather will really be like this coming winter; or who will be elected in the coming year; or what loved ones we might lose.
And yet, we receive a forecast of the future in this passage from Paul — through Christ, and confirmed through the Spirit, we can know now that we have been adopted as children of God, and that we will one day inherit all that Christ has inherited.
Our Lord, in the fullness of time you came for us; and through your Holy Spirit you continue to come into our lives so that we are able to cry out, like excited children “Abba, Father!” Thank you for adopting us as your children and making us a part of your family. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Fullness of Time” uses the following photo:
“Hourglass” by Nick Olejniczak is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.
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