Author: Gary Witcher

Fulness of Time

	"But when the fulness of the time came," we read in Galatians 4:4-5, "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."
	God sent Jesus in the fulness of the time.  Have you ever pondered the meaning of this statement?  It provides great insight into God's dealings with us.  For example, it indicates to us that God has had a plan from the beginning.
	"And I will put enmity between you and the woman," God warns Satan immediately after Adam and Eve sin, "and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel."
	This reference to Christ's crucifixion and triumphant resurrection indicates that God already has in place a plan of salvation.  But it is not yet time to carry out that plan.
	"I am poured out like water," David writes prophetically in Psalm 22:14-18, "and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within me.  My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and Thou dost lay me in the dust of death.  For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.  I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots."
	Once again, God provides a glimpse of this great future event.  But it is not yet time to carry out that plan.
	"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us," Isaiah 9:6 prophesies, "and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."
	God points to the coming of this child, but it is not yet time to carry out the plan.
	"Behold, days are coming," God declares in Jeremiah 31:31-32, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them." 
	That day is coming, but it is not yet time to carry out the plan.
	"And behold," the angel tells the father of John the Baptizer, "you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their proper time."
	The time is drawing closer, and John will play an important role.  But it is not quite time to carry out the plan.
	Throughout His ministry, Jesus encounters various threats to His life.
	"And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things," Luke 4:28-30 records, "and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.  But passing through their midst, He went His way."
	"Jesus said to them," we find in John 8:58-59, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.' Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple."
	"'If I do not do the works of My Father,'" Jesus observes in John 10:37-39, "'do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.' Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp."
	"And so they were saying to Him," we read in John 8:19-20, "'Where is Your Father?' Jesus answered, 'You know neither Me, nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.' These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come."
	Why can't anyone hurt Jesus?  It's not quite time to carry out the plan.  In John chapter seven, Jesus' brothers try to coax Him into attending a feast in Jerusalem.
	"My time is not yet at hand, but your time is always opportune," the Lord responds in verse six.
	Jesus does go to the feast in secret, though, and before long He is preaching to the people.  The Jewish leaders are not happy about His presence or His teaching.
	"They were seeking therefore to seize Him," John 7:30 observes, "and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come."
	Something changes, though, in the next few chapters of John's Gospel.
	"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified," Jesus expresses in John 12:23.

	History has reached the fulness of time.  It is time for God to put into effect His saving plan.
	"Now before the Feast of the Passover," John 13:1 notes, "Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."
	"These things Jesus spoke," we read in John 17:1-2, "and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life."
	The hour has come; the fulness of the time has almost arrived.  Before long, Jesus will be making his way up Calvary, carrying with Him the sins of the world along with God's plan for redemption.
	"After this," John 19:28-30 says of the final minutes of the crucifixion, "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, *said, 'I am thirsty.'  A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon {a branch of} hyssop, and brought it up to His mouth.  When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit."
	It is finished.  The fulness of the time has arrived.  God has been faithful to His word and to His plan.
	"Paul," Romans 1:1-5 explains, "a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called {as} an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about {the} obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name's sake."
	"Blessed {be} the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," Paul expresses in Ephesians 1:3-11, "who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly {places} in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, {that is}, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will."
	This is real biblical predestination: not that God has chosen select individuals for salvation, but rather that He has presented to us a precise plan for redemption, delivered in the fulness of the time.  What does this careful planning mean to us?
	It means that there are no accidents where salvation is involved.  God is in control.  It also means that God is able to make good on promises for the future.  If He has been able to carry out His plan according to a precise timetable, then nothing will be able to stop Him in the future.  Then, one of the tremendous consequences of the fulness of time is that the Gentiles have equal access to salvation.  That part of God's eternal plan is of great importance to those of us who are Gentiles.
	"Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature," Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 2:6-9, "a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden {wisdom,} which God predestined before the ages to our glory; {the wisdom} which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and {which} have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.'"
	God has a great mystery.  But this New Testament mystery is one, which is revealed.  In the fulness of the time, God opened the door for the Gentiles.
	"For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery," Paul reveals in Romans 11:25, "lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in."
	"Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ," Paul rejoices in Romans 16:25-27, "according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, {leading} to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen."
	God's mystery, carried out exactly in the fulness of time, extends salvation to all.
	"And by referring to this," Paul instructs in Ephesians 3:4-11, "when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; {to be specific}, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.  To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly {places.}  {This was} in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,"
	In the fulness of the time, Jesus died on the cross for you and for me.  He died in accordance with God's eternal plan.  This wonderful plan opens the door of salvation to all, including Gentiles.  It actually offers us the opportunity to become children of God and heirs with Christ.  This is the point of the passage in which we find our original reference to the fulness of time.
	"So also we," Paul teaches in Galatians 4:3-7, "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."
	How shall we respond to God's great plan?
	"And as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come," Acts 24:25 records of Paul's sermon to a Roman governor, "Felix became frightened and said, 'Go away for the present, and when I find time, I will summon you.'"
	Like Felix, we might tell God to wait until it is more convenient for us.  God's time is not good enough for us.  Or we can choose to open our eyes, our ears and our hearts.
	"And working together {with Him,}," Paul insists in 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, "we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain-- for He says, 'At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you'; behold, now is 'the acceptable time,' behold, now is 'the day of salvation'"
	What will it be?  Is God's time good enough, or do we really expect to find something better by waiting?
	"Paul, a bond-servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ," we read in Titus 1:1-3, "for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested, {even} His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior."
	The truth has been manifested, and now is the proper time for us to obey it and be set free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 Used by permission."