'When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth
His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that
He might redeem them which were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons.'--GAL.
iv. 4, 5 (R.V.).
It is generally supposed that by the 'fulness of time' Paul means to
indicate that Christ came at the moment when the world was especially
prepared to receive Him, and no doubt that is a true thought. The Jews
had been trained by law to the conviction of sin; heathenism had tried
its utmost, had reached the full height of its possible development, and
was decaying. Rome had politically prepared the way for the spread of
the Gospel. Vague expectations of coming change found utterance even
from the lips of Roman courtier poets, and a feeling of unrest and
anticipation pervaded society; but while no doubt all this is true and
becomes more certain the more we know of the state of things into which
Christ came, it is to be noted that Paul is not thinking of the fulness
of time primarily in reference to the world which received Him, but to
the Father who sent Him. Our text immediately follows words in which the
air is described as being 'under guardians and stewards' until the time
appointed of His Father, and the fulness of time is therefore the moment
which God had ordained from the beginning for His coming. He, from of
old, had willed that at that moment this Son should be born, and it is
to the punctual accomplishment of His eternal purpose that Paul here
directs our thoughts. No doubt the world's preparedness is part of the
reason for the divine determination of the time, but it is that divine
determination rather than the world's preparedness to which the first
words of our text must be taken to refer.
The remaining portion of our text is so full of meaning that one shrinks
from attempting to deal with it in our narrow space, but though it opens
up depths beyond our fathoming, and gathers into one concentrated
brightness lights on which our dim eyes can hardly look, we may venture
to attempt some imperfect consideration even of these great words.
Following their course of thought we may deal with