In The Fullness of Time

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son…” Gal. 4:4

‘In the fulness of time’ that is when God acts in accordance with His divine will and plan. He is never early and never late. God also has a divine economy. If His law was set in stone, don’t you think that what followed was also? Although He possesses infinite power, authority, wisdom, and love, what is happening in our lives; whether for good or evil, it is happening in concert with His plan; before His court. His plan, which was made before any of us were made; in fact, nothing that we know or see existed. It is written and viewed from the end to beginning. I spoke of that in a recent post. Nonetheless, God in His economy always uses in the fullness of time the resource proper for the occasion. For example, no angel or man; or a host of angels or men for that matter, could have satisfied God’s wrath for our sin. No, in God’s economy, God Himself was sent forth as a child; born under mean conditions and matured to die; thus, it was written that God was both just and justifier.

Consider too how Jesus directly approached an angry, vindictive, self-righteous Saul heading down the road to Damascus with papers to take Christians into custody. Forgive the bunny trail, but it seemed appropriate that Jesus changed Saul’s name to Paul given that Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin and there was a rejected king of that name. Nonetheless, Jesus appeared to Saul. Why? Paul was an apostle elect, and to be an apostle, the person needed to have physically seen and been with Jesus.

In the instance of Cornelius, the centurion, God sent an angel. Why? Because it was in the fullness of time that God heard and answered Cornelius’ prayers, which led to God’s revelation that the Gospel  would be brought to the Gentiles. On the dark side, it was Lucifer; Satan himself, that approached Eve in the garden in order to sidewise seduce Adam to take a bite from the forbidden fruit. The Devil wasn’t about to send a surrogate to bring down God’s creation; not with the contempt and hatred that Lucifer had for God, and God was not about to entertain a surrogate before Him in His court. No, it was the Devil who approached Him and God pointed out Job. As a result, we learned through Job that God allowed his (and our) testing, while Job’s friends thought it was about unconfessed transgressions. Why does God test? If we trust, we will experience in the fullness of time His power and deliverance… we bring Him our praise; even as we shall cast our crowns at the feet of Jesus when we are with Him in recognition that it was His gift; not our works that carried us to that wonderful place.

Finally, we learn from the Scriptures that Balaam had a donkey, Jonah a whale… God used a whirlwind, earthquakes… Jesus could have used the rocks. Nonetheless, in the greatest economy, God has chosen to use His elect to share the Gospel, to care for the widows and little children… Yes, to bring Him praise, and for us to enjoy Him evermore. Yes, we the people of the body of Christ…what is now intended of you… today, and today being God’s fullness of time? Well, obviously it was meant for you to read this.