The Fullness Of Time

Chapter Twelve
Conclusion

The theological teaching and application of Galatians is clear. It is foolish (Gal 3:1) for any new covenant believer to desire to be subject to the Mosaic covenant as the rule of life for sanctification. To do so would be to submit to a covenant that belonged to the old creation. It was a part of the old order that was characterized by weakness (Rom 8:3). The covenant given at Mt. Sinai was clearly inferior to the new covenant through which alone God intended to grant life and blessing to His people. It was a covenant that was never intended to last beyond the coming of the seed in reference to whom the promises were made. The time of fulfillment has come. The new covenant has been established. Why cling to the old?

This is not to deny that there is obvious continuity between the law that God gave through Moses and the new covenant that He has confirmed in Christ. One of the clear tenets of Paul's system of theology is "God is one" (Gal 3:20;Rom 3:29; cf.Deut 6:4). In Rom 3:29 he asks, "Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles?" He then answers, "Yes, of the Gentiles also, if indeed God is one. . . ." God is not a God of many purposes and programs. He has but one purpose. In all of His actions, whether under the old covenant or the new, His purpose is the revelation of His own glory in the establishment of His sovereign rule over the entire creation. His purpose in giving the Mosaic law to Israel should never be seen as conflicting with His purpose to bless Abraham and his seed through faith. The law is not against the promises of God. "God is one" (Gal 3:20).

This continuity, however, should not be interpreted as a one-to-one equivalency between Israel under the old covenant and the church under the new. The new covenant is really a new covenant, not simply a different administration of the "covenant of grace". The relationship between the covenants is that of type to antitype. Israel (natural) does not equal the church. She is a typical foreshadowing of the church. Her redemption from Egypt is not the same as the believer's redemption from sin's bondage. It is only a foreshadowing of redemption from sin in Christ. Baptism as the initiatory rite of the new covenant is not the equivalent of circumcision under the old covenant. Both have reference to the same need in the human heart. Both point to the same covenant God who sovereignly saves His people. But, neither, apart from faith in Him who justifies the ungodly, places sinners in a saving relationship with God. Israel (natural) was Abraham's seed in a different sense than those in Christ are His seed. Paul's argument in Gal 3 runs like this:

(1) Abraham's seed will be blessed (vv.8,16),
(2) Christ is Abraham's "seed" (v.16),
(3) You are "in Christ" (v.28),
(4) You are "Abraham's seed" (v.29a)
(5) You are "heirs according to the promise" (29b).

Central to his argument is the "in Christ" relationship. Believers are Christ's spiritual seed. No one, whatever his physical relationship with Abraham might be, will any longer enjoy the blessings of the covenants of promise (typical or true) apart from being in Christ through faith. Although the Gentiles were never under the law (Mosaic covenant), they, nonetheless, benefit from the redemptive work of Christ that was defined by that covenant. Believers, both Jew and Gentile, enjoy the fruits of Christ's redemptive work, not because they were under the old covenant, but because they are "in Him" who was made under the law that He might fulfill it in all of its intricate detail. Through His faithfulness, Christ has removed the old covenant as an obstacle to the free bestowal of God's promised blessings. He gives to His believing people a righteousness that more than satisfies those requirements that God, in a general way, revealed to the Gentiles.

Both Israel and the Gentiles possessed the same sinful nature (though the nature of the Gentiles had not been clearly defined by the (Mosaic) law as had the nature of sinful Israelites). Both had the same spiritual needs (They were guilty and needed a perfect righteousness in the presence of God (Rom 3:23). They needed to be cleansed from the defilement of sin). What Christ accomplished, in fulfilling the more extensive demands of the Mosaic law, established a righteous basis on which God can justify believers, both from Israel, on whom stricter requirements were imposed, and from the Gentiles who live under a less clearly defined revelation of the law of God.

We should not assume that the continuity that exists between the covenants is such that it precludes a discontinuity in God's dealings with His elect people. God obviously treated Israel differently under the old covenant than He does the church under the new covenant. The fact that Israel was under the law does not necessitate the imposition of that same standard on the church as a rule of life (on the assumption that both are the "redeemed" people of God). The Mosaic law as a covenant was not given as an abiding, universal standard. God's primary purpose in giving the law to Israel was to reveal the sinful nature of all men, using Israel as a representative sample . The introduction of clearly revealed commandments gave sin the character of transgression, thus exposing the nature and awful plight of sinful rebels. Israel's reaction to that covenant reflected the attitude of every sinner when confronted with God's holy character and unbending demands. Since the law disclosed the awesome perfection of God's holy character, it completely cut off all hope of sinners ever seeing God's face in peace, apart from the faithfulness of Christ in fulfilling its unalterable demands.

In Galatians 4:7, the apostle draws a sharp contrast between the age of promise and the age of fulfillment (the fullness of the time). He sees the act of God in sending forth His Son (v.4) as the grand inaugurating event in the new order of things in Christ. Christ was born under the old covenant order that He might fulfill its every demand and thus redeem His elect people under that covenant from its bondage. In doing so He has established the new covenant. He has entered into the new creation and brought all His believing people with Him. "Old things have passed away . . . all things have become new in Christ."

God's act of sending forth His Spirit is one of great significance in the history of redemption.

It is significant, first of all, because it indicates that the new covenant has been inaugurated; the fullness of the time has come. Otherwise, the Spirit would not be carrying on His present ministry. It is the new covenant, not the old, that promises and grants the blessing of the Holy Spirit (Gal 3:14). If, then, the new covenant has been established, the old must have been displaced (Heb.8:13). Therefore, there are two related, but distinct covenants--the old and the new covenants--not one covenant of grace with two administrations.

Second, the Spirit's ministry is significant because it guarantees that sin will not have dominion over believers (cf. Rom 6:14). It makes provision for the righteousness required by the law to be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Rom 8:4). The new covenant believer is not under the management of the paidagogos, the law covenant that was characterized by weakness. He is under new management (Gal.5:18). If he walks according to the Spirit's rule and in dependence on Him, he will not by any means fulfill the desires of the flesh.

The new covenant believer is not without an objective rule by which to govern his actions or test the authenticity of his devotion to God. To discover God's righteous norm, it is not necessary to return to the Mosaic covenant that God made exclusively with Israel, since the New Testament Scriptures set forth a clear-cut standard according to which the believer's life is to be governed. We must conclude, then, that it is not necessary, in order to avoid antinomianism, to limit the believer's liberty to "freedom from legalism" or from "a misunderstanding concerning the Sinaitic law-covenant". Nor is it necessary to limit the freedom of which Paul writes to freedom from the "ceremonial" and "civil" laws of the Mosaic covenant. We may understand Paul to mean that today's believer is entirely free from the Mosaic law, without being libertine in our approach to the question of a proper standard of behavior, since freedom from Mosaic law is not freedom from all law. Why? Because as new covenant believers, we are "not without law to God but under the law (in-lawed) to Christ" (1 Cor 9:21).