The Fullness Of Time

Chapter Three
The Central Text: Galatians 4:4-7

An Exposition of the New Covenant Order:
God Sent Forth His Son--God Sent Forth His Spirit

Galatians 5:1, "Stand fast, therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage," has often been identified as the theme verse of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Although it is true that the duty of the Galatian believers with respect to the Mosaic economy is clearly set forth in this verse9, it seems to make more sense, in terms of organizing the theology of this Epistle, to see Gal 4:4-7 as its central text.10 All of the major themes of the Epistle can be traced back to these verses. It is at this point that 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. Thus, the Epistle may described as an exposition of the character of the new order, the age of fulfillment, in contrast to the old order. In explaining the new covenant order of things, the apostle seems to concern himself with two major lines of thought, both of which belong to God's redemptive-historical activity. He first tells his readers that "God sent forth His Son" and then, as a necessary consequence of His redemptive accomplishments, that "He sent forth His Spirit."

In these verses, the apostle seems to summarize the entire epistle. Although these two major lines of thought are not totally segregated in the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul places greater emphasis, in chapters 1-4, on the work of Christ in establishing the new order and, in chapters 5-6, on the work of the Spirit as the administrator of the new order.

He describes the manner in which the Son was sent forth, or, to put it another way, the mode of existence into which it was necessary for the Christ to enter that He might establish that new order--He was made of woman, made under the law (v.4). He, then, states the reason for His being thus made, i.e., to redeem those who were under the law (v.5). The purpose of that redemption of Israel from under the law is that "we" (both Jews and Gentiles) might receive the son-placing (v.5)11. It is a major concern of the apostle to explain how this redemption from the law has been effected, i.e., through the faith[fulness] of Christ (2:16,20;3:22)12. The apostle then introduces the sending of the Holy Spirit as a necessary consequence of the work of the Redeemer (v.6). In fact, it is the presence of the Spirit that defines the character of the new covenant order of things.

The Fullness of the Time

The words "but when the fullness of the time came" form the pivotal phrase in the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. It is, after all, the period of time that is described by this phrase which the entire Pauline body of truth is intended to describe and explain. Herman Ridderbos has written concerning the starting point of Paul's preaching,

The whole content of this preaching can be summarized as the proclamation and explication of the eschatological time of salvation inaugurated with Christ's advent, death and resurrection (Ridderbos 1987,44).

The Two Occurrences of the Phrase

The first issue that we must explore is the way in which the apostle uses this phrase. Does he simply mean something like "when the proper time had come" or does the phrase have a deeper meaning than that? This phrase (or a phrase almost identical to it) occurs twice in the Pauline literature (Gal 4:4; Eph. 1:10). In the Ephesian passage it denotes that period of time during which all things will be gathered together under Christ's headship. Paul wrote,

. . .when He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him (Christ) with a view to the administration of the fullness of the times, to bring everything together under one head in Christ, both the things in heaven and on the earth in Him (vv.9-10).

Related Motifs

It is noteworthy that many of the motifs that surround this concept in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians are the same as those which are associated with it in the Galatian Epistle. The similarity of the themes associated with this concept in both passages, suggests that it is to be understood in the same way in both. These motifs are: 1. the purpose of the Father (Eph 1:3-5,9,11), 2. inheritance (Eph 1:11,14), 3. the temporal priority of Jewish believers over Gentile believers (Eph 1:11-13), 4. the sending of the promised Spirit (Eph 1:13-14).

The Father's Predestined Purpose

In the Galatians passage, the words "but when the fullness of the time came" (4:4) answer to the phrase, "the time appointed by the Father (4:2). Thus, it is clear that this time of fulfillment has come about in accordance with the predestined purpose of the Father.

Inheritance

Paul, in the Galatians passage, also comments on the believer's inheritance in Christ. In doing so, he draws an important epochal distinction between the inheritance rights of old and new covenant believers in relation to adoption. As far a the Gentiles were concerned, they had no right at all to the inheritance prior to the coming of Christ. Paul wrote to the Ephesians concerning their condition prior to the coming of Christ,

Wherefore, remember that formerly you were Gentiles in the flesh and were called uncircumcision by those who are called circumcision in the flesh, handmade. That you were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope and were without God in the world (Eph 2:11-12).

Before God sent forth His Son, the Gentiles had no inheritance. The promises of the covenant had no meaning to them unless they became proselyte Jews. It is only because they have been placed as sons (adopted) into the family of God that they are now heirs of the promises made to Abraham. Paul wrote, "but if you are a son, you are also an heir through God" (Gal 4:7). The situation even of believers under the old covenant was the exact opposite. They were heirs of everything that God had promised, but they were no better off than a slave in spite of their inheritance (Gal 4:1). It was only at the coming of Christ that they became sons in the true sense of the word (prior to this they had been sons only in a typical sense). Before God sent forth His Son, the Gentiles were neither sons nor heirs. The believing Jews were heirs but not yet mature sons. When Christ came, both believing Jews and Gentiles became the adopted sons of God and now enjoy the promised inheritance together. It is important to understand that neither the Jews nor the Gentiles are (nor ever were) heirs to any promised spiritual blessing on the basis of physical descent from Abraham.

To the Jew First

A third motif that emerges in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is the temporal priority of God's dealings with the Jews and their situation under the law. It needs to be emphasized that unless the demands of the law were met there could be no free bestowal of blessings on either the believing Jews or the believing Gentiles. Thus, God sent forth His Son, made of woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law (the Jews) in order that we (both Jews and Gentiles) might receive the son-placing (adoption) Gal 4:5.

The Advent of the Spirit

Finally, both the Ephesians and Galatians passages mention the giving of the promised Holy Spirit whose indwelling presence in believers indicates that the new covenant era has been inaugurated.

All of these motifs or themes are consistent with the promises of the new covenant. Paul employs them in the Galatian passage to indicate that believers in the churches of Galatia along with believers today are living in what Paul calls the administration (dispensation) of the fullness of the times (Eph 1:10). This is the time of fulfillment in contrast to the age of type and promise. It is that period which began with the incarnation, resurrection and ascension of Christ (which, of course, must not be separated from the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit) and will continue until every detail of the purpose of God has been realized.

Difference in Emphasis

There is a slight difference in emphasis in Paul's two uses of the expression "the fullness of the time." In the Galatian Epistle, the focus of his attention seems to be on the inauguration of this time of fulfillment. It comes at the end of that extensive period of time (chronou) that was characterized by expectation (the period during which even believing Israelites were treated like immature heirs). What Paul is emphasizing here is that the age of promise has ended and the age of fulfillment has begun. The time has come and we are now living in it.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, he seems to take a broader view which encompasses the whole period from inauguration to consummation. The time (kairos) which Paul has in mind as he writes to the Ephesians is the time during which God will fulfill all of His yet unfulfilled promises and bring to consummation all of the foregoing redemptive-historical events in which God has intervened on behalf of His people. This is that time to which all other times have pointed for fulfillment. In both passages, it is the same period of time which is in view. It is the inaugurated but yet to be consummated kingdom of Christ to which he refers. Thus, we must not think that Paul is talking about two separate and distinct periods of time in these two epistles. He is simply, in the Galatians passage, focusing more sharply on the inauguration of the new covenant order .

The Dispensational View

Of course, classical dispensationalism saw a far greater distinction between these two passages. It referred Gal 4:4 to the time of Christ's coming to redeem His people from the law, but, it saw Eph 1:10 as a reference to the yet future reign of Christ. C.I. Scofield wrote,

This, the seventh and last of the ordered ages which condition human life on earth, is identical with the kingdom covenanted to David (2 Sam 7. 8-17; Zech. 12:8. . . .), and gathers into itself under Christ all past "times": . . . (Scofield 1945,1250).

Similarly, Charles C. Ryrie, in his book Dispensationalism Today has commented,

Most commentaries that are not premillennial refer the phrase "The dispensation of the fullness of the times" (Eph. 1:10) to the present gospel age, while those that are premillennial refer it to the millennial kingdom (Ryrie,1967,53).

There has been a tendency in both classical dispensationalism and classical covenant theology to go to extremes in interpreting such passages as these. The tendency of covenant theology has been to see everything as having been fulfilled at the first advent of Christ with no possibility of any further fulfillment. The tendency of dispensationalism has been to see at Christ's first advent no true fulfillment of those promises which in the Old Testament seem to be spoken to natural Israel alone. It has seen all such promises as postponed until the second advent. It is far better to recognize that Christ, at His first advent, ushered in the age of fulfillment during which such promises find true realization. The prophecies that were fulfilled at the first advent of the Messiah have not been exhausted. For example, all that Joel foresaw as characteristic of the Messianic age did not occur on the day of Pentecost. There are cataclysmic phenomena that are to occur in conjunction with the second advent of the Messiah. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit which took place at that time was, nonetheless, a direct fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. Kenneth Barker, in describing what he calls "the progressive fulfillment of prophecy", has distinguished between "direct" fulfillment and "final and complete" fulfillment (Barker forthcoming, 35). Although Joel's prophecy received a direct fulfillment on the day of Pentecost, so that it does not need to wait for some future establishment of the kingdom, it has not yet received its final and complete fulfillment which belongs to the same eschatological period which Peter calls "the last days" (Acts 2:17). Thus, the fulfillment of the new covenant falls into an "already/not yet" category. It has been inaugurated but not yet consummated.

Other Expressions for the Same Truth

There are other terms and phrases that the writers of the New Testament use to express the same truth. Paul often refers to the "mystery" that has now been revealed. In doing so he draws a sharp distinction between the yet hidden (but clearly prophesied and promised) purposes of God during the Old Testament period and the full disclosure of those purposes and fulfillment of those promises in Christ. Believers since the first advent of Christ have lived in the period referred to as "these last days" (Heb 1:2). This is the time to which Isaiah referred when he wrote. "In a time of acceptance I have heard you and in a time of salvation I have helped you" (Isa 49:8; cf. 2 Cor 6:2). Now is the time of acceptance; now is the day of salvation. That for which old covenant believers had waited so long, has finally dawned.

Another phrase that Paul employs in the articulation of this truth is that of the "new creation." Even though the believer still lives in the old age, "in Christ" he has been delivered from it (Gal 1:4). He is now part of the new creation (2 Cor 5:17). It is common for 2 Cor 5:17 to be interpreted in terms of the believers subjective experience as follows: "If anyone is a Christian he has been changed inwardly so that he is no longer the person he used to be. Now the things of his pre-conversion life have passed away and all things have become new." Although this is a truth that is clearly taught in the New Testament, it is not the primary truth that Paul communicates in this verse. He rather has reference to the new mode of existence or new age into which the believer "in Christ" has entered. This "new creation" or new age of existence begins with the institution of the new covenant "in Christ." It is contrasted with the old age instituted "in Adam" at the fall of mankind. George E. Ladd has written to this effect concerning this "new creation,"

`The new aeon, which has dawned with Christ, brings a new creation, the creation of a new man,' This must be understood within Paul's total eschatological perspective. The "new creation" obviously does not refer primarily to a renovation of the physical world; this new creation awaits the eschatological consummation (Rom. 8:21). The statement must be defined in terms of what Paul sees new in Christ. The passing of the old does not mean the end of the old age; it continues until the parousia. But the old age does not remain intact; the new age has broken in. In Christ there is deliverance from the present evil age (Gal. 1:4). In Christ men need no longer be conformed to the old age (Rom. 12:2). The new covenant with God has already come into existence (I Cor. 11:25). God has wrought a new creation in Christ that should express itself in good works (Eph. 2:10). He has created "one new man" that is constituted of all who are in Christ, whether Jews or Gentiles (Eph. 2:15) (Ladd,1986,480)

It is the dawning of this new age (the fullness of the time), this new creation which forms the basis for Paul's argument in the Epistle to the Galatians. The Mosaic law, the Mosaic covenant, belonged to the old order, the old age. Thus, Paul argues that subjection to the law would involve a return to the immaturity and bondage of that old order. But, why should anyone wish to do so? The fullness of the time, the time appointed by the Father for the bestowal of the full enjoyment of the inheritance, has come. Paul's question is a simple one. Why go back?

There is a two-fold event that signals the inauguration of the new order; the personal advent of Christ and the personal advent of the Holy Spirit (Gal 4:4-7). In the chapters that follow, in parts two and three, we will concern ourselves with those truths that Paul sets forth in the Epistle to the Galatians which have relevance to this two-fold event. In doing so we will seek to answer the following questions: What was the purpose of the law? What did Paul mean when he compared the law to a "schoolmaster?" Is the function that Paul describes the present function of the law? Whom did Christ redeem from the curse of the law? What is the significance of the phrase "in Christ" in the Epistle to the Galatians? What is the significance of the phrase, "the faith of Christ" in the Pauline Epistles? What does the allegory of Abraham's two sons (4:21-31) teach us? What is the significance of the present ministry of the Holy Spirit in relation to Paul's argument in this epistle? What is the liberty which the new covenant believer enjoys? Does love replace law?

9 Gal 5:1 should be viewed as a practical conclusion that follows from the theme which Paul has established in his main argument, i.e., the freedom of the new covenant believer from the old covenant.

10 The conclusion that 4:4-7 forms the central text in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is a thematic and theological, not a structural one. If John Bligh is correct in viewing the entire epistle as a chiasm, in which 4:1-10 forms the central chiasm, his observations would lend support this conclusion. The following is the structural pattern that he has observed in the Epistle:

He has further identified 4:4-5 as the crux of the central chiasm (Bligh 1969, 38-9).

11 See further Chapter 8, "The Purpose of Israel's Confinement Under the Law as it Relates to the Gentiles."

12 See Chapter 5.