by Rev. Donald Nicolson, Raasay.
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Galations 4:4, 5.
Nothing grieved Paul more than to see men departing from the truth as the Galations had done: “Oh foolish Galations, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth.” If the Apostle lived in our day how deeply grieved he would be to see the flood of iniquity that is over our land, and all lands. And is this not all due to the forsaking of the truth, as in the case of the Galations? There may be many who are asking with Daniel of old, “What shall be the end of these things?” Abominations always without fail lead to misery and desolation; it cannot be different in our day. It may well be that a true description of “the end of these things” is given in Psalm 46, especially in verses eight and nine, where the Psalmist speaks of the desolation that God has made in the earth when wars are made to cease and turned into peace unto the ends of the earth. When that will be we are told: It is when God will burn up all the chariots of fire. As long as man can lay hold of chariots of war there will be wars, but when they are all burned up the scene will be different.
The departure of the Galations from the truth led them to embrace what Paul calls “another gospel”, which led them in turn to seek justification by a mixture of faith and works, and not by faith alone. It is for this serious error that Paul rebukes the Galations: “Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” No addition is required; faith and the works of the law cannot go together. This he illustrates clearly from the case of Abraham, for “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness”. All his seed shall be justified in the same way to the end of time. The gospel that was preached to Abraham is the same that is preached to us today, and it does not prescribe a different way of salvation.
In the immediate context the Church under the Old Dispensation is compared to a child who is an heir, but until he comes of age there is no difference between him and a servant. The Church, therefore, under the Ceremonial Law was under a yoke and a burden which lasted until the appointed time when the promised seed came.
It may also be added that the Old Testament Church was a child in knowledge, for, although they had a true revelation of the promised Messiah, yet a dark cloud rested on that revelation; a cloud which is we believe symbolised by the Pillar of Cloud by which they were led in the wilderness. But now that “the true light now shineth” Paul points out that there is no need for them to be “entangled again with the yoke of bondage”.
We have in our text Christ coming into the world in the fulness of time, and in our meditation upon this passage of Scripture we may consider the following divisions:
- I. State of those redeemed: They “were under the law”.
- II. Their Redeemer: The Son of God.
- III. Their Redemption.
I. We have first the state of those under the law. This can only mean the Moral Law, since the Ceremonial Law was given exclusively to the Jews. It did not apply to the Gentiles at any time. We have here, therefore, the law of man’s creation which is binding upon all men, Jews and Gentiles. The law is summed up in one word, ‘love’, and was written in man’s constitution when he was created. It was not difficult for him to love God with all his heart and all his strength since this was his great delight and happiness. Had he continued in obedience to the law he would have lived in holiness and in fellowship with his God. But although God made man upright he sought out many inventions. He became a transgressor of the law, and the evil and the consequences of his transgression are infinite. Though he is still under the law he is now in a very different state; his relationship to the law has changed, but the law has not changed and the covenant is still in force. God has joined man to the law, and this union can never be dissolved except in Christ. When the sinner is in Christ by faith he becomes dead to the law as the Scriptures show in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans verse four: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. However, although the believer becomes dead to the law as a Covenant, yet, as Calvin says, he still has the law as the “everlasting rule of a good and holy life”.
It is clear from the Scriptures that Adam’s sin is imputed to all his descendants, that they have all sinned and died in him: “Wherefore as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”. We are by nature alienated from God; sin and death reign over us, and we are in the grasp of “him that has the power of death”.
There are multitudes, especially in our day, who have no concern about, or consciousness of, their fearful condition. Those who care to use their eyes and search the Scriptures will find there and nowhere else a true description of the low state of man under the law. Our condition is described in the Word of God with unerring precision. If we do not come to know our state in reality and truth it will be impossible for us to see our real need of the Saviour: “They that are whole need not a physician”. This is the reason why the Saviour is despised so much in our day. Many, like the Pharisees of old, are blind and have no sin; therefore their sin remains. If our view of sin is defective our view of the Redeemer will be likewise. However much we deceive ourselves this does not improve or change our condition in the least. This is one of the worst aspects of sin – its deceitfulness: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”. Sin deceives and deludes man in such a way that he will “call evil good and good evil”; he will “put darkness for light and light for darkness” and “bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter”. At the same time he is amongst the wisest in his own estimation. Many are the terms in Scripture which describe the woeful condition of man under the law. He is under condemnation. Those who are under the sentence of condemnation are kept in prison until the day of execution. This is exactly the state in which man is by nature. He is the prisoner of the law of God under the sentence of condemnation, and the day when the sentence will be carried out may come at any time. It is only delayed because of the mercy and long-suffering of God. This is the fearful state of man under the law, and the law cannot help him in the least. Every time he sins the law pronounces a curse upon him, for “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them”. So man under the law is treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
It was for this purpose that Christ came into the world to deliver those who had sold themselves for nought and were captives under the law.
II. Secondly, we have here in our text their Redeemer, the Son of God. The first thing that is said of Him is that He was sent in the fulness of time. Four thousand years had passed since God gave the first promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent; and there were many since then who looked for the Saviour, for the promise to be fulfilled. Christ tells his hearers, “For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” The “fulness of time” had not come. God always fulfils His word at His own set time. He is faithful, and it will certainly speak in the end. “For the vision is yet for an appointed time,” says the prophet Habakkuk, “but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” It will tarry beyond our time to try our faith as it was with many of those prophets and kings who looked eagerly for the Saviour, but it will not tarry one moment beyond God’s time. What may be ages and ages to us is but a moment in the calendar of heaven: “For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is passed and as a watch in the night”. The Covenant of Grace is “ordered in all things and sure”; and, if it is ordered and sure in other events, it is most certainly in this most glorious of all events.
The time which had been ordained in the providence of God was the most proper and seasonable time. All things leading up to this momentous event had been fulfilled as they were appointed by God. The Ceremonial Law had fulfilled the purpose for which it was given and the Old Dispensation and the Old Covenant were nearing their end, and God was about to establish the New and everlasting Covenant. The time was approaching also when the Gentiles were to hear the Gospel and the middle wall of partition between Gentiles and Jews was to be broken down. God’s eye was on all those on whom He had set His purpose amongst the Gentiles, and the call must come to them at the appointed time. For all the redeemed are the children of promise as Isaac was, and the set time when each one of them are called is fixed in the purpose of God as Paul shows us, “For this is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.” The works of Providence are an infinite ocean which no creature can fathom or follow. The most enlightened can only see a glimmer of light here and there; but “the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee”, says the Psalmist.
The next thing that is said of the Redeemer is that He was sent forth of God. This was the greatest event that ever took place in the history of the world. When the Father sent His Son into the world He sent One like Himself. The Father and the Son are of the same nature and essence, and their names in Scripture are often identical. In Psalm 110 the Holy Spirit has made known the first words spoken by the Father to the Son when He ascended up into heaven after He had made an end of the sins of His people. David says through the Spirit, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool”. No eye can detect any difference between these two names. In the forty fifth Psalm as interpreted by Paul in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews the Father says to the Son, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom”. Isaiah also calls the Child who was to be born to the church, “The mighty God”. The Scriptures in many other places bear the same testimony to the Son.
The attributes of the Father and of the Son are also the same. In the Gospel of John, chapter five, verse 19, Christ in speaking of the Father says, “For what things soever He doeth these also doeth the Son likewise”. These words show clearly that the Son is of equal power with the Father. So is His knowledge or His omniscience. In John 10: verse 15 Christ says: “As the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father”. If He had said that He knew the whole of creation including the hearts of all men that would be knowledge which no creature can comprehend, but that is nothing compared to having perfect knowledge of God.
These words, “God sent forth His Son”, speak of the pre-existence of the Son, like many other passages of Scripture. John the Baptist says that Christ was before him, though he was born six months before Christ. So does Paul, like many others, testify in the same way. He says in his first Epistle to the Corinthians that Christ was in the Church in the wilderness in Old Testament times. These words also make known the personality of the Son as distinct from that of the Father. The One sends and the Other is sent, which proves that they are distinct persons.
The third thing that is said of the Son of God is that “He was made of a woman”, and here we have the Incarnation. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”. This is the first step in the humiliation of the Redeemer. Here is infinite condescension. The One who made the world came to dwell in it, and in visiting the world He enriched it and brought countless blessings to millions of its inhabitants who had ruined and destroyed themselves by their sin. The Trinity took part in the Incarnation. The body of Christ was prepared by the Father, begotten by the Holy Ghost, and received by the Saviour into everlasting union with His Divine Person. When the human nature of Christ came into being it was in union with His Godhead; it never subsisted but in the Person of the Son of God. We believe that Christ never performed any act in which He took more delight than in the Incarnation, since it was the first step in the mission which He had undertaken to deliver His captives, His Bride, who were captives under the law. One of the wonders of the Incarnation is that the human nature is not consumed when it is so near the Godhead, since God is a consuming fire. This we believe is signified by the burning bush, the great sight which Moses saw in connection with another deliverance of the Israelites when God came down to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt. The bush was burning and it was not consumed.
The Redeemer took part in our nature. There is only one human nature. The Lord hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth”, as Paul declares in Acts chapter 17, verse 26. He traces the origin of all men to the One source; the whole human race were in Adam when he was created. We were in the loins of Adam just as Levi was in the loins of Abraham hundreds of years before Levi was born. This truth is taught in the Epistle to the Romans chapter 5, verse 12, where we are told that we had part in Adam’s sin and that death passed upon us all, for that all have sinned. So then it was from him that we derived our guilt, our corruption and our nature. Therefore we are all branches of the same corrupt tree. This is the nature in which Christ took part, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He likewise took part of the same”. So we are told here that it is the same nature and not another of the same kind. The Human nature of Christ could not be brought from heaven; neither could it be created immediately. It had to be our nature, since the law requires that satisfaction must be given in the very nature in which sin was committed. The mother of Jesus had the same nature as we have since she also was part of Adam. The Holy Spirit took of the substance of the woman and sanctified this part of our nature when He formed the body of Christ.
Some one may say “that Christ took upon Him the nature of the seed of Abraham”, but this is not found in the Bible anywhere in this order. It is quite true that Christ took upon Him the seed of Abraham; but this does not mean that the seed of Abraham had a nature different from that of others, since the Scriptures make it quite clear that there is no difference between us. We are all one in guilt, corruption as also in nature. The words quoted above are evidently a reference to verse 16 of the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The word ‘nature’ in this passage is in italics, which shows that it does not belong to the original as can also be seen in the margin in a reference Bible. Bagster’s Interlinear translates it as follows: “For not indeed of angels takes He hold, but of the seed of Abraham He takes hold”. We do not believe that this passage refers to the Incarnation but rather to the sovereignty of God in Election and the consequences of the death of Christ, the purpose of which was to save His people, the seed of Abraham.
It is said again that the Son of God was made under the law. This clause and the preceding one “made of a woman” are joined together by the Holy Spirit. Christ was not in Adam’s covenant, neither did He come by ordinary generation, but He was made under the law by an act of Divine Sovereignty. Neither was Christ personally under obligations to the law as some maintain. Christ does not have a separate human personality though He is truly a man in every sense, as He was “made like unto His brethren” in all things sin excepted. If Christ had a separate human personality then He would be two persons and not one, but He is One Person having “two distinct natures in the one person forever”. The human nature of Christ never subsisted but in the Person of the Son of God. Therefore Christ was under obligations to the law, not personally, but as the Surety of His people. He is one with His people in Covenant and in nature inasmuch that it is said that “we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones”. This could never be said if the Redeemer had not taken part in our very nature. Now that He is so related to us He is our Kinsman, and He has a right to redeem because He can give satisfaction to the law in the very nature in which sin was committed; and this satisfaction means or includes perfect and absolute obedience in thought, word and deed as well as the penalty of death, for “the wages of sin is death”. Under the law of old it was the kinsman who had a right to redeem.
That Christ was “made under the law” explains all His sufferings from His incarnation to His death. The law could not relax its demands even for the Son of God, and so God spared not His Son. The law exacted from Him all that was due from us to the uttermost farthing; and those who think lightly of the justice of God should consider their state before it is too late. The sufferings of Christ are an infinite ocean which no creature can fathom either in this world or in that which is to come. He honoured and magnified the law and satisfied it in all its demands, remaining under the power of death for a time until on the morning of the Resurrection He was released by the Father from any further obligation to the law, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
III. Our third division is the Redemption of those who were under the law. The application of redemption is the work of the Holy Spirit: “A man can receive nothing except it be given to him from heaven”. We are born in the bondage of sin. We are not only in darkness; but we are darkness ourselves. Those under the law are dead in sin “having no hope and without God in the world”. Christ in giving Himself for us has procured for us not only the gift of eternal life but also the gift of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we would remain among the dead. No enlightened person can believe that any one but God alone can bring life out of death. One of the names given to regeneration in the Scriptures is resurrection from the dead. Therefore the dead cannot be brought to life apart from the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. One fruit of the work of the Spirit is conviction of guilt and sin with “repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”. It is a turning from sin to God. When the mind by the light and conviction of the truth discerns the true nature and demerits of sin, the evil of forsaking the living God, an unshaken resolution is formed in the heart with respect to the forsaking of all sin and cleaving unto the Lord. The Spirit works faith in us and unites us to Christ, at which time we are delivered from guilt and sin and reconciled to God. This is our Justification. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us; this causes our iniquities to depart from us. The Redeemer stood in our room and stead when He was made under the law, and we by faith stand in Him in His merits: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. The garment of salvation is glorious beyond any creature’s comprehension. It is the righteousness of Him “which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty”, the One at whose command all things came into being.
Our adoption as children is also inherent in our justification. “And if children, the heirs; heirs of God,” and of eternal life. This invests us with all the legal rights of children and all the blessings of salvation for grace and glory.
Redemption also includes deliverance from the power and dominion of sin, which is our sanctification and consecration to God and His service. There are those who believe that one who is redeemed from sin can live in sin. There were even in Paul’s day people who had such views, and therefore he asks the question: “How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” Thus Paul shows that such views are erroneous. The tree is known by its fruit, and those who are redeemed from the bondage of the law bear fruit accordingly. They walk “after the Spirit;” they are controlled and dominated by the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the new nature, and their desire is to love, serve, and glorify God and keep His commandments.
Another aspect of sanctification is the mortification of the flesh, the crucifying of self. This is the conflict that goes on between the two natures, or the new man and the flesh, in every believer and will continue while they are here in this world. It was the consciousness of this warring with sin, indwelling sin, by which also he was brought into captivity in some measure that made Paul exclaim, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” The redeemed’s complete deliverance from sin will come for the soul at death when the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness and “do immediately pass into glory”. The victory of every believer is in sight because it is bound up with that of the Redeemer. He has overcome the world; therefore His message to all His people is to “be of good cheer”.
The Lord paid the ransom-price for the body as well as for the soul. The redemption of the body will come at the last day when the last trump shall sound and the dead who died in the Lord shall be raised incorruptible. “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Conclusion
Conclusion: Those who despise the Saviour despise the only way by which they can escape. He is the ‘door’ and the ‘way’ and He has the keys of hell and death. He alone can set free those who are captives under the law. Those who continue to despise and reject Him He will shut up in the end in the eternal prison in the eternal world where millions of ages are less than nothing.