"But when the fullness 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" -- Galatians 4:4-5a

As we enter the season of the year where we acknowledge the birth of our Lord Jesus. If we do a survey of the bible it becomes evident that the Almighty God was in every minute detail to bring about the sending of His Son into a world of lost sinners to save them.

Our verse focuses on the fact that in "the fullness of time" God sent His Son to redeem us -- at just the right time.

If we follow the unfolding of the bible we can see how God by His sovereign and providential hand appointed different times and events throughout history to bring about the "fullness of time" to send His Son. With an open mind we see that the identity of this One sent by God is made known from revelation to revelation in the pages of the bible.

We first learn that this One sent from God would be called the "seed of the woman" (Genesis 3:15). Then this One sent would also be a son, and a substitute for another (Genesis 4:25). This One who would be the woman's seed, a son, a substitute, would also survive the world-wide flood in the days of Noah. Through Noah and his son Shem (1 Chronicles 1:4), this One sent would come through Shem's descendent Abraham and his wife Sarah in an unlikely manner, seeing that they both were past child-bearing age (Genesis 18:11-14). They brought forth a son named Isaac, who though Isaac, who through Jacob, who through Judah -- the royal line, who generations later through king David (1 Chronicles 2:1-15), who through some twenty-eight generations later brought forth a son called Emmanuel, God with us, named Jesus, born of the virgin Mary in a small town called Bethlehem (Matthew 1:17-25).

Not only do we have the biblical record of the "fullness of time," but there are also the historical records of how God sovereignly designed different world events that would aid in the spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of His birth and decades afterwards.

It was at the time of Christ's birth that the trade language of common Greek was popular and understood by most everyone who dealt in trade and commerce. Also it was at this time that the Roman military machine had built a network of roads and highways, which they used to conquer other countries. Yet God used this Roman road network to allow the gospel to freely travel from country to country.

So all these different appointed times and events throughout history demonstrated that the LORD God was supernaturally behind the "fullness of time" orchestrating all the details in the sending of His Son to be our Redeemer.

David C. Hale, pastor Email: reasons4believing@gmail.com