Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
God’s time
When something happens to us suddenly like the strike of lightning or the eruption of a volcano or an earthquake, we think of God and His power. We think of God coming suddenly in the affairs of man and earth. It seems to us as if there was no warning – just all of a sudden “boom”.
God can and does come suddenly upon us and the world, but more likely it is probably the opposite. We see God in nature and His working in our lives and that of others, but we see perhaps only the climax of His workings and not the process.
Throughout Scripture we see God revealing Himself not all at once, but over years of progressive revelation as He builds upon that revelation thru His prophets and the events of life. God told of His coming to earth thru the prophets and each had their own part of the revelation until as Paul says, “in the fullness of time”. Christ came. It seemed that God had forgotten His promises to His people and the world, but all along He was working until that fullness of time came. God prepared history for the coming of Christ.
The world’s time
1) A Roman peace – At the time of Christ’s birth the civilized world of the day was united politically as it had not been for many centuries before. Caesar Augustus, who is mentioned in Luke’s account (Lu 2:1), is credited with having established what is known as “the pax Romano” – the Roman peace. Until his triumph, there was civil war all around and the Mediterranean world was racked with disorder. There were pirates on the seas and land, robbers on all major roads as well as potential destruction from barbarians from without. Caesar brought peace shortly before the birth of Christ.
2) A system of roads – The world was also linked together as it had never been before by a system of roads built by Roman soldiers. The phrase “all roads lead to Rome” was literally true. Wherever the Roman soldiers went they made roads – straight thru, not around. This linked all areas of the Roman Empire, so when Paul and the others went out evangelizing, they used the roads built by Rome.
3) A common language – The Romans spoke Latin and they controlled the world. But it was prepared by God that Alexander had conquered previously and he made Greek the common language. Even though he did not press his kingdom west as he did east the world was conquered by Greek thru commerce. The Greek ships sailed west, touching ports along the entire coast. So, although the Romans conquered the world politically, Alexander conquered it previously in terms of language. Paul spoke numerous languages (Phil 3:5; Acts 21:40; 1 Cor 14:18)Greek is said to be the most perfect language and how words are used tell us more than just what they say. For instance Lu 2:11. Since both Christ and Lord are in the nominative case it reads two ways both being correct and necessary. The Lord’s Messiah and The Lord is the Messiah.
4) A spiritual vacuum – The religions of the ancient world were winding down – they had run their course. They focused on the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and Roman pantheons; but they proved meaningless to people. It was a situation similar to what we have today – people were turning away from the gods of their fathers to any god that comes along. In our day it is eastern meditation, alcohol, drugs, the occult and others. In those days they were seeking a God to help, save and heal them and into this vacuum Jesus was born.