galations

Study Notes
Ed Underwood

FROM MALACHI TO MATTHEW
Galatians 4:4

But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights (Galatians 4:4).

Malachi closed the Old Testament with the last words the Jews would hear from God for four hundred years. A contemporary of Nehemiah, Malachi preached sermons about the problems Nehemiah faced (Nehemiah 13). Time had run out for that generation of Israelites. Refusing to follow the Law of Moses, their only hope to fulfill their mission of blessing the world by saving it from God’s curse (Genesis 12:1-3) was divine intervention. God will send Elijah before the great Day of the Lord. He will restore Israel to the covenant and save the world!

Then, the Lord simply stopped speaking to Israel.
Over 400 years later, John the Baptist, the Elijah-like prophet Malachi promised would prepare the way

for Messiah (Malachi 3:2), broke the silence. After preaching repentance to the rebellious nation, John’s message suddenly changed when He introduced Jesus of Nazareth to God’s people, Israel: Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

A lot had changed since the time of Malachi. Rome was the dominant world power and ruled over most of the ancient Old Testament lands. Yet, in a small town of Palestine, Bethlehem of Judea, the one who would save the world was born—Jesus Christ. And though God had been quiet for 400 years, He had not been idle! Concerning the birth of the Savior, the apostle wrote, “But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son” (Galatians 4:4).

God prepared the way for the Savior of the world!

In several extraordinary and wonderful ways, God prepared the world for the coming of Messiah. Both Paul and Mark called attention to the historical era that preceded the coming of Christ to earth.

I. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14) with perfect timing (Mark 1:15; Galatians 4:4).

1. Summary: As a human father chooses the time for the birth of his child, so the Heavenly Father chose the time for the coming of Christ to save the world from bondage to works systems of righteousness (Galatians 4:4).

   1. Context: Israel, was enslaved by the law (and the rest of the world through various systems of works righteousness) until Christ emancipated them.

   2. The Father planned Christ’s coming with precise timing—when the world was ripe (fullness, appropriate, in the context of time, means the complete end of a period of time) for His message of deliverance.

2. Three ways God had been working so that the time would be “full” or ripe for Christ’s coming: 1. Jewish Hope for their Messiah!

a. The entire Old Testament looks forward to the coming of Christ. God had chosen Israel from all the nations of the world (Exodus 1:5-6). Beginning with the promises to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 12:1-3; Romans 9:4), they were the guardians of God’s Word (Romans 3:2) and the people from whom the Redeemer would come (Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:8; Romans 9:5). The Old Testament anticipated Christ’s coming as a suffering and glorified Savior in precise prophecies giving details of Messiah’s lineage, place of birth, world conditions at the time of His birth, life, death, and even His resurrection.

b. Though Israel was disobedient and was under judgment from the days of Malachi, they were in the land as God had promised before the coming of Messiah. Though 400 years had passed and the religious climate had only become worse through Pharisaic hypocrisy and the Sadducees’ secularism, there was a spirit of Messianic anticipation in the air and a righteous remnant was looking for the Messiah (Simeon, Luke 2:25). The Jews offered to the world the hope of a coming Messiah who would bring righteousness to the earth. This tiny captive nation, situated on the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe provided the spiritual heredity of Christianity and, for a time, even gave the infant church its leaders and shelter. Israel provided the spiritual environment to propel the Gospel around the world.

2. Roman peace and roads!

   1. Free movement about the Mediterranean would have been most difficult for the messengers of the Gospel before the reign of Augustus Caesar (27 BC-AD 14). The ancient world had been divided into warring tribes or city-states prior to the extension of Roman imperial power. Roman sailors kept the peace on the seas and Roman soldiers secured the roads of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Roman conquests that resulted in 100 years of relative peace as the church was born had also led to a loss of belief by many peoples in their pagan gods that had failed to protect them against Caesar’s legions.

   2. The Romans developed the world’s first system of roads radiating out from the Roman forum to the corners of the empire. The main roads were built of concrete and some exist today. The Gospel of Christ moved quickly across these Roman roads to strategic cities located throughout the Empire. The Roman Empire provided a political environment unique in history that was favorable to the spread of Christianity in the days of its infancy.

3. Greek language and philosophy!

   1. More than 300 years before Christ, Alexander the Great had swept across the ancient world conquering one nation after another. Though the kingdom he established did not survive his death, the language of his armies, Koine or common Greek, did. By the time of Christ, Koine Greek had become the language of the common man throughout the Mediterranean world. The universal Gospel needed a universal language, and God provided it through the genius and ambition of Alexander—Koine Greek, one of the clearest and most precise languages of all time.

   2. Greek philosophy, though godless, was undermining pagan polytheistic religions around the world because they were rationally unintelligible. The bankruptcy of paganism and consequent pursuits of Greek philosophy left the conquered peoples of Rome thirsty for spiritual reality. Greece provided the intellectual environment that aided the propagation of the Gospel.

II. God always prepares the way for people to meet Christ (Galatians 1:15-16).

A. How did He prepare you for your introduction to His Son? Praise Him for His sovereign grace in the circumstances of your life this Easter Season!

B. Who needs to meet Christ in your world? Ask the Father to prepare the way this Easter Season and tell Him you are willing to share the Good News!

“After Malachi had ceased his prophesying and the canon of the Old Testament closed—that is, the number of the books in the Old Testament was fulfilled and the inspired prophets ceased to speak—God allowed a period of time for the teachings of the Old Testament to penetrate throughout the world. During this time, he rearranged the scenes of history, much as a stage crew will rearrange the stage sets after the curtain has fallen, and when the curtain rises again there is an entirely new setting.” –Ray Stedman