THE KING’S BUSINESS
439
that just as the heir while in his nonage is in bondage, so also the heir o f God while under the law (as they were seeking to be) was in his nonage and in bondage. The heir, while he is a child, differs nothing, as far as freedom is concerned, from a slave, though he is in reality right now and will soon be in actual fact, “ lord o f all.” This is the real position o f every believer in Christ. As heir’ o f Christ he is “ lord of all.” But while this is the beleiver’s real position, as far as. his experience is con cerned he may be in bondage through his legalism. There is a world of meaning in this expression applied to the believer, “lord o f all.” ’ Primarily it is the Lord Jesus who is Lord of all, but we through faith in Him, as heirs o f God and joint heirs with Him, also become “lords o f all” (cf. Rom. 8 :17), all things are ours (1 Cor. 3 :21, 22). The heir in his childhood is in bond age because he “is under guardians and stewards,” i. e., guardians o f his person, and stewards of his property. The guard ians and stewards o f the heir during his nonage decide for him what he can do and what use he can make o f the property which is his. “In the same way,” Paul con tinues, “we also, when we were children, were held in bondage (literally enslaved) under the rudiments (i. e., the mere letters o f the alphabet) o f the world” . By “the rudiments o f the world” Paul means the ordinances o f the law, which are the mere alphabet o f the truth, belonging to a time o f moral and spiritual infancy. It is inter esting to compare with this Col. 2 : 8 , where this same Paul tells us that human philos ophy and tradition, as well as the ordin ances o f the law, are “ rudiments,” i. e., belong to the me^e alphabet o f the truth, belong to a time of moral and spiritual infancy (cf. also Heb. 5:12). Paul’s thought is (or the thought o f the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul) that the law belongs to spiritual infancy, and brings into bondage, which is necessary in infancy, but is no longer necessary when our spiritual infancy is at an end.
Tuesday, May. 7 . . Gal. 4 : 4 , 5 .
Having shown that bondage under the law belongs merely to the period o f spiritual infancy, Paul now goes on to show that the time of infancy and bondage is past. God does everything “ in the fulness o f the time,” i. e., when the time is jqst ripe, neither too goon nor too late (cf. Eph. 1:10; Acts 2:1). It would not have been full time for Christ to come just after the Fall, nor even immediately after the giving o f the law. Man must learn by centuries o f trial and failure, under varying dispen sations, the enormity and power and awful consequences o f sin, and his own utter help lessness and utterly lost condition and need of a Divine Saviour. Just as our Lord came the first time when “the fulness o f the time came,” so He will also come the second time when “the fulness o f the time” has come. When we see bow confused and terrible the times are, when we see how complete a failure man is, we often wonder why the Lord does not come at once. It is simply because “the fulness o f the time” is not absolutely complete. It does look as if it was fast nearing completion. There were many secondary reasons why the time was just full when Jesus came. “When the fulness o f the time came, God sent forth His Son, born o f a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them which were under the law (so that they would no longer be in bondage to it), that we (note that Paul here changes from the third person to the first, for he feels that he must express his personal share in the fruits o f this redemption, and moreover to express the truth that both “you and I,” Jew and Gentile, were included in this, glorious redemption from bondage to law), might receive the blessing as sons (i. e., a position as full grown sons, and no longer differing nothing from a slave).” The thought taken in its connection is, what folly to remain under bondage to law when God has paid such a price to purchase our position as full grown sons. The word translated “sent forth” sets forth the thought that Jesus
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker