In the Fullness of Time

Jeremiah 33:14-26; Luke 2:6-16; Galatians 3:28-4:9

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

26 December 2004

In the fullness of time—we so want to equate those words with “the end of time,” but they just don’t seem to fit, or do they? The Jews divided time into two sections: before and after Messiah. The fullness of time was that period in which God would usher in the messianic reign and the “latter days” or “the end time.” In the fullness of time—when the time was ripe—God would fulfill the promise of the ages, sending Messiah! We are here, for we understand that Christmas celebrates that time came to that fullness. Time was ripe and God came to live among us in a stable in Bethlehem. Do we live as in the wake of those events that declare the fullness of time?

Jeremiah came preaching hope amid words of doom and gloom. His words looked far beyond the message of impending exile in Babylon. The nation was much too preoccupied with the words of doom to hear his proclamation of hope. They were too desperate to hang onto life as they knew it. After all, they were the chosen nation, the children of Abraham and heirs of God’s promise. They could not imagine that Yahweh would actually allow them to suffer exile at the hands of the pagan idolatrous kings of Babylon. The ignominy of such a thing was too appalling for them to consider. Jeremiah’s words had brought the king to the point of locking him up in the court of the guard to remove him from the people. The king might disregard Jeremiah’s words, but he could not have the people hearing that there was a way out of exile if the king would just lead the nation back to faithfulness in service to Yahweh.

While many heard Jeremiah to say that Yahweh had rejected them, in reality it was the leaders of the nation who had rejected God. They had allowed and led the people to serve what was not God. They had gone so far as to offer their children in sacrifice to Molech,^[1] but Jeremiah calls them to return to Yahweh on the basis of God’s great grace and mercy. While their position and status as the chosen nation has been rejected, while they are under judgment that will lead to exile in Babylon, while there is no hope to be found in establishing military alliances, Yahweh’s rejection of the people is not final. There is yet hope.

After all, it is not the people that Yahweh had rejected. What God abhorred was not the nation, but their stance in opposition to serving the name they claimed. The brunt of responsibility fell upon the leaders of the nation, but all of Judah would suffer exile in order for them to return, having been refashioned after exile. Hope was not lost, doom was not permanent, and there was still a way out, but they would not have it.

From the court of the guard, under his own imprisonment, Jeremiah proclaimed that God was still in the business of rescue. God was still calling the nation to divine care and protection. Their course had charted them into exile, but Yahweh would not allow them to remain there forever. God would restore them with the coming of a righteous branch, who would execute justice and rightness in the land. After the example of David, the Righteous Branch to come would unite the people in service to Yahweh. Once more, they would turn aside from personal ambition, idolatry, and grappling for power. Rather, they would serve God in sincerity, trusting Yahweh as the sheep their shepherd.

Even in the midst of imprisonment, Jeremiah proclaims God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness. “Call to me, and I will answer!” Hope was not simply on the way, but all the while available to those who would ask. In the fullness of time, when the time was ripe, God would declare the great scope of blessing and recall the nation into renewed service. While the king ordered him locked up, Jeremiah still proclaimed hope for the nation at large. God would yet restore when they had become willing to lay aside political aspirations to serve God alone.

Luke records an account of Jesus’ birth in a Bethlehem stall. While John the Baptist, prophet of the wilderness, wearing camel’s hair and eating locusts, was born the son of a priest serving in the Temple, the royal Messiah was born in a stall among the livestock, visited by shepherds on night duty. As in Jeremiah’s words, however, this promise of God was to fulfill the execution of righteousness. This is not the expected Messiah as so many thought of the Anointed, but the righteous branch to follow in the place of David.

Ignoble birth in a smelly stable was a fitting place for Jesus’ birth. It is an appropriate contrast to the palace and correlate to Jeremiah’s confinement in the house of the guard. Jesus was born to a lowly station from which to share the news of God’s redemption and the depths of God’s mercy and grace. His birth came unawares to the power brokers of the nation, but was announced to the common people. It was the fullness of time in which God came to fulfill the promise now centuries old. In Bethlehem, we find God doing what all too few leaders are willing to do. He lay aside power, comfort, and privilege to extend hope, comfort, and care to all who were willing to accept.

Paul reminds the Galatian believers that in this Christ event we have all become as one in Christ. He did not make any distinction between worthy and unworthy, but came calling each and every one of us to a new relationship with God. Though we had all cut ourselves off from God as the court in Jeremiah’s day, God chose to reach down and call us to become children of the Almighty. God was born of a woman, says Paul, that we might be born children of God without distinction.

Speaking to issues raised by Judaizers among the Galatians, Paul notes that their understanding of Christ did not allow the fullness of Gentile acceptance under grace. They wanted to accept Christ, while living under the law devoid of the message of Christmas. They wanted to force Jesus into their concept of covenant that had been outclassed by the Incarnation. If in Christ Jesus all had become one, there is no more distinction to be made between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, for all find themselves under the grace of God who calls us to become children and heirs of the promise.

In the fullness of time, God was born of a woman that we might become children of God. He became flesh that we might become spirit. In taking on the limitations of flesh, God effectively ruled out the artificial distinctions that we attempt to make between each other. God lay aside enormous privilege, status, power, and lived as one without authority. He calls us to live as though Christmas was real.

God has made a stable his bedroom that we might find it easier to accept the invitation into His presence. Paul calls it the fullness of time, for God has fulfilled His promise and called us to Himself. Will we live the reality of such a demonstration of grace? Will we choose to lay aside fake distinctions to gain our new standing as children of God? Shall we allow the fullness of God to alter our lives that we might experience the joy of living the fullness of God’s promise in our time?

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

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¹ Jeremiah 32:35