Listen up, little ones
Listen for the word son.
Reading
Galatians 4:1-7—When the Fullness of Time Had Come
Optional Reading
Jer 33:14-16
Keys for kids
- Jesus was promised a long time before he came.
- When the time was right, God sent Jesus.
- Trusting Jesus is the only way to be saved.
Questions
- What had Jeremiah promised?
- What did Jesus come to do?
- How can we be righteous?
Notes
We saw in Jeremiah the promise of a day to come and a Righteous Branch to come. Here Paul, in the discussion of our sonship in Christ, makes it absolutely clear when and why this Righteous Branch came.
He came when the time “had filled up,” or “come to completion.” Or, we might say He came “at just the right time.” At just the right time, God sent Jesus, who became fully human, fully subject to all the laws of God’s word and world. As Johnston comments, God had used the vast age of human history to expose the utter helplessness of the human race when left to its own devices. But ‘when the fullness of time had come’ God acted decisively and definitively to provide the solution.
The only solution is Jesus. And Jesus came specifically to redeem those under the law—that’s us. Before Christ, all humans are captive to the law (3:23). But for all who trust the work that Jesus came to do, there is a justification by faith (3:24). Although Jesus fully obeyed God’s law in every tiny detail, he was willing to become sin for us so that in him we might be called “The Lord is Our Righteousness.”
The time has come. The Branch has come. The one in whom I can be righteous has come and has granted righteousness by faith—faith in His timely and completed work.
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 62a, 85a
Prayer
- Rejoice that Jesus came at just the right time.
- Pray for a specific application from yesterday's sermons.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.