In the Fulness of Time/Part 4

Previous Article

Chances are, if you were out in the country in a kind of wilderness and saw a man coming toward you, dressed in a rough, coarse robe of camel’s hair, it would tend to frighten you. Then, if you observed him eating locusts, it just might make you think he was some kind of fanatic, radical, or revolutionary.

This was the appearance of John the Baptist as he came “preaching in the wilderness of Judea” (Matthew 3:1). Actually, John was a priest, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth (Luke 1:5, 13). The angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and told him that his son John would also be a prophet, “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17, 76).

John the Baptist was just six months older than his cousin Jesus (cf. Luke 1:36). John’s testimony concerning Jesus came after a silence of thirty years from the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the birth of Jesus Christ. It was “when the fulness of the time came” that “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). Now, after thirty years, the silence having been broken by a brief glimpse of the twelve-year-old boy Jesus in the Temple, asking and answering questions (Luke 2:39-47), John the Baptist appears with an astonishing message, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). After John was put in prison, his cousin Jesus came into Galilee “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15).

When Jesus said, “the time is fulfilled” He used the verb form of the noun pleroma which Paul used in Galatians 4:4, translated “fulness.” Thus, the question arises immediately, if the time was fulfilled, why wasn’t the kingdom of heaven set up, and why didn’t Christ begin His rule as king over all the earth? Before we approach that question it is necessary to review just exactly what was included in the mission and message of John the Baptist. As already stated, these two things were directed to the Jews. John’s mission was: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3) This was quoted from Isaiah 40:3 (and later, Malachi 3:1 had similar words, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me“). John’s mission, therefore, was one of preparation. The angel Gabriel prophesied this to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist: “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). John’s message to Israel was, “Repentye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). While the basic meaning of “repent“(metano-eo) is a “change of mind” which, by itself, does not necessarily include salvation, when the word “repent” is used with direct reference to the gospel message, sometimes it is connected with concepts such as “belief” (Mark 1:15), “turning to God” (Acts 26:20), “faith toward Christ” (Acts 20:21), “acknowledging of the truth” (II Timothy 2:25) or “remission of sins” (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38). At times “repent” is used to encompass the matter of being saved with no other word being mentioned. God’s goodness leads to repentance (Romans 2:4); God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9); Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:3,5). When the Gospel is truly received by faith, such a change of mind will of necessity bring forth fruit befitting repentance.

Now we go back to the question: What if the people of Israel had repented? Would the Kingdom of Heaven have been set up immediately? The easy way out of such a dilemma is to say “What if” is a hypothetical question and does not have an answer! Yet, there is another “If” from the mouth of Jesus Himself which satisfies as an answer. In His second lamentation over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44; the first lamentation is recorded in Luke 13:34-35), Jesus said, “if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hidden from thine eyes.”

At the very least, this “if” implies that the “day” and “the things which belong to thy peace” would have been fulfilled immediately! But the fact of the matter is that Israel, as a nation, had rejected their Messiah; their Temple was destroyed and they were dispersed! The King and His Kingdom were rejected, not postponed. But we are getting way ahead of our story. John the Baptist, forerunner of the Messiah had introduced the person of Christ, the Messiah and His program, the kingdom of heaven, in Matthew 3. However, two important matters had yet to be accomplished, and then Messiah could present His program in detail.

Jesus Christ approached John the Baptist requesting that John baptize Him. At first John was reluctant, indicating rather, that he, John, needed to be baptized by Christ. Along with Jesus’ statement in Mark 1:14-15, “the time is fulfilled,” now Christ says, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). But what aspects of righteousness could be fulfilled by a “baptism”? Well, since the kingdom is at hand, there must be a qualified King Who would demonstrate His divine approval publicly. Fortunately we have specific information in the Gospel of John corroborating the “witness” of John the Baptist. He is introduced as “a man sent from God” (1:6) who came to “bear witness of the Light” (1:7), to bear witness of Christ as “the only begotten Son” (1:18), as “the Christ” (1:20), as “the Lamb of God” (1:29) and as the “Son of God” (1:34).

In all these ways the Person of the King had to be revealed to John and then witnessed by him to the nation of Israel (1:31). This is how he fulfilled all righteousness by the baptizing of Christ.

The astounding climax to all of this was the threefold supernatural phenomena in Matthew 3:16-17. First, “the heavens were opened” to emphasize that He was the heaven-sent Messiah. Second, John saw “the Spirit of God descending upon him like a dove and lighting upon him.” According to Luke 4:16-19 (which is quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2) Jesus said, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach . . . to heal . . . to bring deliverance . . . to set at liberty . . .” (see also Acts 10:37-38). God had said to John, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizeth with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). The Holy Spirit was the Source of power for His ministry, “for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him” (John 3:34).

Finally, the voice of the Father is heard at the baptism of Jesus saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Thus Jesus fulfilled all righteousness with these expressions of full Divine approval. But, there lay immediately in His pathway the one remaining test of His Person in His confrontation with Satan himself. This, too, had to come “In the fulness of time.”

Read Part 5