Jesus is the Perfect Missionary. No other person in history crossed such a wide divide on such a mission of love. The Son of God left behind the unimaginable riches of heaven to travel to the landfill of sin we call Earth.
Any mission trip we might take to a third world country pales in comparison to His radical journey. Here in these verses, Paul describes the Perfect Missionary.
He describes the timing of His trip. He describes the One who sent Him. He describes conditions of His mission.
We can't forget the big picture here. Paul is firing off a quick and blunt letter to the Galatian church network after he receives the horrible news that these new believers have fallen prey to a counterfeit gospel (Gal 1:6).
He has just returned from Galatia after telling them how Jesus has thrown the door of salvation wide to not only Jews but the entire world (Acts 13:13-14:23).
Spiritual snake oil salesmen rolled into town just as he left. They told these new disciples that Jesus may have gotten them into His kingdom but they must keep themselves in by following the law (Gal 1:7; 3:1-3, 11).
The apostle walks through the pages of the OT to explain that the way of salvation has always been simply trusting in God. Theologians call this justification by faith.
We're not self-saved by meticulous rule following. We simply place ourselves into God's hand like Abraham, who "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" (Gal 3:6; Gen 15:6).
The man from Tarsus tells the Galatians that all of the covenant promises God made to Abe found fulfillment in Jesus (Gal 3:16-17).
All of the OT points to the day when the long awaited Promised One will arrive. Page after page. Prophecy after prophecy. Promise after promise.
Never forget that Jesus is THE Hero of the story. Everything in the Law and the Prophets points us to and prepares for His arrival. Jesus said so Himself (Jn 5:39, 46).
We read the Torah and wonder when our Hero will arrive on the scene. How much worse could it get? How much longer will He wait? When will Messiah get here?
But we don't see the river of time from God's perspective. Timing is everything. And His timing is perfect.
Just when things are at their darkest, the Light of the World shines His brightest (Jn 8:12; 9:5). "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son" (v4).
At just the perfect time, God the Father sent His Son out the door of heaven on the most radical and revolutionary mission trip history has ever seen.
Paul uses the Greek verb εξαποστελλω/exapostello. This is a compound term meaning away, out of or from (εξ/ex-) to send as an official representative, ambassador or apostle (-αποστελλω/-apostello).
This mission was so critical, so important, so urgent that the Father sent His one and only Son as His hand-picked representative.
The holy Son of God is the only One for the job. Because of His love for His Father, the Son submits to His request. He willingly accepts His divine assignment.
Jesus is the Perfect Missionary because He is perfectly God.
But the conditions of this mission are brutal. The Second Person of the Trinity leaves the perfect and palatial opulence of heaven for a trip to the sin-sick third planet from the sun. He is to be fully human, in other words, "born of a woman" (v4).
Just like you and me, Jesus had a mom. This means that the God Man didn't exchange His godliness for humanity. He added humanness to divinity. He is 100% God. He is 100% human.
People much smarter than me call this the Hypostatic Union. Fully God. Fully man. How is that possible? Add it to the list of things we can never fully understand on this side of heaven.
Being born to a human mother is an important fulfillment of God's prophetic promise about Messiah. Back in the opening days of human history, God warned Satan that one day this long-awaited Son "shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heal" (Gen 3:15).
And it wouldn't be just any woman who would give birth. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Is 7:14).
And "when the fullness of time had come," God handpicked a teenager named Mary as the mother of His Son.
Jesus is the Perfect Missionary because He is perfectly human.
But the conditions of His mission don't just stop with His humanity. He is "born under the law" (v4). The law. God's law that He hand-delivered to Moses on a mountain called Sinai. Not just the Ten Commandments but 613 commandments.
God didn't give these to His people as a means of salvation. He gave them to His people to make it blatantly obvious that they needed a Savior.
The law was back breaking. The law was impossible. To miss on any one part of it meant disobedience to all of it (Dt 27:26; Gal 3:10).
There was no way anyone could ever keep such a perfect, mind-numbing standard. Oh wait. Yes there is. His name is Jesus. Only His complete obedience to God's law on our behalf could do what we could never do (Rom 8:3; 2Cor 5:21).
Being "born under the law," Christ was obligated to fully obey the law. And He did. Every bit of it. That's what He means when He says, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Mt 5:17). The Spirit-filled Son of God is sinless and perfect.
Jesus is the Perfect Missionary because He is perfectly obedient.
And because of what He has done to save me, how can I not serve Him as a missionary of the gracious Gospel to those around me?
©2012
Jay Jennings
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