Sun 9:30a Class; 10:30a Worship; 11:35a Communion
Bible Bites
A Jewish Context
“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law...” (Galatians 4:4)
Jesus didn’t live in a vacuum. He grew up in a Jewish community, in a Jewish family, and lived by the Old Testament laws God had given to the Hebrew nation. Why does this matter?
It matters because if we are to fully understand Jesus, we must understand the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Jesus went to the temple, made offerings (not all offerings are for sin!), had to learn the Scriptures (see Luke 2:52), and follow the commands God laid down through Moses. This is the context into which we receive the New Testament. Context matters.
His first-century upbringing also matters because it reminds us that He knows what it is like to deal with the issues of family, culture, and political tension. At times, His family relationships were complicated by His faith, and His service to God put Him squarely between the crossroads of politics and religion. Navigating those waters was part of what He had to do, and His examples help us to understand how to do it, too.
God sent Jesus at the right time, the “fullness of time”, and the more we know about the historical context, the better we appreciate who our Savior is and how to imitate Him.
Matthew 4:4 #Biblebites
