”...the [One] having given Himself a ransom on behalf of all, the witness at [the] proper time.”
-The Ransom. The Man Christ Jesus - He was the Ransom, He gave Himself freely to pay the price in order to release us from captivity (cf Matthew 20.28). For many. For all, in fact (no “limited atonement” here). This is why He came to begin with. Because not only were we all of us estranged from our Creator, separated by sin, but we were actually held fast in its grip, enslaved and imprisoned and in desperate need of a rescue. Dire straights of the direst sort. There was in fact a price on our heads. Used to be, people could be owned and bought and sold like cattle (which tragically is actually still the case in some places and circles today). Used to be, you could actually pay a ransom to atone for (pay off) certain crimes, the great exception being when the transgressor was guilty of death (Numbers 35.31). So whether in prison or slavery, one could usually buy their freedom by paying the price, the ransom. We do read that the only way to expiate BLOOD-guiltiness was by the shedding of BLOOD (Numbers 35.33). Thus we come to the guilt of man, the many, all guilty of sin, of turning away from God. The price on our heads for that fateful choice was blood - and not the blood of lambs or goats, either. The blood of a human - either the blood of guilty-me or of an innocent Human Substitute - was required to pay off and release us from our debt of sin. Enter the Man, Christ Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God - He paid it, He paid it off, He pulled it off. In the Hebrew it is a noun and a verb. He ransomed us by giving Himself as the ransom. He paid the payment, and purchased with His blood our release. Freedom. Forgiveness. Paid in full. No condemnation. No guilt whatsoever, none, no more, nevermore.
-Paul says that this thing which Jesus did, giving Himself as a ransom for all, is the witness at the proper time. This one great act was God testifying to the truth about Who He is and about our need for the Mediator. And Paul is saying that God provided this witness about the truth at the proper time, or season. Elsewhere Paul talks about the fullness of time (Galatians 4.4, Titus 1.3). With God there is an appointed time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3.1), and Paul here uses the special Greek word for this - kairos. It refers not to clock time but to a divinely appointed season of opportunity. Which is the exact timetable the Lord always uses. He is never late, nor is He ever in a hurry. Like Gandalf, only moreso, He always arrives precisely when He means to.
-This is the essence of the Good News which we are likewise conveying to the world. Our witness is this, that the Breathtakingly Good Father and Creator of all, sent His one and only Son to be the Savior of the world, the Mediator, to pay the ransom for all, in order to bring us back to God (John 3.17, 1John 4.14). Praise Him...
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