Monday Morning Encouragement -- God's Perfect Timing

 

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." Galatians 4:4-5

There is an old adage which states, "Timing is everything." Nowhere is this more true than in God's timing of the birth of Jesus. Out of all the dates in history, God chose that particular one to send His Son to earth.

In writing to the Galatian church Paul points out that the "fullness of time" had come when Jesus was born. God waited for the perfect time to give the precious gift of His Son, and that moment in history had arrived.

Of this timing, James Montgomery Boice writes in his commentary:

“It was a time when the pax Romana extended over most of the civilized earth and when travel and commerce were therefore possible in a way that had formerly been impossible. Great roads linked the empire of the Caesars, and its diverse regions were linked far more significantly by the all-pervasive language of the Greeks. Add the fact that the world was sunk in a moral abyss so low that even the pagan cried out against it and that spiritual hunger was everywhere evident, and one has a perfect time for the coming of Christ and for the early expansion of the Christian gospel.” 

This excerpt from an article in The Good News Herald gives another fascinating look at God's timing:

"In a debate with the atheist (and now deceased) Christopher Hitchens, William Lane Craig noted how Christ’s first arrival occurred at the perfect time. Craig said:

'Human beings have existed for thousands of years on this planet before Christ’s coming. But what’s really crucial here is not the time involved; rather, it’s the population of the world. The Population Reference Bureau estimates that the number of people who have ever lived on this planet is about 105 billion people. Only two percent of them were born prior to the advent of Christ. Erik Kreps of the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research says, ‘God’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Christ showed up just before the exponential explosion in the world’s population.'(selected)"

All was ready for the Gospel: thoroughfare, language, and a population about to explode.

We truly do serve an awesome God. He is not bound by time or space. All that He does is perfection. And what's most amazing of all is that He loves us. For God so loves us that He gave His Son at just the right time to come and die on a rugged cross for our sins. And then He raised Jesus from the dead unto eternal life. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit empowered a handful of uneducated men to spread the gospel -- the good news -- of salvation to a dying world. 

For over 2,000 years the gospel has survived, and it will continue to survive until the second coming of Jesus Christ. I believe that time is near, and no matter when it occurs, Christ's return will be in God's perfect timing.  

Today's music video Born to Die by Bebo Normal is a beautiful song about the purpose of Jesus' birth. I hope it will stir you to worship the King of Kings.

I love you, I'm thinking of you, and I'm praying for you.