The Right Time

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:8

I have often wondered why it took so long, as we humans measure time, between the time that Adam and Eve transgressed God’s law in the garden of Eden to the time that God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die to make it possible for God to forgive us of our sins.  I don’t know exactly how many years transpired in the interim, but Unger’s Bible Dictionary tells us that it could have been as much as 10,000 years from creation to the birth of Jesus and then another 33 years until His crucifixion and resurrection.  Of course, God does everything according to His timetable, thus we are not privy to some of His thoughts and ways, which are so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8).  On the other hand, God does reveal Himself to us in many ways, but there are some things that He does not reveal to us, and that is His prerogative.

However, the thought came to me that because God knew in the beginning that man would require a perfect sacrifice in order to be in right standing before Him, and He knew that the only One qualified to make this sacrifice was His only Son, He put the inevitable off as long as possible.  Speaking as one who suffered the death of an only son, it was the most difficult time of my life.  I suppose that there are worse things that can happen to a person, but for a parent the loss of a child no matter his or her age is so devastating that one’s emotions cannot be put into words.  In my grief I questioned why my son had to die.  The day after my son went home to be with the Lord, I was driving home from visiting with my daughter-in-law with those thoughts of why, why, why going over and over again in my mind, but then God spoke to me in my spirit and said, I lost My Son, too.  I then noticed that there was a rainbow in the sky as if God was letting me know that I was not alone in my grief.

I had enjoyed the company of my son.  God enjoyed the company of His Son as well.  Jesus was in the beginning with the Father (Genesis 1:26).  How it must have grieved God so to allow His Son to suffer and die for sinful man.  It’s one thing to give up a loving son through an accident, but to give up a sinless, loving Son on purpose in order for Him to die a death that He did not deserve is incomprehensible until we understand that this was the only way whereby we could be born again and have new life in Christ, completely forgiven and accepted by the Father.  For that, I am forever grateful.

I am sure that if there had been any other way whereby men and women could be saved from their sin and be in a right relationship with their Creator, God would have gone that route rather than sending His Son to suffer and die for folks, many of whom couldn’t care less about how far they have gone from the way that God intended men and women to live their lives and honor Him.  However, nothing less than the death of a perfect Sacrifice could satisfy the penalty for sin.  It is amazing to know that anyone, no matter the depths of sin into which he or she has fallen, can be forgiven and made pure in the eyes of the Lord.  If someone treats us in a way that hurts us physically or mentally, we can forgive him or her by the power of the Holy Spirit, but, as humans, we have a hard time forgetting what he or she did.  To truly forgive is to truly forget because that’s what God does.  If we repent, He forgives and never brings it up again or even thinks about it.  To Him, our sin that we have confessed and repented of is like it never happened.

Those of us who have studied scripture know that Jesus will return one day.  This, too, is according to God’s timetable.  The way the world is going now, it seems like Jesus’ return could be sooner, rather than later.  Whether it is tomorrow or 1,000 years from now, it is certain that He will return.  I believe that there are going to be millions of people who will be taken by surprise, not so much that they had absolutely no knowledge of His return to judge the world, but that they ignored all the warnings that preachers and prophets have been giving for years and years.  Yes, it has been a long time, as humans measure time, since Jesus’ first coming, and His second coming will be right on time, God’s time.