The Right Time
God’s timing… what does that mean to you?…
…Is time a blessing or a burden?
I was listening to a sermon by Judah Smith the other day and God decided He really wanted to talk to me about timing. Not only did he want to talk to me about timing, but he also wanted me to more fully understand his perfect love. The scripture that so obviously stood out to me was Romans 5:6-11.
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still sinners, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. NLT
I don’t know of any collection of verses in the whole Bible that better sums up the love that God has for us. At just the right time, God sent his Son to come and serve justice for our sins. God sent part of himself… In the form of something that HE created… To be persecuted by people that HE created… To be hung on a tree that HE created… to serve the required justice for the sins that HE did not commit.
What?…
The first thing that I find super interesting is how Paul writes that God sent Jesus at just the right time. God does not live in a world of time. God is bigger than time, God was before time; God does not adhere to time. So, I think that it is safe to say that whenever the Bible mentions “time” and “God” together, that this time being spoken of is for us, it is for our benefit. God created time to help serve us. God created time to be a blessing to people, not a burden. Time gives us beginnings, time gives us ends, time allows itself to be a measurement tool, and time is a very useful thing to us humans. With this being said, I draw the conclusion that it was just the right time for US.
Second thing I draw from the scripture is the question what does utterly helpless mean? This means that we were powerless, we were sinners, we were at odds with God, and we were enemies of God. God had set a standard of living in the Old Testament through the laws he gave through Moses. We as believers in that time FAILED to live up to that standard, and according to the law. In fact, the law exposed the true sinners that we are. However, before those laws were given through Moses God created the first humans in Adam and Eve. At this time, the beginning of time for us as people, God stacked the odds in our favor. He gave Adam and Eve paradise, he gave them control over everything, he made life EASY for them! The story goes on, and as we all know the one thing that was asked of them not to do… they did. Paradise lost. It was here, at the fall of man, where sin was introduced to human life. It was at this point in the beginning of human history were we became enemies of God.
Now I have had many conversations with people about the human condition. We talk about how some people are prone to do good and some people are prone to do bad. In my experience through these conversations, and what I have seen in my short life, many people believe that there is good in all of us. Every person who walks this earth has some good in them. I have a hard time arguing that, in fact I want to believe it. What makes more sense to me is that we as people are ALL capable of good. We all have the ability to do what is good, and do what is right, but what is good and what is right is not our nature. In his sermon Judah Smith asks when have you ever heard a baby scream “YOURS!” Never is the answer, it is instinctive to scream “MINE!” We as people are born selfish, we are born as sinners, and we are born at odds with God, therefor making us enemies of God.
Thank God the story does not end here.
So what makes this the right time when it seems so terribly wrong? How does utterly helpless, sinners, weak, ungodly, and enemies of God make for right time for God to send his Son?
I love this realization yall!
What makes this the right time is because we were all those things! If what we do moves God then this would be furthest from the right time. The truth is that God is moved by God. God is constantly looking and finding ways to show just how great he is. He is always working to demonstrate HIS glory! This is his obsession! His goal, his ambition, his reasons for doing what he does is to show who he is! And who is he? He is LOVE! Showing his love is something that he never gets tired of doing! Now it makes sense that the right time for God to show up is when we are weak, helpless, powerless, sinners, and enemies of him.
What a God we serve! Is there anything else in the world that is like him!?
At the time of creation this was not the plan that God had in mind. God stacked the odds in the favor of Adam and Eve. He gave them control over the plants and animals; he loaded the garden with all that they needed. Adam and Eve didn’t need to wear clothes. They had it made! But because God is love, he gave them a choice. By definition love involves choice. God gave Adam and Eve free will and they blew it.
This brings me to another characteristic of who God is. God is just. This means more than simply saying what God does is just. The very nature of God is just. God himself is just. As much as God is love he is also just. It is his DNA so-to-speak.
Now even though God loves us so much, he must also serve justice. If he did not serve justice he would not be God. Although he probably does not enjoy serving justice as much as he enjoys pouring out his love and blessings it still must be done. People continue to sin after Adam and Eve. We continue to move further and further away from God and a penalty must be paid for the sins committed.
So what does he do?
God does the exact opposite of sin. Sin is man substituting himself for God, so God says I will substitute myself for man! He does this all to answer HIS OWN justice! God takes on the form of the created to come and save our lives! He does this all while we were completely unaware. He does this while we are weak, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of Him! He subjects himself to his own creation!
WHY?
Love.
Some people measure love by the expense that it costs the giver. On top of that how least the recipient deserved it. If this is how we measure the love of God there is nothing in the world like it! Nor will there ever be! What did this love cost God? It cost him his very self! How much did we deserve it? Not. At. All. Jesus comes and lives a sinless life, and dies a sinner’s death so that his enemies can be saved. God comes in the form of flesh and dies for the worst while they are at there worst!
God can take any moment and make it the best moment of your life. Right now is the very best time that you can demonstrate the love of God! This is the gospel yall! Because God did it, now we too may also go and live like that! What ever you do, wherever you do it, make it your aim to demonstrate the love of God through it!
1 John 4:10-11 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
This is a mission statement y’all. Now pitter patter. Lets get at er’.
