Many years ago, Dr. Sightler said, “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?” It wasn’t original to him – he attributed it to Bill Harvey, who probably heard it from someone else. But do you think God was sitting up in the heavens one day and just decided to send a Saviour? I don’t think so. In fact back in the very beginning God knew that it would be necessary to send His Son as our Saviour. And then when man sinned in the Garden of Eden, He told the serpent, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Gen 3:15).” The plan was laid.
This was a hard and fast promise of the Scriptures, and for centuries the Jews looked for that “seed of the woman,” their Messiah, that would come and set things right. All the prophets prophesied of Him, the Psalmists sang of Him, the Jewish historians and theologians wrote of Him. Jeremiah called Him “that prophet.” When John the Baptist came on the scene, the Pharisees asked him if he was “that prophet,” to which he replied “No, I’m just a voice.”
So millennia went by – but no Messiah. The time wasn’t right. God knew exactly the right time to send His Son. Look at the conditions of the world when Christ came. The Roman Empire controlled the world, and Caesar Augustus declared a census and a tax, so every one had to go to the city of their lineage. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth – they had to get to Bethlehem somehow, because according to the prophet Micah, the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.
And the “good news” of salvation would have to be spread throughout the empire by the first missionaries. The Greek Empire had Hellenized the world – Greek was the universal language. The Roman Empire had unified the world – one empire, one coinage, one language, one government, no customs at the borders, brick roads connected the countries of the empire. All this aided the spreading of the gospel from country to country. The “fulness of the time was come.”
The Fulness of God’s Time
When the fulness of the time was come,
God sent His Son to die.
He sent Him through the woman’s seed –
He sent Him from on high.
This promise to Eve was told of God,
When from His glory they fell.
He said He would send a Saviour here
His precious love to tell.
He gave the Law in ages past
Because of sin so vile.
The wicked serpent caused the fall –
God’s creature did defile.
He caused us to transgress God’s Will.
The Law revealed our sin
And made us live on borrowed time,
Till He our souls could win.
At Calv’ry’s cross the deed was done –
Christ died to save my soul –
That I might be the child of God
And I could be made whole,
And when I put my trust in Him,
His Spirit came to dwell.
He gave to me His wondrous grace –
My soul He saved from hell.
© 2006 Paul Stultz
When the fulness of the time was come,
God sent His Son to die.
He sent Him through the woman’s seed –
He sent Him from on high.
This promise to Eve was told of God,
When from His glory they fell.
He said He would send a Saviour here
His precious love to tell.
He gave the Law in ages past
Because of sin so vile.
The wicked serpent caused the fall –
God’s creature did defile.
He caused us to transgress God’s Will.
The Law revealed our sin
And made us live on borrowed time,
Till He our souls could win.
At Calv’ry’s cross the deed was done –
Christ died to save my soul –
That I might be the child of God
And I could be made whole,
And when I put my trust in Him,
His Spirit came to dwell.
He gave to me His wondrous grace –
My soul He saved from hell.
© 2006 Paul Stultz
