Right Time

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11

God’s timing is always perfect. Even though the plan was decreed in eternity past, and is a reality in the mind of God at any given moment in time, there had to be a progression of earthly and human development to bring about the necessary components of the plan.

There is that whole angelic conflict, begun before the earth was outfitted for man, when Lucifer challenged God’s authority and led the rebellion of other angelic beings against the Sovereign of the Universe. Then, when man was placed in perfect environment and offered a choice, he chose (with some sinister satanic enticement) to disobey the Lord Who loved him; thereby dying spiritually and losing his garden privileges. Life in the garden was not eternal life. That was day-by-day perfect environment, for we don’t know how many years, with the woman and the animals and everything they could ever need for blissful existence. That act of disobedience made sinners of the man and woman and all of their offspring, who would inherit the corrupted cell structure of Adam through procreation. That act of disobedience and the resulting old sin nature of mankind necessitated the coming of a Savior. He would have to be born as Adam was created, pure and sinless true humanity. He would have to live a sinless life in order to qualify as the perfect atonement for all our sins. Then He would be resurrected and ascend to heaven, as the firstfruits from among man to defeat death.

After establishing a people through whom this Savior would come, and after many generations of teaching His people about His person and His integrity, and the Son Who would come to execute the plan, the conditions were right on the earth. The human mother had been chosen, the child was born, lived and died...for the ungodly. That’s you and me.

We were powerless to help ourselves. Even when we spiritually dead humans come to realize we are sinners, born under a curse, there is not anything we can do about it. God can have nothing to do with sin, so we have nothing to offer Him that could be acceptable. God’s standards of righteousness are so far beyond our comprehension, we don’t even know how to please Him, and cannot when we try. BUT:

God publicly displayed His own love for us while we were yet sinners. None of us is worthy of such an act of love. God gave His uniquely born Son to die for us. Now, we are justified by His blood (spiritual death on the cross). Now, having received His Own righteousness, we have the equipment to comprehend His grace to us in salvation. While we were in blind rebellion, He provided reconciliation (He changed us). How much more, then, will we be delivered by Jesus’ resurrection! Because He lives, we live. Forever.

Now, we have something to rejoice about, and it is not anything we ourselves could have done. We are reconciled to God by the atonement of His Son. We are in a changed relationship because God is no longer counting our trespasses against us, who have received this gracious gift.