For someone who transcends time, Christ was a remarkable timekeeper. The perfect man, of course, is perfect in every realm even in the humdrum details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perfect timekeeping requires at least patience so as to avoid being early and attentiveness to avoiding being late and Christ necessarily achieved perfection in both respects. Mortal man on the other hand, leans to either end of the spectrum. We talk of people being \u2018chalk and cheese\u2019 to describe the vast contrasts between them. To broadly generalise, some of us are impatient because we think by planning\/getting ahead we can control our circumstances \u2013 which we can\u2019t. Others of us procrastinate indefinitely because we lack any sense of urgency and reject the notion that time has any right over us \u2013 when it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christs coming into the world was not a moment early, not a moment late. That is to say, he was not impatient to expedite the purposes of God nor indifferent to delay them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son\u201d. (Galatians 4:4<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It is interesting to note that the world was ripe and ready for Christ\u2019s arrival. Factors such as the broad spread of Greek language and culture and Roman roads created a unique platform on which the gospel could easily and quickly spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is particularly intriguing to see that Christ waited. He waited many years before starting out in public ministry. At 18, if we take that as the age of our adulthood at least, we might think that Christ was as ready as he would ever be, but he waited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christ\u2019s timing sometimes seemed wanting as with the death of Lazarus. But time-would-tell a different story. It was perfect timing because it was Gods timing. The same could be said of Jairus\u2019s daughter. Each event was executed in perfect sequence to The Fathers perfection and glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christ never procrastinated nor did he panic. He was neither apathetic or hurried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was surely an excellent speaker \u2013 good oratory requires careful execution of timing, another aspect of being a perfect timekeeper. In a similar way, Proverbs is laden with wisdom so far as when and when not to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then the moment came when it was \u201c[their] hour and the power of darkness\u201d. The eternal God could not transcend this if He was do the Father\u2019s Will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Romans 5:6<\/a>
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nWhat a long hour that was. Yet God was still at work and when they had done their worst God chose that very time to do his best, his greatest work yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the perfection of Christ\u2019s timing would go on to his resurrection. What a glorious thing this is, that even in death itself he held time perfectly in his grasp. Death could not hold him prisoner to time such that he might break from the \u2018third-day\u2019, Old Testament pattern (1 Cor. 15.3-4<\/a>). In patience and perfect submission, our Lord waited for time to elapse such that he could rise again the third day just as he had told them (Luke 24.6-7<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh for a dose of his perfect character that we too might keep time as he did \u2013 waiting when we should wait, acting when we should act and carefully stewarding this diminishing gift realising like the Psalmist that our times are in His hands (Psalm 31.15<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For someone who transcends time, Christ was a remarkable timekeeper. The perfect man, of course, is perfect in every realm even in the humdrum details.…<\/p>\n