Timing
Have you ever had perfect timing? I rarely, if ever, have perfect timing. No matter how hard I try, I always run into some sort of complication when I try to engineer something that requires perfect timing.
Farming is something that requires good timing. If crops are harvested to soon, they are immature and do not develop properly. If they are left in the field too long, they will rot on the vine and have to be thrown away.
Good comedy also requires good timing. Imagine Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on first?” routine without perfect timing. I would sound something like, “Who’s on first?” “Yes, he is.” “Who?” (Pause) “Uh, ya!” Comedy requires perfect timing or it is not funny.
Timing is vital in farming and comedy, and other areas.
God has perfect timing. He is never late. He’s also never early. Sometimes we desire God to act a little faster than he does, but his timing is perfect, always. Someone wrote a book entitled God Has Never Failed Me, But He Sure Has Scared Me To Death. This is especially true as it relates to the birth of Jesus and His coming into the world. As humans, we would likely have demanded that God send his Son to the work of redeeming us immediately after Adam and Eve sinned. God, however, as he always does, did not do things on the timetable we would expect.
Turn with me to Galatians 4:4-7.
Galatians 4
God sent his Son at the absolutely perfect time in human history. The human race was ripe at that time for Christ. Man had tried for millennia to save himself. The Jews had tried to save themselves through the Law of Moses. The Greeks had tried through philosophy. The Romans had tried through military might and strength. The Law became an imposing thing. There was no way that anyone could live up to the Law. The philosophy of the Greeks and the might of the Romans proved to hollow and unfulfilling. All the efforts of mankind to save himself were useless and empty. Man had failed miserably. At that point, mankind was ready like never before to receive the news of God’s salvation. This is what this passage means when it says, “But when the time had fully come.” The time was right.
Another key factor in the timing was the fact that the Roman Empire controlled most of the known world at that time. With relative peace in the Roman Empire, the conditions for ease of travel for the spreading of the Good News were very favorable. Paul, and others, moved freely throughout the Empire spreading the Good News. A few hundred years earlier, the political conditions of the region would not have allowed this. A few hundred years later would have yielded the same results. God has perfect timing.
If God can work out the timing of the Good News of salvation, how much easier is it for him to work out issues in our own lives?
Redemption
But what is the Good News? Why was perfect timing so critical? The Good News is that Jesus offers redemption for us. What is redemption? This is a word I had problems understanding. I could never understand what redemption was. I knew Jesus came to redeem us, but I didn’t know what that meant.
When I was a kid, I used to collect baseball cards, and I still have about 30,000 of them to prove it. Most of them are worth about 3-5 cents. I used to head to the convenience store with may wad of money from my paper route and buy as many packs of baseball cards as I could. One year, one of the companies had a special promotion. You could save the wax paper wrappers and send a certain quantity with some money for postage, and 6-8 weeks later you would receive some stickers. What the company was doing was redeeming the wrappers. They were buying back the wrappers. As a result the collector would receive some stickers. They were buying back the wrappers.
“Redemption” means to buy back. In the days of the New Testament, it was related to the buying back of a slave from the market. When a slave was bought, there were two basic things that could be done. The slave either became the property of the one who bought him or the slave was granted his freedom.
We are told here that the purpose of Jesus’ birth is to redeem those under the law. Those under the law were the Jews. He came to redeem those who could not save themselves. We, of course, cannot save ourselves, so he died for us as well.
We know that Christ did not redeem us to force us into slavery. But he did more than just buy us to give us freedom. He went one step farther. When he died on the cross and rose again, he bought us into the family. Jesus paid the price for us to enter the family. He did this so “we might receive the full rights of sons.” His redemption brings about our adoption. This adoption is not forced on us. We must consent to the adoption.
Adoption is a fascinating concept. In our culture, we adopt children for a variety of reasons. Some people adopt because they can’t have children. Some adopt because they love kids. Some adopt to help our disadvantaged kids. I have known grandparents who have adopted their own grandchildren. Some travel thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to go to Asia or Europe or some other distant land to adopted a child who is languishing in an orphanage. Some adopt children to help unwed mothers. Whatever the reason, there is something unique about adoption. The adoptee gets a new family, and family tree. They get new grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and everything.
Once an adoption is final the parents cannot revoke their responsibility to their children. Once the adoption is complete the parents are parents for the life of the child. The child however can, at a later date, revoke the adoption. Tammy and I knew a lady who adopted a child, and when the girl was older, she decided to return to her birth mother. This lady spoke of this part of her life with great pain. When God adopts us, he will not let go unless we decide to walk away from him.
Rights
With our adoption comes some more good news. The first good news was that Jesus paid with his life to redeem us. The “more” good news is that we are let into an incredible family. We become fully vested in an incredible retirement plan.
Many companies now have 401(k)’s and other retirement plans. A lot of these plans have provisions where the company makes contributions to the plan. Many companies have a catch to these plans. You have to work there a certain period of time before you are fully vested. In other words, if you quit before that time period is up you don’t get all the money, if you get any. The motivation is get you to stay with company.
The good news here is that we are 100% fully vested when we finalize the adoption process. We gain full rights as children. There are numerous perks to being a child of God.
One of those perks is that Jesus lives in our hearts, in our inner most being as a person. We also get Jesus as a brother. He is the Son of God according to verse 4, and we are children of God as well. Now, whenever someone the father, they are brothers or sisters.
I never had the privilege of having a brother or sister. Sometimes, I am glad for that when I find Victoria and Joey fighting over a toy or video or a French fry. At other times I realize how meaningful that sibling relationship is. When Joey was born and spent almost two weeks in the hospital, Victoria visited him daily. She was so worried about her baby brother. I remembering hearing her pray for Joey. She was only 4 at the time, but she prayed for her baby brother. She also sticks up for him, and he sticks up for her.
One thing you will notice when brothers are fighting is that if someone steps into the fight, the brothers will united and attack the one who stepped in. The old saying is, “Blood is thicker than water.” This is true because Jesus shed his blood for us. He is looking out for us and sticking up for us. I don’t know what you think, but I think Jesus is a pretty cool big brother.
There is also something else quite special about being a child of God. You get to call him “Daddy.” The word Abba here is unique word. The interesting part about here is that the New Testament was written in the Greek language. This particular word, however, is in Aramaic. In Mark 14:36, while Jesus was praying in garden just before his execution he cried out, “Abba, Father.” Abba is the equivalent of “papa” or “dada.”
If you are not someone’s child, you have no right to call them “dada.” Servants don’t call their masters “dada.” They call them “sir” or “madam.” If a servant is adopted into the family, they can call the former master “dada.”
When Joey gets is one of his predicaments, he calls out, “Daddy, help! Daddy help!” When we need our Father, we can call out, “Abba, Daddy, Father!” It is our prerogative to do so because he is our dad. That is so comforting.
There is even more good news. We are full heirs. He has made us an heir. Just like servants can’t call their master “dada,” they will likely receive no inheritance. The master may leave them a little something, but it is not required. Children are heirs automatically. When my grandmother died, all children shared in the inheritance, but the former farm hands received nothing.
We are heirs. We are fully vested in the Kingdom of God.
Conclusion
Jesus has paid the price for our redemption. He has bought us back, and put an offer of adoption on the table. We can be children of God, with full rights and privileges of that state.
We get a really cool big brother.
There is nothing we need to do, except to as for this adoption to be finalized.
If we are tired of trying to save ourselves, he can save us. There is nothing we can do on our own. There is not state of mind we can reach. There is not one thing that can bring us salvation, outside of the blood of Jesus. He has redeemed us. He is the only way of salvation. All we have to do is ask for the adoption to be finalized.
