Page 94 - Advanced Life of Christ - Student Textbook

ordained time. His opponents failed in their attempt to seize Him “because His hour had not yet come”
(John 7:30).

The Fullness of Time
“IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME” … is used over and over again in the Bible.

Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman,
born under the law –

Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the
world should be registered.

And so it goes every day, God’s plan, and God’s purpose is unfolding and there is an exact moment -- a
fullness of time that is coming that will mean his purpose is now complete.

The fullness of times goes beyond the little town of Bethlehem, goes beyond the manger, and the
silent night. It reaches back to eternity past, and stretches to eternity future, and arrests us now in this
special moment, and lets us know that God has something for you and right now and today! So, let us
look at the fullness of time, then and now.

1. God created time but is not bound by it. He made clocks for man, but He is free to ignore them.
Every day, every moment, God is fulfilling time. The fullness of time means that at exactly the right
moment, at the most precise time and place, God’s purpose and plan is unfolded and revealed. And
as God does this over time, He seems to want to help mankind see what He is doing by demonstrating
the “BIG IDEA” over and over again.

For example, Abraham was told to take his only son, Isaac, and offer him up as a sacrifice on a hill
called Moriah. It took three days for the group to arrive, then Abraham took his son, laid the wood on
his shoulders, and they walked up the hill which was later to be called Calvary. There Abraham built
an altar of sacrifice, laid his son on the altar, and was about to slay his son, but instead God provided a
ram for a sacrifice. Here, God was foretelling his plan for his own son at the exact same location
approximately 2000 years later.

2. God’s plan for everything that happens has been planned from eternity.

3. Christ timed his death…not by chance, but by choice…at the time of the Passover celebration. Our
Lord, born in Bethlehem, where sacrificial lambs were born and raised, died in Jerusalem – where all
sacrificial lambs were killed.

4. The Messiah had to go to Jerusalem to die on Passover. And was crucified on Mt. Moriah where
Abraham and Isaac foretold of His sacrifice.

5. Crucifixion before Roman days was practiced by the Persians, Carthaginians, and Macedonians
(Greeks) but was impalement rather than a cross. The Romans were the only state that practiced
crucifixion as Jesus was crucified…with a cross beam. In the fullness of time…Jesus had to come at this
time in history to be crucified and die for our sins as He planned that He would (Isaiah 53).

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