In modern life, time has become primarily a quantitative measure. “How much time is left?” we ask. Yet we also talk about having a bad time or a good time, which suggests that time possesses a qualitative dimension as well. Paul writes of the “fullness” of time when God sent Jesus Christ, who fulfilled Jewish law and, by fulfilling it, opened up the opportunity for non-Jews to enter into the family of God, to become God’s children by adoption.
Many Christians today overlook what an incredible gift it is to be a Christian. Perhaps we take for granted our standing before God and our ready access to God’s mercy and blessings. Paul describes Gentile Christians as heirs to God’s promises. But we are heirs, he writes, by adoption. In a profound way, then, God is not our “natural” Father. So how much more precious is it that we too can cry out “Abba” and feel confident that God listens to us?
With our inclusion in God’s people, it is not only we who are redeemed but time itself. The Bible tells us that time was not simply ticktocking along throughout the many centuries prior to Jesus’ birth, nor is the time between Jesus’ day and our own lacking in significance. God has a plan for the world, and God is working it out. Even when we struggle to find signs of God’s activity or when we encounter the all-too-frequent tragedies in this fallen world, we can remain confident that God is God. Time itself is God’s own creation. One day all will be made plain to us, and, as adopted heirs of God’s promises, nothing “in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).