Christmas Morning: Son Rise on a New Dayਨਮੂਨਾ

When I started college, my degree program required me to take one foreign language course in the “2000” level. Since I did not speak Spanish, I needed to learn the basics before I could read the poetry and short stories the 2000-level course required, so I enrolled in a couple of basic Spanish classes to prepare myself for what was to come.

In many ways, the Law God gave to the Jewish people through Moses (recorded in the Old Testament) was preparing humanity for the New Covenant that God would establish through Jesus. Humanity needed to learn the basics of the character of God, His call on their lives, and the wages of sin in order to be ready for what would happen through Christ.

All of these “prerequisites” of the Law helped prepare people for the truth of Christ. Jesus came into the world to seek and save the lost - the people who understood that they could not save themselves. The Law prepared people for their need for a Savior. Further, the Law prepared people to understand that death was the result of sin, so when Jesus died on the cross to take the payment for humanity’s sins, people would know why that needed to happen. Finally, the supernatural demonstrations of God in the Old Testament helped humanity recognize the presence of God in the miracles of Jesus in the New Testament. The Law was given to teach humanity so that they would understand Christ!

Luke 2:6 says, “The time came for her to give birth.” Of course, this statement refers to Mary being at full term, but it also hints at something Paul wrote about in Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law.” The fullness of time had come. The Old Testament era prerequisites had been accomplished, and it was time for the Jesus-era to begin.

Right on schedule, Jesus was born. The common language (Greek) and common passport (Roman) facilitated the rapid geographical spread of the Gospel around the world. The people were prepared through the Old Testament era. In God’s perfect plan, “the time came for her to give birth.”

It was time. And now is the time for us to believe in Him.