The First Coming
of Jesus
When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,...to
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons. Gal. 4:4, 5.
When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,...to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Gal. 4:4, 5.
The Savior’s coming was foretold in Eden. When Adam and Eve first
heard the promise, they looked for its speedy fulfillment. They joyfully welcomed
their first-born son, hoping that he might be the Deliverer. But the fulfillment
of the promise tarried. Those who first received it died without the sight.
From the days of Enoch the promise was repeated through patriarchs and prophets,
keeping alive the hope of His appearing, and yet He came not. The prophecy
of Daniel revealed the time of His advent, but not all rightly interpreted
the message. Century after century passed away; the voices of the prophets
ceased. The hand of the oppressor was heavy upon Israel, and many were ready
to exclaim, "The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth."
Ezek. 12:22.
But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God's purposes
know no haste and no delay. Through the symbols of the great darkness and
the smoking furnace, God had revealed to Abraham the bondage of Israel in
Egypt, and had declared that the time of their sojourning should be four hundred
years. "Afterward," He said, "shall they come out with great
substance." Gen. 15:14. Against that word, all the power of Pharaoh's
proud empire battled in vain. On "the self-same day" appointed in
the divine promise, "it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord
went out from the land of Egypt." Ex. 12:41. So in heaven's council the
hour for the coming of Christ had been determined. When the great clock of
time pointed to that hour, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
"When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son."
Providence had directed the movements of nations, and the tide of human impulse
and influence, until the world was ripe for the coming of the Deliverer....
Then Jesus came to restore in man the image of his Maker. None but
Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by sin.
He came to expel the demons that had controlled the will. He came
to lift us up from the dust, to reshape the marred character after
the pattern of His divine character, and to make it beautiful with
His own glory.
