What is time? The dictionary says it is the interval, or period, between two events. It can also be a continued progression when something happens. And we measure that interval in seconds, minutes, hours, years, even centuries
But then the dictionary also adds these many time-related expressions. We have a time capsule, time-consuming, time-honored, and timekeeper, just to name a few. We also have timeless, time limit, timeout, time-tested, and even, time zone. And there’s probably a bunch you can think of off the top of your head.
We often worry if we have enough time. And just as time now ends for the year 2015, our time on earth will also end. How much time do you have? Who knows? Our time here will end, either by death or Jesus’ return. But, either way, our time will run out.
As we live in our moments of time, we have the opportunity to confess Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of time. The Bible calls Him the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. As God, Jesus holds all time in His hands.
That’s because God created time. Even more, God has created each of us in time. He did that directly with Adam and Eve. And He does that, indirectly, now with the creative forces that He put in place at the dawn of time, on creation’s first day.
We are such time-laden creatures that it’s hard to think without thinking about time. And time moves in one direction; we can’t go back. It’s going forward whether we’re ready for it or not. That also is God’s doing.
At the beginning of time, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good… God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:3-5). Even before He created the sun, we see day and night. That’s time.
“Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs to mark seasons, days, and years” (Genesis 1:14). Time: It’s part of God’s creation, for our benefit. And that’s something for which we give thanks to God on this New Year’s Eve.
But as God reveals it in His written Word, we find two different kinds of time. We have time as we measure it, such as hours, days, and years. But there is also (and this is more important in God’s way of thinking) the time that is always “now,” the time that is always the right time for what God intends to do.
That’s time as we heard it from Ecclesiastes. There is a time for every purpose, a proper time, a right time. We’re not always in control of that. But we need to recognize what the right time is—and that all times are in God’s hands.
Think of what goes into preparing a special meal for a holiday. You mark the date, cook the meal, and then it becomes “now.” Now is the time for the feasting! Children often have a hard time with this. They feel as if they’re always waiting—waiting for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or grandma and grandpa to arrive. And then, ready or not, it’s there—it’s now that time, for the time has come.
It’s “now.” That’s the sense of time we now ponder right now, at this year’s end. It can help us understand how God uses time as an unending “now,” for us. It can even help us better understand God’s lordship over time, which can increase our faith in Him.
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so we could receive adoption as sons. And because you are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry out, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God. [Galatians 4:4-7]
“When the set time had fully come.” So, when everything was just right, when God had finished His preparations, He sent His Son. He sent His Son from eternity, outside of
time, into our reality, marked by days and seasons. He entered this world to be one of us, to be under the Law for us, to redeem us, and to make us His own.
Because God did everything for us and our salvation in Jesus, we who believe in Him are now in his family. Being in God’s family isn’t our doing, any more that you can decide to be born. It’s God’s doing. That’s why Scripture calls it an “inheritance.”
You can’t earn an inheritance. Someone else gives it to you, wills it to you after he dies. And so we have the Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts, bequeathed to us after Jesus died when He sent the Spirit. We can now call God our Father.
God has stored for us, safe in His keeping, eternal life as an inheritance. But as God talks about it, this blessing is also something that we have, even now. What is eternal for us becomes a reality for us, not then, but now. As Scripture tells us:
Working with God, we [the Apostle Paul and Pastor Timothy] plead with you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “At the right time I heard you, and on a day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the right time, now is the day of salvation. [2 Corinthians 6:1-2]
“Now is the day of salvation.” This “now” is both warning and blessing. It’s a warning if you put off for the future anything that has to do with God being your eternal father.
You think: “I can come to receive Jesus later. I can always repent on my death bed. I can always believe when I choose to do that.”
No, now is the time. You don’t know how much time you have left. We all know how quickly life can end. Just watch the news and you’ll hear about someone dying or getting murdered. That’s why Scripture says, “Now is the time.” Don’t put it off.
But here’s the blessing. When you turn from sin, when you come to Christ as He comes to you in His preached Word and Sacraments, and when you trust Him, He doesn’t put you off, ever. He is there for you, here for you, even “now.”
Everything God has done for you, He brings to you now, here in his Word. It’s here in His body and blood. God doesn’t wait and say, “I’m going to make someone wait, so he will think whether I love him or not. No! God comes now. He comes in Jesus with all His promises of life and salvation.
Here’s where God being the creator of time blesses and comforts us. For everything God does for our salvation in Jesus is already done. It’s all done and finished. We confess in the Creed—I believe in Jesus Christ, conceived, born, suffered, crucified, died, buried, risen, and ascended into heaven. All those events have already happened, in the past. Jesus earned your salvation in times past, at the right time.
God is the Creator of time. But also know that time only goes in one direction: forward. In some movies, people invent ways to go back in time. They time travel. But that doesn’t happen in reality. Oh, the devil would love to go back and change the cross or Jesus’ resurrection. He would revel in telling you that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. But he can’t, because Jesus has already done that. He’s done it all!
Here’s where it gets interesting. Because God is the creator of time, He can bring to us “now” all that Jesus did to save us in the past. Because God is master of time, we can go into the future with confidence. With God as our Father, with Jesus is our Brother, and living in the Holy Spirit’s power, we can be confident of our inheritance.
Oh, we know we’re not yet there. We still live in a world of sin and death. We don’t yet fully enjoy the eternal life that Jesus gives us. But it’s sure and certain because it rests on Jesus’ promises. It rests on what He has done.
Listen to the Apostle Peter:
Christ was chosen before the world existed but was revealed for your good in these last times. Through him, you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him. So now, your faith and hope are in God. [1 Peter 1:20-21]
And then Peter later goes on to say:
You have been born anew, not from a seed that perishes but by one that cannot perish, through the living and enduring word of God. For, all people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was proclaimed to you. [1 Peter 1:23-25]
God looks at you and sees you in Jesus, already there. For Him, it’s always “now.” This world, with all its glory and time, with all its worries, will pass away. But the Word of the Lord stands forever. And that’s the Word brought to you, the Word you believe, the Word that gives you eternal life.
So where does that leave us now, on December 31, at the close of 2015? God has given you time and eternity. Now is the time to believe. Now is the time to live for God, to live as God’s man or woman, right where he has placed you.
God’s time is now. Now is the time, because Jesus has done it all! And because Jesus has done it all, in Him, a blessed New Year awaits you, no matter what may happen. For you know how the story ends, even now. Amen.
