But when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth His Son ~Galatians 4:4

Have you ever wondered why God waited so long to send Jesus into the world—and why we’re still waiting for His final arrival? Thousands of years elapsed between the promise of deliverance in Genesis 3 and the beginning of its fulfillment in Matthew 1. Years filled with sin, death, hate, and oppression. Why allow all that suffering? Genocides, holocausts, wars, and riots. Why the wait? And since the New Testament, conditions go from bad to worse (2 Tim. 3:13). Even the creation groans for restoration.  

Advent is about waiting. The word “advent” means “The arrival of a noteworthy person.” Humans understand waiting. We wait to grow up. We wait for true love. We wait for a career. We wait to retire. Our waiting is filled with anticipation and expectation. Excitement builds. Hope grows. We look for things to change, conditions to improve. A promotion. A vaccine. A stimulus check. A healed relationship. Restored health. We wait in hope. 

But there’s a darker side to advent we often forget. God also waited. But He wasn’t waiting for conditions to improve. He knew better. He was waiting for things to get bad—really bad. I don’t know what the weather was like the night Jesus was born, but how appropriate that the Son of God and Savior of the world was born into darkness. Some scholars believe December 25 is the actual date that Jesus arrived and that also happens to be the darkest time of the year. Why the wait?  

God knows sinners. He understands our flawed reasoning. Had Jesus arrived in Genesis 4, we might have thought to ourselves, “With a little more time, we could have fixed this mess and put ourselves together. After all, we’re humans, and humans fix things.” 

But God gave us time to prove our impotence. He gave us thousands of years and some of the best and brightest potential saviors. Philosophers, politicians, and preachers. All the deep thinkers. Then came the professionals: doctors, lawyers, scientists, and psychologists. Finally, the world leaders: prophets, priests, kings, and presidents. Lots of potential there. How are we doing? Are we fixed yet?  

By the time of Christ, the Apostle Paul would write a letter to a church situated near the political, religious, and philosophical heart of the world to ask, “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” He’s simply saying, “You boasted in having answers to the world’s deepest issues. What happened? You’re all fools!” 

God let us hope in flawed leaders and failed solutions until finally, the world was at its darkest. The fullness of time had come. God’s creation was ruined. Conditions on earth were ripe for judgment. But Christmas brought a surprise. Instead of sending a judge, God sent a Savior. He sent Jesus, with a much different plan of deliverance—a plan to make our wisdom look foolish and show our power to be weak.    

But with a history of flawed leaders and failed systems, we still hold out hope for ourselves. We still try to fix things on our own. Years ago, an article in the New York Times said, “The meaning of Christmas is that love will triumph and that we will be able to put together a world of unity and peace.” Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?  

The first part is great. Love will triumph. Amen. But that second part about us putting together a world of unity and peace rings hollow. I take the author to mean we will be masterminding and executing this peace plan, uniting everyone behind it. That sounds like the Tower of Babel. Unity and ambition, without God. That ended… badly.  

Can we seriously hope to create a world of peace and unity when we can’t even agree on who won the presidential election; or the best strategy to overcome poverty; solve injustice; restrain crime; and feed the hungry? We can’t even secure peace in our own heart, let alone achieve “a world of unity and peace.” 

Paul Johnson wrote a remarkable book called Intellectuals. It features powerful men who shaped the thinking of our modern world. Men like Karl Marx, Ernest Hemingway, Leo Tolstoy, and Bertrand Russel—all intellectual leaders at some level, all respected.

Johnson exposes the sheer hypocrisy and depravity of those men. Their lives would leave a black mark on a piece of coal. He chronicles their narcissism, marital infidelity, domestic abuse, alcoholism, and financial corruption. The most respected leaders who helped frame the ideas and systems of western civilization couldn’t stay sober or remain faithful to their own marriage vows. They had no self-control or personal discipline. Some even took their own life. Doesn’t inspire confidence, does it?  

One of my favorite Christmas songs reminds me of that reality: “O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth; Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.” 

That’s a great summary of world history, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining.” Humanity, pining away in sin and suffering, waiting on deliverance but looking to the wrong saviors. We’re hooked. We’re addicted. We’re in deep. We need Jesus.    

Paul continues in Galatians 4 to describe God’s purpose in sending Jesus, “to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

We sit in darkness hoping to be free, longing to belong, “‘Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.” We were slaves. God sent Jesus to free us. We were orphans. God sent Jesus to adopt us. That’s Christmas. That’s the hope of the Gospel. That’s God’s perfect timing. Jesus came when conditions were bad. And we can expect His second—and final—Advent to follow that pattern.   

How should we respond? As Ray Ortlund once said, “Today might be your fullness of time to receive adoption. Will you right now receive the love of God in Christ? And if you’re thinking, ‘Who am I to receive him?’ you have a point. But on the other hand, who are you to reject him?” 

Redeemed and adopted. What a Christmas gift from God! May you consider again the perfect timing of God in sending Jesus, who, at His appearance, enabled your soul to feel its worth.