The Sovereignty of the Cross Over the Right Time

You might think that the most significant evidence of the sovereignty of God is his creation of the universe.  Or perhaps you think it is that he once commanded the sun and moon to stop along their paths in the sky – and they obeyed him (Joshua 10:12-14)! Maybe you think it's his rescue of the people of Israel from the tyranny of Egypt (Exodus 1-14). Surely, we can’t leave out his power over the waters of the Earth when he drowned the recalcitrant evils of wayward men along with the infernal evil of demonic nephilim in the great flood of Noah (Genesis 6-8). These, of course, are all genuine proofs of God’s sovereignty over everything!

But it is The Cross that may be the most profound, the most victorious, the most glorious, and the most poignant evidence of his sovereignty. God’s absolute knowledge and control over the flow of all of time and creation is so solid that he is able to laser focus his power to the exact right moment for every miracle he performs, both as a means of maximizing that miracle’s potency as well as for optimizing the visibility of his righteous glory. Paul tells us that at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6).  He repeats that truth in Galatians 4:4-5, where he calls it the fullness of time. This “right time” concept is pivotal to the effectiveness of the gospel.  One illustration of that is how the crucifixion and resurrection occurred at just the exact time in history to exploit the network of roads and trade routes built by the Roman Empire and thereby empowering the rapid spread of the gospel message to all parts of the then developed world –  which allowed for the salvation of the most people across the time frames of most human civilizations.  

He did this while humanity was still weak, still sinful, and while his own people were still shackled to an ever repeating sacrificial system that only covered the stains of sins – or only temporarily washed them away – without changing the inner nature of any of the people responsible for vomiting out those sins on an ongoing basis in the first place. 

This all tells us that if God has that much sovereignty over time and circumstance, and that if his plan is so precise that he can work all things into good for those who love him and are called for his purposes, then we can be assured of righteous outcomes as we suffer with patience through difficult and challenging times we so often find ourselves in (Romans 8:28-29). After all, he loved us before we loved him and before we had any divine worthiness (1 John 4:16-19)! 

We know that he loves us – that is to say that we know he is committed to our well-being since he suffered and died for us – so we can be confident that he will make our sufferings and patience worthwhile at the right time, and not a second before.