It’s an amazing and wonderful thing to realize that God devised His plan, created us, and is perfectly executing the plan, so that we could enjoy Him. He was infinitely satisfied within Himself, the Godhead, before creation. He didn’t create for Himself; rather, at His pleasure He created for us. Just to have lived is a gift beyond measure. That God would allow some of His creatures to live for eternity in a relationship with Him is beyond comprehension.
A reader asked me,
Why didn’t God send Jesus to the earth to die right after Adam and Eve sinned? Why did God wait all that time between Adam and Eve and the cross?
This is a good question. I don’t mean to be dismissive, but after having considered who God is, the first answer to this question is “because God didn’t want to.” Though we’ll talk about the possible whys, that’s the place to start. Just trying to understand what God has revealed is difficult enough. It would be presumptive to try to understand what He has not revealed. So I admit I really don’t know why He designed His plan the way He did. But I doknow it is perfect.
Having said this, I can suggest some possible reasons that make sense to me as to why God didn’t immediately send Christ. They’re all related to the fact that we learn within time, not simply as individuals, but as a human community. As creatures we are bound to time and space, process is important, and developing events in human history is important.
What God immediately did after Adam and Eve sinned was promise He would save fallen mankind. Genesis 3:15 is the beginning of the gospel announcing that someone (we now know it was Jesus) born of a woman would ultimately triumph over Satan: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Satan thought he crippled (bruised heel) Jesus on the cross, but the resurrection fatally wounded (bruised head) Satan’s power. This is the first of many promises that God made, and every one He has faithfully kept. “So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
By God waiting to bring both redemption and judgment, we learn more about His faithfulness. Since He always does what He promises, we learn more about His truthfulness. “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19). We learn to exercise faith and perseverance and believe in God’s praiseworthy attributes: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).
Jesus was the Lamb, a sacrifice, the Passover, Priest, Prophet, King, the fulfillment of the law, the Bread of Life, the Word. Without time to develop these ideas throughout history and through the writings of the Scriptures, we would never have understood the depths of the Godhead.
