The Advent of Glory by R.C. Sproul: 5 Days Exploring the First ChristmasSample

Day 1: Time

The birth of Jesus is the moment that divides history, and I don’t just mean into BC and AD. Long before anyone invented that system of counting the years, this was the most important moment in the world.

In Luke’s Gospel, we see the first hint of this in the angel’s words to Zechariah: “Behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time” (Luke 1:20, emphasis added).

In the Greek language, there are two distinct words for “time.” One is chronos, and the other is kairos. There’s enormous significance in the distinction between those two words. The word chronos means the normal passing of time. It’s how we measure our lives. We have a chronology to what we do: everything that happens takes place within the context of chronos.

The word kairos is a little tougher to get hold of. It refers to a specific, particular moment in time—a moment of extraordinary significance. It’s not that it takes place outside time—it is part of the broad flow of time. But it is a point that defines the meaning of all time.

This is the word that the angel used when he spoke to Zechariah. “My words ... will be fulfilled in their time.”

The angel was speaking about the birth of John the Baptist, but John’s birth was intended to prepare the way for an even more important moment in time. “When the fullness of time had come,” Galatians 4:4 tells us, “God sent forth his Son.”

That’s a strange image, isn’t it—the fullness of time? The word “fullness” is the Greek word pleroma, and it means being filled to capacity or filled to the point of bursting. That’s what happened at the moment of Jesus’ birth. The time was full.

There came that critical juncture in human history when the time—the kairos—was filled to capacity at last and burst out with the birth of a baby who was the incarnation of God. Jesus’ birth—in fact, Jesus’ whole life, and especially his death and resurrection—these are the crucial moments of kairos. These moments define all other moments in history, before or since.

How can you let the moment of Jesus’ birth define the moments of your day today?

A Prayer for Today

By Rosemary Jensen

Dear Lord, our sovereign God, you chose the day that we now call the first Christmas Day before the foundation of the world. You knew how many hours each of your children would have to use for your glory. Forgive me for wasting so much time in the past year and for not using all my hours in ways that honored you. Please help me use these days before Christmas to honor you by preparing for your return, even as I prepare to celebrate your birth. I thank you for my birth, too, and for my second birth, which took place by your grace through faith in you. For Christmas morning, I pray that my greatest joy will be to wake up knowing that you were born in time and space as the God-man—for me and for others who believe in you as Lord and Savior.

In your name, amen.