So have you ever had someone tell you, or maybe you heard of this, that Jesus really didn’t come to Earth. It’s a fiction. A lie. Something some disgruntled Jewish men concocted to avoid following the laws of their day. So which is it? How do we actually know Jesus came when He did, in the manner he did, in the place we’re told he came to? Let’s dig into the Scriptures to see how we can get answers to the questions people will throw at Christianity!

Galatians 4:4-6 lays out that in the fullness of time, or when the time was right, God sent His son to earth. So by that verse, and also in Mark 1:15, and Ephesians 1:10 that there was an expected time for God’s plan to be laid out and salvation to come to His people; We also see that plan extended to the gentiles in the story of Cornelius in Acts 10 & 11. We also know that from God’s discourse to Eve and the serpent in Genesis 3 that there would be an expected time that the bruising and crushing would take place. Or when God promised to Abraham that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed that something miraculous was going to be happening in the future. So we know God had a time table laid out for this. What made God send Gabriel to announce the coming birth of the Messiah to Mary when He did?

To answer that we have to go back to the Old Testament to look at some prophecies in Daniel. In Daniel 9 we are told Israel will have 70 weeks to end their transgression. 62 weeks are mentioned from the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem until the arrival of a prince (Daniel 9:24-26). So we see in this prophetic passage in Daniel that there was an expected time for Israel to live in their transgression, then there was to be a redeemer, or prince. Some Bible scholars and teachers believe that date was fulfilled either in the baptism of Jesus or His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Regardless we see that connection in the Galations passage to there being reason for the “fullness of time”.

Another, and more dedutive way of looking at the WHEN of Jesus is to go back to the authoritative, and sovereign nature of God. We see from examples of Noah’s ark, Job, Jacob making a commitment at Shechem, to Jesus at Jacob’s same well at Shechem in later Samaria that God is not a God of coincidences or chance. Compare this same principle with 2 Timothy 3:16 that all scripture is given of God and we begin to see that regardless if we can’t understand the intricacies of God’s plan; we do know He had and does have, a very specific time line and plan for His creation, and His people. And that based on God’s Word in Daniel 9, and studying His prophecies and past examples we can rest in that Jesus came when he was supposed to, and exactly how history and the Bible records it.

So what about the WHERE? Again we’d have to go back to the covenant God made with Abram to make of him a great nation, a people as the stars or the sand. That out of them all nations would be blessed. While it may seem trivial to analyze where Jesus was born, and where he ministered, and where he died; it is of the utmost important because all those things were predicted, and recorded hundreds or even thousands of years before they actually happened! To be born from the tribe of Judah fulfilled Genesis 49:10. To be born in Bethlehem was to fulfill and claim the prophecy in Micah 5:2. To come to Israel, more specifically Galilee, to redeem them fulfills prophecy in Isaiah 9:1-6, as well as in chapter 53; although that has a much broader meaning. The Where Jesus came to, is just as important to the power of the plan as the WHEN, and WHY.

We understand these things better when we spend the time to understand who God is. He is sovereign, mighty, and all powerful and time has no constraints on Him: He created time! So whether it is the WHEN, or the WHERE, we know God had a plan for the salvation of mankind, and what will our response be when we come to this saving truth?

When we realize why Jesus came, and for what reasons, while also understanding He came to a specific place at a specific time to be a salvation to anyone who accepts His gift our responses should be: What a Savior He is! Charles Wesley said it best: Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heav’n to earth come down,
fix in us Thy humble dwelling;
all Thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love Thou art;
visit us with Thy salvation;
enter every trembling heart.