Jesus Christ, the Center of History

I’m tired of hearing about being on the wrong side of history. It’s an arrogant phrase, in that it assumes that finally our generation has “progressed” so far and become so enlightened; and further, that everything that came before is ignorant and stupid. Well guess what? Following that pattern, in a few years, another page will turn, and you will be on the wrong side of history, and they will consider you to be the ignorant and stupid one. And they might be right.

In addition to the whole “wrong side of history” thing being arrogant, it is also simply wrong. Fundamental and foundational truths are just that, regardless of the mood of the current age. And God, in His grace, has revealed to us in Word and in Person something about what that fundamental, foundation truth is: Jesus Christ stands at the Center of History.

Think of a book with many pages, yes, even the pages of history. Jesus as the Center means that He is not merely a page of history that has come and gone. Rather, Jesus is the Binding of the Book, the Center of History. And by faith in Jesus, we can see how history fits together, both in the many manifestations of human foolishness, and also, graciously, in the manifestations of divine wisdom. But we must notice and accept that Jesus is directly, personally related to and integral to each and every page of the book, of all history, always and everywhere. 

Without this Binding Truth, this Central Character, our view of life and times is like a loose-leaf notebook let loose in the wind, pages flying every which way, with us grabbing hold of one and proclaiming that we are now on “the right side of history.” Arrogant, ignorant, and foolish.

By faith in Jesus, acknowledging and accepting who He is and what He has done - we come into personal relationship with the very Center of History, as Savior, Lord, and King. He is what holds everything together. So when a person who does not have such faith in Jesus diagnoses you or me as being on the wrong side of history, they are doing so as one who is reading a page from the book with no binding. They have lost sight of the Story, and hold merely a page that they think is the beginning and the end of everything. And they are sorely mistaken, though they speak so confidently. But by faith, we know Him who is “the Author and Perfecter of faith.”