Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is credited with saying that the arc of the universe bends toward justice. I think that’s true because God is perpetually bending the arc of history toward himself. But it takes a long, sometimes very long, view of history to have that confidence. The arc of history doesn’t bend without resistance from forces of evil no matter how much pressure God is putting on it. But it will bend justly under the influence of courageous doers of good.
A student of history can name notable instances where justice has been realized in the story of humanity. That is why we can have hope that better days are always coming. Good eventually wins because God is good and wants the best for his dearly loved children.
It follows that the arc of history also bends toward reconciliation between his dearly loved but wayward children and himself. There was that moment “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). So we measure the sweep of the arc in terms of ages before that moment to the ages after it.
It was in that moment “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.” Ever since, all believers in Jesus have a distinct role in history. “He has committed to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19). May we embrace our place in history.
