Throughout Scripture, we are reminded that our eternal God created us to live in finite time. Yet as created beings, Jesus came to invite us into eternal life together with him. It’s mind-blowing—and can shift the way we live in the here and now.
In Greek, there are two words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos refers to sequential time: one o’clock, two o’clock, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. You can see the root chronos in the word chronological. It is a quantitative way of describing time. It is how we measure our moments and days.
Kairos, on the other hand, is a qualitative way of expressing time. It describes an opportune moment or an appointed time for an action to take place. The word kairos is used eighty-one times in the New Testament. For example, when Jesus told his disciples to head to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles without him, it was an expression of kairos time: “Now is not the right time [kairos] for me to go, but you can go anytime” (John 7:6). It is a way of speaking about eternal “time.”
Hebrews 13:8 describes Jesus in kairos terms: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” He experienced fully in the flesh what it was to live as part of the created order, existing within time and space. Yet simultaneously, because of his divine, eternal nature, his sacrifice is not limited to one particular place and moment: “For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time” (Hebrews 10:10). He is where time and eternity intersect. At any given moment of even the most ordinary day, those who know Jesus are experiencing eternal life—right here, right now.
Michelle Van Loon is the author of Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith (NavPress). She’s written four books and has been a regular contributor to CT’s Her.meneutics blog. Connect with her at MichelleVanLoon.com, via Facebook, or on Twitter.
