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| An In Depth Study of God's Word | ||||||||
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"In the Beginning"- "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in HIM will not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
All is now ready for the most important event in human history. It is an event planned even before the creation of the world. It is the keeping of a promise made to Abraham over 2000 years earlier. It is the fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies regarding the Messiah who would come to establish His kingdom. Most importantly, it is the beginning of a dynamically new relationship between God and man. The event is the coming of the Savior of the world, the Messiah - or as referred to in the Greek, the Christ.
This Christ is not to be just another world leader, as Cyrus, Alexander, or Caesar. He is not to be just another great man of God, as Abraham, Moses, or David. He is to be God Himself in human flesh! The Lord of heaven is to become a servant of earth. God, who has previously made Himself known through a nation (Israel) and a law (the Torah), is now to reveal Himself in the most personal way possible - in the form of a man. Until now, God's blessings have been reserved mostly for a chosen people (the Jews), but now they are to become available to all people in every generation.
Who is this Christ, this Messiah? His name is Jesus, Jeshua ha Masheach. His symbolic name, Immanuel (meaning "God with us") signifies His deity. He is man, but God as well; and He is God - the God of Creation - but man as well. God lowers Himself so that man might be elevated. He leaves heaven so that man may enter it. To man, who cannot begin to understand the ways of God, it is clearly a great mystery. But what a marvelous and wonderful mystery it is!
As the New Testament record now begins, the Scriptures proclaim the good news about the salvation of mankind, which comes through obedient faith, and faith alone, in Jesus the Christ. The good news begins with the miraculous birth of Jesus to a virgin of Galilee in the days of Herod, King of Judea. Then, as Jesus grows into manhood, John the Baptist announces His coming as the promised Messiah and Savior. As Jesus begins His own ministry, He confirms His deity with miraculous healings and other signs and wonders, and proclaims the imminent coming of the kingdom of God, His kingdom reign for eternity. His teaching calls men and women to new spiritual heights in their worship of God and in their relationships with one another.
But because His teaching challenges traditional practices of the Jewish religion of His day, and because He claims divine authority, Jesus meets strong opposition from religious leaders. That opposition ultimately leads to arrest and trial before Jewish and Roman authorities. Although falsely accused, Jesus is condemned and sentenced to die by crucifixion - an event that is intended to silence both the Man and His message. Instead, the Good News comes to a powerful climax when, on the third day after His death, Jesus rises from the grave and shows Himself alive, proving His own miraculous resurrection. The Christian hope, which derives from the Gospel message, is that, just as Jesus is raised from the dead, so also the righteous in Christ will be raised to eternal life! (Intro reading from the Chronological Bible)
The Gospel writers take us on a fascinating tour of the life of Jesus. Written from four different perspectives, for four different audiences, we see the story unfold thru the eyes of men whose lives were forever changed as they encountered their Savior and wrote of their experiences.
The Good News continues to develop, page after page as the Holy Spirit inspires these and other men to proclaim their testimony that this Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah. At Pentecost, thousands are amazed and converted to The Way, as early Christianity became known. Paul educates them in this new approach to God as only a learned scholar can, taking practical principles from the lives of new believers, explaining what God requires of them, correcting them as needed and blessing them with insight as the Holy Spirit directs.
Peter writes to the Gentile Christians throughout much of neighboring Asia and Europe, comforting the new Christians as persecution begins to overtake them. He encourages them by reminding them of their blessing in the redemption thru their new birth and the inheritance that is theirs', kept in heaven through Christ Jesus.
John gives an eyewitness account of what this new Word of Life, the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus, really encompasses. He writes because of the new, and far more dangerous enemy of their new faith, false teaching, is rising from within the faith itself, that is, the teaching that the practice of immorality is not evil, only the flesh itself is, and that God could not possibly have become flesh. He reassures them of the assurance and security, which God's children have in Jesus Christ.
James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes at length concerning the needs for consistency between faith and conduct. He seems to be saying that only those who demonstrate true faith can endure the sufferings of that time, and that faith can be measured by conduct; that there needs to be consistency between belief and action. Jude, the brother of James and half brother of Jesus, exhorts the believers to fight with everything they have in them for their faith as false teachers try to take over, doing away with Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The NT ends with the Revelation to John of Jesus Christ and His Second coming in glory and power to put an end to sin and to re-establish all that is good in His creation. In the Revelation, we see the culmination of God's perfect plan for the redemption of man, which began in the Old Testament through His chosen people Israel, and ends with Christ's return to earth to judge mankind. Satan is bound forever in the Lake of Fire with His demons and the unrepentant sinners of all time. God's chosen people Israel, is grafted back unto the root from which she was temporarily pruned and she joins God's chosen of the Gentiles in glory. The Book ends in joy as believers see their future in the splendor of heaven. Praise Him!
