Category: The Gospel

Find out how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ and why you need one.

But When the Fullness of Time Came, God Sent Forth His Son…

As I was attempting to start my bible reading this morning, I was thumbing through some old notes I had taken from studies earlier in the year.  I came across something that I had written that I not only thought was profound, but perfect for the Christmas season.  I wanted to share it with you.  

But when the fullness of time came,  God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that we might recieve the adoption as sons.        Galations 4:4-5    

The essence of the Christmas story is summed up in the above verse.  The Christmas message is the gospel message.   

We all know the story.   

“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth,  to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the ]descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”  But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.  The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;  and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”  Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”  The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.  And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”     Luke 1:26-38

Christ was to be born in the flesh, born as a man from the seed of a woman.  He was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), and David, according to every prophesy foretold and every promise.  

He was born of the seed of the woman.  A prophesy fortold from as far back as Genesis 3.  He is the seed of the woman who is to crush the head of the serpent.   He could not be the son of Adam.  Adam had been cursed with death (Gen. 3:19). Every one born of Adam would carry that curse.  But not Eve.  She did not inherit that curse.  That is why Adam named her EVE, “because she was the mother of the LIVING.”  The only problem was, all children born unto her would have Adam for a father.   All children born of Adam would die.  Death would perpetuate through the seed of Adam. 

Christ did not have Adam for a father.  God was His Father. The curse of Adam was not passed down to Him.  He was born of the seed of the woman only. He would be the ONLY one born in such a way.   

Mary was of the “house” of David; the lineage of David.  And she found favor with God. This word”favor” is the same word translated as grace in the Hebrew.   Why was Mary favored?  I think it was because Mary’s heart was humble.  She had purposed in her heart to be a servant of God long before the angel of God came to her bearing his announcement.  

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

The Greek word translated  to “come upon”  (eperchomai) could also mean to come in to.  The word “overshadow” (episkiazo) means to cast a shade upon, to envelope in a haze of brilliancy, to invest with a preternatural influence.  

Think about it this way.  The Holy Spirit came upon the whole of Mary.  It encompassed her.  It covered her, became one with her.  Much like a husband would “cover” his wife.  Mary became the bondservant of the Lord, humbly offering herself basically as a wife would her husband. She submitted to Him fully, surrendering to His will.  She knew exactly what she was doing, what was being asked of her.  She was not unmarried and pregnant.  She was, in a sense, married to God, in order to bear His Son.  In her was the representation of Israel, wed to God in covenental relationship. 

Mary’s “blood seal” (the medical term is hymen) of her virginity had not been breached.  It remained intact, as she “knew no man“.   But God knew her.  Not in a physical way, but in a spiritual way.  The way God knows us when we accept Him and invite Him into our hearts to dwell as Lord and Savior.  He “comes into us”.   Mary believed Him.  She recieved Him and and came into her and concieved new life, the Life of the Son of God within her. 

It is the same thing that happens to us.  We believe Him, we recieve Him and the life of the Son of God is manifest within us.  

Mary’s blood seal was not broken until the Son of Man EXITED her birth canal.  Joseph, obedient to the word of God, entered into marriage covenant with Mary, took her into his house and gave her his name, but he did not “know” her (have sexual relationship with her)  until after Christ was born.  In a way, Joseph submitted to being Mary’s second husband.   Once Mary had bore the Son of God and gave Him the Name above all Names,  she was free to bear sons for Joseph’s name.  (And I will add that at this point, Mary could no longer be considered a virgin.)

I think the Holy Spirit came upon Mary at the conception of Christ and never left her.  I think He stayed with her the whole time of her pregnancy.   Why do I say this?  Because Luke 1:41 says that the baby in Elizabeth’s womb when she heard Mary’s greeting.  She stated “blessed are you among women, AND blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

“May it be done to me according to your Word...”

And the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us…     

  In a way that we may not fully ever understand, the Word of God entered Mary’s womb.  It joined with her seed.  At that momentof conception the Son of God became the Son of Man, the Word made flesh. 

The life of the Spirit of God joined the life of the human race, entering into the realm of time and space within the confines of a body of flesh and blood.   A body specifically prepared for a specific purpose.  

For a perfect sacrifice.  The sacrifice to end all other sacrifices. 

In my next post, I want to consider what it meant for Christ to be “born under the law” and what that means for us. 

Until then, I pray you are blessed and humble before the Lord this holiday season as we are reminded of the miracle of His birth and the gift of eternal life found in His Name!  Amen! 

   

How Do We Get Home From Here?

GLINDA-  It’s all right.  You can get up, she’s gone.

The Munchkins all rise and start to move toward Glinda and Dorothy as Glinda speaks to them.

GLINDA- It’s all right.  You can all get up.

GLINDA- Pooh!  What a smell of sulphur!  I’m afraid you’ve made rather a bad enemy of the Wicked Witch of the West.  The sooner you get out of Oz altogether, the safer you’ll sleep, my dear.

DOROTHY- Oh, I’d give anything to get out of Oz altogether! But which is the way back to Kansas?  I can’t go the way I came.

GLINDA- No, that’s true. The only person who might know would be the great and wonderful Wizard of Oz himself!

DOROTHY- The Wizard of Oz?  Is he good or is he wicked?

GLINDA- Oh, very good, but very mysterious.  He lives in the Emerald City, and that’s a long journey from here. Did you bring your broomstick with you?

DOROTHY- No, I’m afraid I didn’t.

GLINDA- Well, then, you’ll have to walk.  The Munchkins will see you safely to the border of Munchkinland.  And remember, never let those ruby slippers off your feet for a moment, or you will be at the mercy of the Wicked Witch of the West.

DOROTHY- But, how do I start for Emerald City?

GLINDA- It’s always best to start at the beginning, and all you do is follow the Yellow Brick Road.

DOROTHY- But… what happens if I…?

GLINDA- Just follow the Yellow Brick Road.

And the camera pans down to Dorothy’s ruby red clad feet to show us that she is standing at the point of the spiral shaped beginnings of the Yellow Brick Road inlaid within the midst of Munchkinland.  All the Munchkins gather around Dorothy as they point the way to the Emerald City and to the Great and Mysterious Oz, and her only hope of getting home.  “Just follow the Yellow Brick Road…”

 

We all have buried deep inside of us a desperate desire to go home.

Somehow, we know innately that this world is not our home, we ultimately do not belong here and we feel uneasy and discontent here no matter how appealing it may be at times.  Yes, we may have love and beauty and creature comforts in this world, but something of a Greater Love draws us, Something or Someone more beautiful than this existence can offer.  Sometimes it’s hard to explain, we can’t seem to put into words the dissatisfaction and longing we feel so deeply in our hearts.

 

Home.

Home to the love that loves us so completely in spite of our flaws.  Home to the love that shelters us in the worst of storms.  Home to the One who sits by our side and patiently waits for us to awaken from the illusion of our dreamy false realities.  Home to the arms that will encompass us in a perfect and consuming Peace; safe and warm and satisfied.

But how do we get there from here?  We can’t go the way we came.

And it’s a long journey from here.

Where do we find our Yellow Brick Road?

Which way to the Great and Powerful, this Mysterious “Oz”, who is our only hope of ever finding home?

The deeply ingrained longing for “home” is real.  It is a desire that transcends us; in other words, it doesn’t originate with us. That desire was planted there by our Creator.  It is a desire for Him and will only be satisfied in Him.  The problem we face is that so much of the world today not only doesn’t know Him, but they do not even entertain the possibility for His existence.  The world tells them that there is no Emerald City and there is no Great and Powerful Oz.  You can follow the Yellow Brick Road all you want, but it leads to nowhere.  What a hopeless state they are in!  It’s no wonder that so many people are committing suicide!  It’s no wonder so many today are escaping their realities with drugs and alcohol, or with pornography or video games or online shopping.  They know the craving is real.  They just have no idea how to satisfy it.  No matter with what they try or how much or how often, still they find themselves empty; hungry for a home they don’t know how to find.

But friends, I am here to tell you there is a Way.  There is a hope.  There is One who made a way for us to satisfy the desire for Home, Who indeed IS our Home.  And there is a Road that leads us there.

 

It’s simple to find.  And you do not have to start at the beginning.  You can start from wherever you are!

 

Your journey Home begins with your first believing in the Truth that there is a God who made you, who formed you intentionally and who desires to be known by you.  In this way, God our Creator is not like the Wizard of Oz who was “mysterious” so as only to hide the fact that he was not who he portrayed himself to be.  The Wizard of Oz was, in the end, just a man like everyone else.  Our God is not at all like anyone or anything else.  He is Who and What His word says He is and through His word He is revealed and knowable.  John 1:1-5, 9-13.

And that Word became a man, but not a man like anyone else (John 1:14). He was also God revealed to us in human form, clothed in flesh and blood, entering time and space in order to bridge the great divide that separated us from Him.  That great divide is the sin that we are born into, sin that we commit and sin that we cannot escape or deliver ourselves from.  Our sin is what separates us from our Home.  But the Word that became a man -Jesus Christ, came to pay the penalty for our sin, to die in our place, to satisfy the righteous requirements of God in our stead.  Because He did what we could never do for ourselves, we now have access to the “Great and Powerful” God, the only hope of ever satisfying the deepest longing and hunger of our souls.

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“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.  John 14:1-6.

 

Our hearts long to be at home with our Father.  The only way to get home is through Jesus, who indeed IS the Way.  When we trust in the work He did for us on the Cross by shedding His perfect, sinless blood, our faith in that work gives us access to the Father.  The Holy Spirit comes like a dove and lights upon us and sinks down within us and takes up residence in our spirit.  He unites with our spirit in a way that resembles a marriage, we are made one with each other.  When God looks upon us, He sees that union and the holiness that is bestowed upon us through the Spirit.  We come to KNOW Him.

 

In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:20-21

 

It is no longer us He sees, but the Spirit of Christ within us.  Our identity has changed.  We are made a new creation.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  Now all these things are from God,who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.    2Corinthians 5:17-19

 

It really is a marvelous mystery!  And one you do not have to fully understand to reap the benefits from.  You only have to trust that it is true and accept that truth within your heart.  God performs the rest.

 

The next step in the process of going home is to follow.  Just as Dorothy had to follow the Yellow Brick Road, we have to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus is in every sense following the “Glory Road”.   Following Jesus and His commands keeps us in the center of Gods perfect will for our lives.  No matter where you are in this world; in a field of poisonous poppies or in the middle of the haunted forest surrounded by flying monkeys, if you are on the Glory Road you are going the right way.  God’s eyes are on you.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.

 Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  John 14:23-27

 

 Following Christ means reading His word.  Following Christ means surrendering your will to His.  Following Christ means to live according to the Spirit and not according to our own sinful desires. And even that is something we cannot do in and of ourselves, but only as the Holy Spirit empowers us to do it.  Praise God that He has provided every need we have.

If we do these things according to the prescribed plan of God, we will find our way home.  In fact, we will find that we are already home in Him.   We will find that our desperate, unexplained longings are satisfied in Him.  The things of the world will, over time, fade away.  And we will rest in the hope that we will experience an eternity with the God of all creation, Who formed us for His good pleasure, to enjoy the riches of His Grace and Mercies, living in the Presence of His Glory forever!

Way better than Kansas!