Long, long before the world began, there was a king, the King of glory. This King was far, far above and beyond
anyone or anything you or I could imagine. In the endlessness of eternity
He was the only King, and His kingdom the only kingdom,
a realm of perfect wisdom, love, joy, and peace. The kingdom had no need of sun or stars,
for the King Himself was its light. While the kingdom was limitless in its size,
it was limited in its subjects. Some say the King had
no subjects at all. Or did He? One of the early mysteries of this King
was that even when He alone existed, He was never alone. Still, He wanted to share His life
with other intelligent beings. So this good and wise King made a heavenly
province with millions of dazzling, super-intelligent spirit
beings called angels. He knew them all by name and He
wanted them to know Him too. Life with the King was
non-stop adventure. But the King wanted
more than angels. So He created a realm of time, space,
and matter—a mind-boggling universe with a sparkling planet
that would become home to a community of amazing
creatures called humans. Different from the angels, the human
family began with just two beings, a man and a woman. As with the angels, the King wanted
to share His life with them too. Then something happened, something terrible. Rebellion arose in the kingdom, first in heaven, then on earth. A rebel angel seized the kingdom
of earth by capturing its humans. But the King was not
taken by surprise. Deep in the heart of the King
was a rescue plan so great, so mysterious, so extravagant, so far-reaching, that He would take thousands and
thousands of years to fulfill it. What else would you expect
from the King of eternity? He lives above time. To know the King and His plan,
you must know His book. Over more than 15 centuries the
King chose about 40 people to record His story and message. They were called prophets. The King gave them His words, which
they wrote on scrolls to be copied, circulated, and kept for
future generations. Though most of the prophets
never knew each other, their writings tell one
consistent story and message. The writings of the prophets are
called the Holy Scriptures. Without the Scriptures we could only guess
where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. To know the correct answers
we need the King’s book. About 3,500 years ago, the King inspired
a prophet by the name of Moses to write, Man does not live on bread
alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
(Deuteronomy 8:3) Today the King’s words are collected
in one book, the Holy Bible. Holy means pure or set
apart from all others. Bible means book or
collection of books. The Bible is the world’s best
seller and most translated book. Thousands of papyrus and
leather scrolls show it to be the best preserved
of all ancient texts. The Scriptures have
two main parts. The first part is the Old
Testament (Torah, Psalms, etc.) where the King
foretells His plan. The second part is the New
Testament (Gospels, Acts, etc.) where the King
fulfills His plan. Testament means covenant,
contract, or agreement. The Old Testament foretells
what God planned to do. The New Testament records
the fulfilment of His plan. Only God can write history
before it happens. The difference between the Old and
New Testaments is the difference between having a great king
send you letters and photos— and having that king come
visit you in person. The Scriptures came first
to the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe, then later to the
Americas and beyond. The prophets came
from the Middle East, but the story and message they
wrote is for every nation. For every family.
For every person. For you. If we could travel back
through time and space, back, back, way back, before there were people, planets,
or stars, we would witness the power and glory behind the first
words of Scripture: In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) Today, many people think the
world and its wonders came to exist apart from
an all-wise Creator. But their theories do not adequately
explain the complex design and predictable order
of the universe. In His book, the King says, The heavens declare
the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
(Psalm 19:1) Speaking of hands, look at your own.
Wiggle your thumbs. Try to hold a book, broom,
or hammer without them. Notice the fingernails,
joints, and skin. Think of some important things
you do with your hands. Who but a master craftsman
could design such tools? What kind of wisdom and power would be
required to make a billion galaxies? Or to create a living cell with
its millions of complex parts? Or knit together the cell’s
microscopic coiled threads with the genetic codes
that make you you? Some three thousand years ago,
a prophet and king named David wrote, You knit me together
in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:13-14) Would you like to meet
the One who formed you? Would you like to live forever with
the Maker and Master of the galaxies? You can. He has revealed Himself.
He wants you to know Him. He wants your family and
community to know Him too. He invites you to understand
His plan, experience His love, behold His majesty, submit to His rule,
and live for His glory. But He will not force
you to be His subject. After all,
He is not just a king. He is
The King. The King of glory. This is His story. God’s book begins in a
way worthy of a king. He tells us what He wants us
to know and nothing more. In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) Everything we can see and
touch has a beginning, but the Creator and Owner of the
universe has no beginning or end. He is the invisible, eternal Spirit
who can be everywhere at once. He sees and knows everything. Do you know His name? God has many names,
but His most famous name is the LORD. In the original language of
God’s book, His name is YaHWeH, which means The One Who IS,
or simply I AM. The creation story continues with the
King’s description of the original earth. Now the earth was
formless and empty, darkness was over the
surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering
over the waters. (Genesis 1:2) It was time to prepare
the planet for people. And God said, “Let there be
light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He
separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and
the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was
morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:3-5) What did God do on the first day of creation?
He commanded light to pierce the darkness. Later the sun would shine on
Earth, but not on Day One. God wants us to know that
He is the Source of light. God is light; in him there is no
darkness at all. (1 John 1:5) God is pure, like light.
He cannot be defiled. Even when light shines on very
dirty things, it is pure. God is perfect. God is holy. Did you notice who was there
with God at the creation site? His Holy Spirit was there,
hovering over the waters. His Word was there
too, speaking. In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through
him all things were made… (John 1:1-3) The Holy Spirit of God and the Word
have always been with the one true God. That is why it can
be said of the King: Even when He alone existed, He was never alone. In six orderly days, the King created
a beautiful, wonderful world. God simply spoke, and
perfectly-designed marvels appeared. On the first day God said, “Let there
be light!” and there was light. On the second day God made Earth’s
atmosphere with the blue sky we see and the invisible
air we breathe. God designed the sky with a perfect
mix of life-supporting gases, such as oxygen and nitrogen. On the third day God said, “Let dry ground
appear!” And that is what happened. Then God said, “Let the
land produce vegetation!” Instantly, grass, plants, flowers, and fruit
began to grow, each with its own seed. On day four God commanded
the sun and moon to shine and to mark Earth’s
years, months, and days. He also made the stars. On day five God said, “Let the waters
swarm with fish and other life! Let the skies be filled with birds of
every kind!” And that is what happened. On the sixth day God said, “Let the earth
bring forth every kind of animal—livestock, small animals, and wildlife!” God made each living creature able to
reproduce offspring of the same kind and to care for its young. And God saw that it was good.
(Genesis 1:25) Peace reigned. In the beginning
all the animals were friendly. They did not kill and eat each other.
The plants supplied their food. Order reigned. Like clockwork, the sun would keep
the right distance from Earth. The moon would change from
new moon to full moon. The earth would recycle its
air, water, and waste. If ruled well, the kingdom of earth
would never lack any good thing. It would be the ideal
home for mankind. Each day of creation gives us a
clue as to what God is like. Day 1 shows us that God is holy.
He is perfect and pure, like light. Day 2. God is all-powerful.
He made and maintains the atmosphere. Day 3. God is good. He created
thousands of plants and foods for us. Day 4. God is faithful. The sun and
the moon stay in their orbits. Day 5. God is life. He put fish
in the sea and birds in the sky. Day 6. God is love. After God
created the animals, it was time to form the creatures upon whom
He would pour out His love. It was time to create the special beings
who could reflect His holiness, power, goodness,
faithfulness, life, and love. On the sixth day of creation,
the King conversed within Himself (God, His Holy Spirit,
and His Word), saying, “Let us make man in our
image, in our likeness, and let them rule… over all the
earth, and over all the creatures…” So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
(Genesis 1:26-27) When the Scripture says that God
created people in His own image, it does not mean that
God is just like us. It means that we are to reflect
His nature and personality. As Roman coins were later stamped
with the emperor’s image, so God’s image was
stamped on mankind. The first man and woman were created
with the ability to think, love, and speak like their Creator so that they
could enjoy a close relationship with Him. People were not made to be God’s
slaves, but God’s friends. In creating humans in His own
likeness, God gave them dominion. People were to care for and to rule
the earth for God, to discover its secrets and use its resources wisely.
Such capacities set mankind apart from the animal kingdom. To animals, God gave two
dimensions: body and soul. To humans, God gave three
dimensions: body, soul, and spirit. The LORD God formed the man
from the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
(Genesis 2:7) The body was merely the house,
or tent, into which God breathed man’s soul and spirit. The soul was man’s personal
intellect, emotions, and will, which made it possible for man
to think, feel, and choose. The spirit connected man to God. While the body equipped man to
connect with the visible world, the spirit equipped man to
connect with the invisible God. The LORD wanted
humans to know Him. People would be God’s
special treasure. Since God made them, He was not only
their Creator, but also their Owner. The LORD God named the first man Adam,
meaning Of the Earth, or simply Man. Later God would form
the first woman, but before that there were
some preparations to make. Adam needed a home and a job. After making the first human body from
dust and breathing life into it, God planted a garden in Eden,
somewhere in the Middle East. A crystal-clear river
flowed through the garden. And the LORD God made all kinds
of trees grow out of the ground— trees that were pleasing to
the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden
were the tree of life and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. The LORD God took the man and
put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
(Genesis 2:9,15) The LORD God did not ask Adam
if he wanted to live in Eden. God was man’s Creator-Owner.
He knew what was best for man. Adam’s garden home was filled with
endless delights—things to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. Sparkling streams. Singing birds.
Fragrant flowers. Furry creatures. Juicy fruits.
Crunchy vegetables. Sweet berries. Mysterious forests.
Colorful rocks. Fascinating bugs. And a trillion other wonders
waiting to be discovered. But man was made for more
than exploring and eating. God made Adam to be
head of the human race. God wanted Adam and his family
to reign with Him forever. But only those who can be trusted with
small tasks can be given big tasks. So God gave Adam his first
job: Care for the garden. This garden was a perfect place. It had
no thorns or weeds or bad insects. The climate was ideal and the soil
was rich, yet it never rained. Instead, a mist came up from the
earth and watered the ground. God also gave Adam another
job: Name the animals. The LORD brought the creatures to
him to see what he would call them. Imagine the scene. A pair of animals with
flowing manes and powerful legs gallop up. Adam studies them, strokes their
backs, and names them horses. At the Creator’s call, a huge bird with
hooked beak and broad wings swoops down. “Eagle!” says Adam. Next, a beast in an orange coat
with black stripes goes by. What do you think
Adam called it? So the man gave names
to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the
wild animals. (Genesis 2:20) Eden was the perfect place for
man to get to know his Creator. It was time to give Adam a test. From the start, God and man were friends,
but that friendship needed to be tested. The King of the universe would not
fill His kingdom with subjects who were forced
to submit to Him. God loved Adam and had awesome plans
for him and his future family. Because God wanted people and not
puppets, He gave Adam one rule to obey. The LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from
any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will
surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) This was not a
difficult command. Adam could eat any of the fruits
in the garden except one. By obeying this simple rule, Adam could show that he trusted his
Creator to know what was best for him. What did God say would happen
to Adam if he broke this rule? Did God tell Adam that if he ate
the forbidden fruit he must begin to do religious rituals, use
prayer beads, fast, give alms, go to a church, synagogue, or
mosque, and try to do enough good deeds to balance out his bad deeds?
Is that what God said? No, that is not what God said. God told Adam, “When you eat
of it you will surely die.” Disobedience to God’s
law is called sin. The penalty for breaking
God’s rule would be death. In His book, the King calls this “the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). The King’s law says that sin
must be punished with death. Death means separation. If Adam disobeyed God’s one rule, he would become like a broken
branch which begins to wither and die the instant it is separated
from its source of life. If Adam decided to do what
he wanted to do instead of what the King of the
universe told him to do, that would be an act of
rebellion; that would be sin. Sin would end man’s
friendship with God. Sin would cause man’s
body to grow old and die. Sin would separate man’s spirit,
soul, and body from God forever. Sin is deadly. After God had given the first man
a job to do and a rule to obey, it was time to form
the first woman. The LORD God said, “It is not
good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper
suitable for him.” So the LORD God caused the man
to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he
took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the
place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from
the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh
of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of
man.” (Genesis 2:18, 21-23) Did you notice who performed
the first surgery— and who arranged the first marriage?
Yes, it was God. Woman means Out of Man. Later, Adam named his wife Eve, meaning Mother of All. While
God gave them different roles, He made the man and
woman equal in value. Like Adam, Eve was created
in the image of God. She too was made to know her
Creator-Owner, reflect His character, and enjoy a happy relationship
with Him forever. God saw all that he had
made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there
was morning—the sixth day. By the seventh day God had finished
the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested
from all his work. (Genesis 1:31; 2:2) Why did God rest on
the seventh day? Because His work was finished. Also, by creating our world in six
days and resting on the seventh, God established the seven-day week—a
work-rest cycle still practiced worldwide. The LORD God cared for Adam and Eve
like a wise and loving father. Each evening, He would come into the
garden to walk and talk with them. They were happy and
comfortable in His presence. The man and his wife were both naked,
and they felt no shame. (Genesis 2:25) Imagine a perfect world
inhabited by a perfect couple in close friendship with
their perfect Creator. That’s how things were
in the beginning. What went wrong? Before we discover what
went wrong on earth, we need to understand
some things about Heaven. This other world, also called
Paradise, is a place of pure light, enchanting colors, thrilling music,
satisfying talk, and unfolding mysteries. Heaven’s simplest activities surpass
earth’s greatest pleasures. Heaven is another dimension. Heaven is the King’s home. The best attraction of this happy
place is the King Himself. Every corner of the celestial city
is designed to reflect His majesty. The city was pure gold, as clear as glass.
(Revelation 21:18) The most detailed description
of heaven is recorded in the last book of
Scripture, The Revelation. God gave the prophet
John a look into heaven and told him to write
down what he saw. There before me was a throne in
heaven with someone sitting on it. …A rainbow that
shone like an emerald encircled the throne. …From the
throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder…. In front of the throne there was what looked
like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. Then I looked and heard the voice of many
angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They
encircled the throne… they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
(Revelation 4:2-3, 5-6; 5:11; 4:8) Angel means messenger or servant.
Angels are spirit beings. Like their Creator, angels
are invisible to man, except when sent on missions
where they need to be seen. The King of heaven made angels
before He made humans. In His book, He tells us that “all the angels shouted for joy” (Job 38:7) as they watched Him create the world. God gave His angels the capacity to know,
obey, praise, and serve Him forever. The angels were not God’s slaves.
As with humans, God did not force them to submit to Him.
He wanted happy, willing servants. The Scriptures tell of
one high-ranking angel to whom God had given great
intelligence, beauty, and power. If you know this angel’s story,
then you know where evil came from. Lucifer was one of God’s chief angels.
His name means Shining One. The Scriptures of the
prophets describe Lucifer as “the model of perfection, full of wisdom
and perfect in beauty.” (Ezekiel 28:12) Then Lucifer started looking at himself
instead of on his great Creator-King. For the first time ever, a created thing became proud of itself!
Blinded by his own beauty and intelligence, and forgetting who had made
him, Lucifer said in his heart, “I will raise my throne
above the stars of God…. I will ascend above the
tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the
Most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14) Lucifer wanted to be king. He wanted his
will to be done instead of God’s will. Sin had entered the universe. Lucifer convinced a third of the
angels to join his rebellion, but God, who cannot tolerate sin,
threw them out of His heavenly home. Lucifer’s name was changed
to Satan, meaning accuser. He is also called the
devil, meaning deceiver. The evil angels are
called demons. In a dark secret place, God has prepared
a prison for the devil and his demons. That place is called hell
and the Lake of Fire. It is a place of eternal
separation from God, a place where rebels will
cause no more trouble. One day Satan and all his demons will
be forever locked up in that prison, but they are not all there yet. So where did these evil spirits
go after God threw them out? They moved into
Earth’s atmosphere. There the devil organized
his angels in ranks. If he could not rule in
heaven he would rule on earth! That is why the Scripture calls Satan “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those
who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 2:2) The devil and his demons are
invisible to us, but real. While we do not know what they look like,
we do know their dark and evil purpose. They will use all
sorts of trickery to get people to join their
kingdom of darkness and doom. They will stop at
nothing to destroy you. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
(2 Corinthians 11:14 NLT) Your enemy the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) Now let’s get back to the
story of our first parents. Adam and Eve’s lives were filled with adventure and purpose. Each day was full of wonder as
they explored their vast garden, cared for its creatures and
plants, and sampled its foods. Each evening was even more
wonderful as their Creator-Owner honored them with
a personal visit. How they loved to walk
and talk with Him! The man and his wife were
happy in their garden home. But Satan was not happy. He hated God and he hated these two
creatures who reflected the image of God! So the devil, who had failed to
seize the kingdom of heaven, plotted to take over
the kingdom of earth. If only he could get Adam, the head of the
human race, to choose to break God’s law. But he would not tempt
Adam directly… One day Eve heard a voice. It wasn’t Adam. It wasn’t God. It was a serpent! For Eve, a talking reptile was
just another new discovery. She had no idea that God’s
enemy was using the serpent. Nor did she know Satan wanted to use
her to tempt Adam to break God’s law. The serpent had waited patiently, his
calculating eyes tracking the woman. Then, at the opportune moment,
he hissed out to her, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from
any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1) Satan wanted Eve to
doubt God’s word. He also wanted her to think that God was keeping something
good from her and her husband. The woman said to the serpent, “We may
eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must
not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and
you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the
serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat
of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.” (Genesis 3:2-5) What would Eve do? God had given Adam and Eve freedom to
choose between doing His will or their own. The LORD knew what was best for these special
creatures He had made in His own image. He wanted Adam and
Eve to trust Him, even when they didn’t understand
the reasons behind His rule. Only God could foresee the terrible,
far-reaching consequences of evil, which is why
He had told Adam, “You must not eat from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will
surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) But now the serpent
had told Eve, “You will not surely
die.” (Genesis 3:4) Who should Eve trust—her
Creator or a creature? This is what happened: When the woman saw that the fruit
of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also
desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some
to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it. (Genesis 3:6) She ate it! He ate it! Eve ate the forbidden fruit because
she was deceived by Satan’s tricks. Adam ate it because he deliberately chose
to go his own way instead of God’s way. Instead of submitting to their
holy and loving Creator, mankind had
surrendered to the enemy. Our first parents had sinned. Adam was the appointed head of
the human race. It was to him that God had given the
command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was not until Adam bit
into the unlawful fruit that both he and his wife began to feel
the dreadful effects of their choice. Then the eyes of both of them were opened,
and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves. (Genesis 3:7) Burning shame and heart-wrenching
guilt flooded their souls. They felt unclean,
inside and out. Sin brought shame. Before Adam and Eve broke God’s
law, they were God-conscious “and felt no shame”
(Genesis 2:25). They were honored to
be with their Creator, to reflect His image,
and to be His friends. But when they ate from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, they became self-conscious
and ashamed. Shame replaced honor. They tried to cover their shame
with fig leaves, but no amount of self-effort could
fix their problem. They were helpless to get rid of the
sin that had invaded their souls. They were helpless to restore
the honor they had lost. It was afternoon. Soon their holy and loving Creator
would come for His evening visit. The thought of seeing Him sent shock waves
of terror racing through their bodies. What would He say to them? What would they say to Him? Before they disobeyed God,
Adam and Eve rejoiced to see their Creator-Friend each
time He came to visit them. Now they were afraid. Then the man and his wife heard
the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among
the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8) Like disobedient children who
try to hide from their parents, Adam and Eve tried to
hide from their Creator. But the LORD God called to
the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard
you in the garden, and I was afraid because
I was naked; so I hid.” And God said, “Who told
you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from
which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman
you put here with me— she gave me some fruit from
the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman,
“What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived
me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:9-13) Why did Adam and Eve want to hide from God?
Because they had sinned. Why did they blame others for their sin? Because they were ashamed. Adam and Eve no longer displayed
the holy image of God. Instead of reflecting their
Creator’s holiness and love, they now reflected the
devil’s rebellion and pride. The first couple had become like a
branch broken off a living tree. Their sin had broken off their relationship
with the King of the universe. Spiritually, they were dead. Their sin had separated them
from the Source of eternal life. Physically, they
were still alive, but the process of growing old had begun.
Death’s power had invaded their bodies. And what was the cause of all
this death and destruction? Sin. At the beginning of human history
God and man were together. Peace and joy reigned. Then man broke God’s law. On the same day Adam
and Eve sinned, God announced some of the far-reaching
consequences of their sin. To the woman He said, “With pain you will
give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and
he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16) Before sin entered the scene, Eve rejoiced
in her husband’s selfless love and care, but now their sin-contaminated
natures would add strife and pain to the
joys of marriage. Next, God told the man, “Cursed is the ground
because of you; through painful toil you will eat
of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns
and thistles for you…. By the sweat of your brow you will eat
your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you
will return.” (Genesis 3:17-19) Because of their sin, Adam and Eve
had lost dominion over the earth. Their world would now include thorns,
pain, sadness, sickness, and death. Some of us are so accustomed to such
misery that we accept it as normal. But was it in God’s original design for a
fragrant rosebush to have vicious thorns? Or for the wonder of childbirth
to include intense pain? Or for those created in God’s
image to grow old and die? No. God did not design the original
creation to fight against itself. It was because of man’s sin that
the earth came under God’s curse. Mankind had sinned and mankind must die.
The law of sin and death required it. Death is separation. Sin produces
three terrible separations: 1. Spiritual Death:
Man’s spirit separated from God. 2. Physical Death:
Man’s spirit and soul separated from his body (and from his loved ones). 3. Eternal Death:
Man’s spirit, soul, and body forever separated
from God in the Lake of Fire. Man had no way to save himself
from the curse of sin. Was there any hope? Satan had stolen the
King’s special treasure, but the King had a secret
plan to buy it back. Because the ransom price the King planned
to pay would be so unthinkably high, neither demons nor humans would understand
His plan until after it was fulfilled. On the same day Satan captured the
human race, God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the
livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days
of your life.” (Genesis 3:14) When God created
serpents they had legs. Because the serpent was used by
Satan to lead humanity into sin, God cursed it to
slither on the ground. (Did you know that pythons and
boa constrictors have tiny nubs under their skin where
they once had legs?) By making snakes the
lowest of beasts, God gave the human family a visual
reminder that, in His own time, He will crush “that ancient serpent
called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole
world astray” (Revelation 12:9). Then God said to Satan,
who had used the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will
strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) This was the first of many prophecies
in which God would, little by little, make known His secret plan to rescue
people from Satan, sin, and death. But to hide that plan from Satan and his
followers, the King put the prophecy in code. God promised to send to earth a
Savior—the Offspring of a woman. The Savior would have a human
mother, but no human father. He would be known as the
Messiah, meaning the Chosen One. Satan would strike the Messiah’s
heel, but the Messiah would crush Satan’s head. What did all this mean? Later
the King would make it clear, but for now God had given
Adam and Eve a ray of hope. Thousands of years later, one of
the King’s prophets would write, The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light… The virgin will
conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel—
‘God is with us.’ (Isaiah 9:2; 7:14 NLT) The King would ransom
His special treasure. But how much would it cost? Do you remember what Adam and Eve did
after they ate the forbidden fruit? They made coverings
of fig leaves. Did their coverings make them feel comfortable
in the presence of their Creator-Judge? No! They felt ashamed and guilty. They had
no way to make themselves right with God. So God did something for them. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam
and his wife and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21) Who made the first animal
sacrifice ever? God did. The LORD killed some animals, made coats
of skin, and dressed Adam and Eve. By doing this, God was teaching
them some basic lessons about His justice,
mercy, and grace. Let’s think about these
three important words. Justice.
Look at the dead animals.
Why did God sacrifice them? He did it to show Adam and Eve that the
law of sin and death must be upheld. Their sin must be punished with death.
That is justice. Mercy.
Look at Adam and Eve.
Did God put them to death? No. God provided animals
to die in their place. This was God’s way of punishing
their sin without punishing them. That is mercy. Grace.
Now look at Adam and
Eve’s beautiful clothing. Did these two law-breakers
deserve this gift? No, but God showed them kindness by dressing
them in the skins of the sacrificed animals. That is grace. Because of what the LORD
did for them, Adam and Eve were happy to be with God again! The animal blood
covered their sin. Adam and Eve deserved to die that day, but
innocent animals had died in their place. The animal skin robes
covered their shame. Once again, Adam and Eve felt
comfortable in the presence of God. Thousands of years later one
of God’s prophets wrote, I am overwhelmed with
joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with
the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
(Isaiah 61:10 NLT) Only God has a way to
make sinners right again. When God expelled the
rebellious angels from heaven, their doom was sealed. These spirit beings who had lived
in the blazing light of heaven had no excuse for their sin. But
for sin-contaminated humans, the LORD had a plan to get them
back if they would trust Him. Still, sin has consequences. Just as God put Lucifer and his evil
angels out of the heavenly paradise, so now God put the man and his
wife out of the earthly paradise. After banishing them
from the garden, the LORD God stationed mighty
angelic beings to the east of Eden. And a flaming sword
flashed back and forth, guarding the way to the tree of life.
(Genesis 3:24 NLT) The tree of life was the other special
tree in the middle of the garden. Only perfect people could eat from it.
Adam and Eve were no longer perfect. They had sinned and
must grow old and die. Our great Creator God is holy. This means
He is pure, clean, perfect, and righteous. Because of His holy
nature and holy laws, He must punish sin with death—separation
from the Source of Life. Some people think that
God is so “great” that He can ignore the laws
He Himself has decreed. Imagine a courtroom where the judge
refuses to enforce the laws of the land. Would you say that
such a judge is great? Imagine a football match where the head
referee ignores the rules of the game. Would you call him a great
referee or a bad referee? Satan wanted Eve to believe that her
Creator would not enforce His rules, that He would not punish
law-breakers with death. But the righteous King and Judge of
the universe always keeps His word. God is great. You can trust Him. Your throne is founded on two strong
pillars—righteousness and justice. Unfailing love and truth walk before
you as attendants. (Psalm 89:14 NLT) See if you can
answer this riddle: What can Satan and humans do
that the LORD God cannot do? Here is God’s own answer: “I will not break my covenant;
I will not take back a single word…. In my holiness I cannot lie.”
(Psalm 89:34-35 NLT) The King of the universe
cannot go back on His word. Outside the garden, the world
was still a beautiful place, but it also included bad
things like prickly thorns, pesky bugs, skinned
knees, and stuffy noses. Many animals were no longer friendly.
Food was not easy to find. Adam and Eve had to work hard just
to fill their hungry stomachs. They also had moments
of happiness and joy. Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she
became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I
have brought forth a man.” (Genesis 4:1) Eve named the world’s first
baby Cain, meaning possession. What a precious
treasure from God! Perhaps she thought her son
would be the promised Savior, but she soon discovered her
cute little boy was stubborn and self-centered—just
like his parents! Later, when their second son was born, Eve
named him Abel, meaning vanity or nothing. Clearly, Adam and Eve could not produce
the sinless Offspring of a woman who would save people
from their sins. Instead of reflecting
God’s holy image, Adam and Eve’s offspring reflected
their own sin-bent natures. Adam… had sons and daughters… in his own
likeness, in his own image. (Genesis 5:4,3) Look at the picture. Do you see Cain
grabbing the melon from his little brother? He is acting like his parents, who
took the fruit that was not theirs. Like a contagious disease, Adam and
Eve’s sin had infected their children. When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.
Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for
everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT) An African proverb says, A rat can
only produce offspring that dig. An Arab proverb voices the same fact:
The son of a duck is a floater. When our first parents sinned, they
became like a branch broken from a tree. Just as every twig and leaf on
the broken branch is affected, so every member of Adam’s family
branch is affected by Adam’s sin. Long after Adam died, the
prophet King David wrote, I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment
my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5 NLT) We may not like to hear this,
but we know it is true. Adam and Eve had many
sons and daughters, but the Scriptures focus on the
story of their first two boys. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain
worked the soil. (Genesis 4:2) Both Cain and Abel
were good workers. Both knew about their Creator. Both wanted God to accept
them and their worship. Both had the same problem: Sin. Not only were they born sinners,
but they lived like sinners. Each day they thought, spoke, and acted in ways that did not reflect
God’s pure and loving nature. In His book, the King of the
universe calls this sin. Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of
God’s glorious standard. (Romans 3:23 NLT) Was there a way for God to pardon Cain and
Abel and declare them righteous in His sight? Yes, but it would be
very, very costly. Without the shedding of blood there
is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22) That unbreakable law of the universe—the
law of sin and death—must be carried out. Sin must be punished with death. That is why the King’s way of
forgiveness required a death payment. While the sinner
deserved to die, God would accept the blood of certain
kinds of animals, such as a lamb. The lamb could not be sick
or scratched or dirty. It had to be healthy and clean.
It had to be a perfect lamb. The lamb would be
killed and burned. It would die in the place
of the guilty sinner. The lamb would be the
sinner’s substitute. One day both brothers
brought offerings to God, but only one brought
the right offering. In the course of time Cain
brought some of the fruits of the soil as an
offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of
the firstborn of his flock. (Genesis 4:3-4) Which offering do you
think God accepted? Look at the brothers. Look at what
they are about to offer to God. Look at the altars. An altar was a raised platform,
usually made from stones or dirt. It was a place of death. The altar held up the offering between
heaven and earth, between God and man. Whatever was offered on the altar
was to be burned with fire. God always upholds justice
but wants to show mercy. How could He do both? How could He
punish sin without punishing the sinner? Long after the time of Cain and
Abel, God told the prophet Moses: The life of a creature
is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make
atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement
for one’s life. (Leviticus 17:11) He is to lay his hand on the
head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to
make atonement for him. (Leviticus 1:4) What does atonement mean? It has to do with paying
the required ransom price so that sins can be covered,
cleansed, and forgiven. In Old Testament times, God told people that He would accept
the shed blood of healthy lambs, rams, goats, bulls, and doves
as payment for their sins. Such blood would provide atonement— a covering for sin— but only until the day
God provided a perfect sacrifice to pay the true price required
by the law of sin and death. Now look at Cain and what
he is about to offer to God. What a beautiful selection
of fruits and vegetables! How hard he had worked to
produce this offering! But it could not cover his sins because
it had no blood, no death payment. Look at Abel and his offering. What a sad sight! The little
lamb is bound and about to die. Do you see Abel laying his
hand on the lamb’s head? Because Abel believed God’s plan, God took
all of Abel’s sins and put them on the lamb. Abel is thanking the LORD that although
he, Abel, deserves the death penalty, God will accept the lamb’s
blood as a covering for sin. God’s law required that all sinners
be punished with death, but God, in His justice and mercy, would accept
the death of a lamb in their place. God calls this “the law of the sin offering.” (Leviticus 6:25) The law of the sin offering set Abel
free from the law of sin and death. But what about Cain? Do you see Cain’s altar? What is on it?
Wilting crops. Now look at Abel’s altar. What is on it?
Blood and ashes. What did God think of these two
brothers and their worship? The LORD looked with favor
on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did
not look with favor. (Genesis 4:4-5) We are not told how God showed
His approval of Abel’s sacrifice and His rejection of
Cain’s sacrifice. The Scripture simply says: By faith Abel offered God
a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended
as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings.
(Hebrews 11:4) Because he trusted in the LORD and His plan,
Abel was forgiven and declared righteous. This was God’s gift to Abel. God had loaded Abel’s
sins onto the lamb. The lamb had died
in Abel’s place. The lamb’s blood had been shed
and its body burned to ashes. God’s righteous anger against sin had
fallen on the lamb instead of on Abel. Why was God pleased with
Abel’s sacrificed lamb? Because it pointed to the coming Savior who
would one day pay off the sin debt of the world. Because of his faith in God’s plan Abel
was now in a right relationship with God. Later, when Abel died, instead of
being forever separated from God, he would go to be with God,
who was now his Friend. The law of the sin offering had triumphed
over the law of sin and death. Cain approached God
with his prayers, but he ignored God’s law that says
sin must be punished with death. Cain was religious, but he was not
in a right relationship with God. The law of sin and death still
hung over him like a dark cloud. If he did not trust God and His plan,
he would never know God as his Friend. He would face God as his Judge. Some people try to
defend Cain by saying, “Cain was a farmer. He
brought what he had.” But God didn’t want what he had. Cain could have traded some
crops for one of Abel’s lambs, or he could have placed his hand on Abel’s
lamb and worshiped at the same altar. What would Cain do? Would he repent and come to
God with the right offering? The LORD had refused Cain’s offering. Yet God
still loved him and urged him to repent. What does it mean to repent? Suppose you want to
travel to a certain city. After getting on a train, you realize
you boarded the wrong train. What do you do? You admit your error, get
off that train, and get on the right train. That is what it means to repent. To repent means to
change your mind; to turn from what is false
and submit to what is true. To repent before God does not mean
that I must punish myself for my sins. It does mean that I must
see my sin as God sees it. God wanted Cain to repent—to
stop trusting in his own way and to trust and
follow God’s way. So Cain was very angry, and
his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry?
Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right,
will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right,
sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you
must master it.” (Genesis 4:5-7) Cain was too proud to repent. He had been shamed
by his brother! He would rid himself of this shame
and restore honor in his own way! Now Cain said to his brother Abel,
“Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain
attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied.
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” The LORD said, “What
have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out
to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:8-10) Abel’s soul and spirit had gone
to be with the LORD, but his body would return to dust until a
future day when God transforms that dust into a glorious
body fit for eternity. As for Cain, God gave him another
chance to repent, but he refused. So Cain went out from
the LORD’s presence. (Genesis 4:16) In a spirit of rebellion and pride,
Cain moved east and built a city. He and his wife had
many children. Their great-great-great-great
grandchildren made the first metal tools
and musical instruments. Cain’s descendants were very intelligent,
but they did not know the LORD. Ten long generations
after Adam first sinned, God gave this sad report
on the human family: The wickedness of man
was great on the earth, and the thoughts of his heart [were]
only evil all the time. (Genesis 6:5) But one family on earth
still trusted God. Noah found favor in
the eyes of the LORD. So God said to Noah, “I am going
to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with
violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy
both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of
cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch
inside and out. This is how you are to build it….”
(Genesis 6:8,13-15) This spacious three-level barge, one and a
half times the length of a football field, would have enough room to house
a pair of each kind of animal and seven pairs of animals
for sin offerings. The ark would have a ventilation
system and one big door. For a whole century, Noah built
the ark, together with his wife, his three sons and their wives. As he worked, Noah warned the world of God’s
coming judgment, but people just mocked him. Finally the ark was ready. Noah’s family had stocked
it with supplies. God brought the animals,
reptiles, insects, and birds. What a sight as they entered the ark, and
settled into its thousands of compartments! Noah and his family entered too. Did anyone else come into
the place of safety? No. So God shut the door. Angry clouds enveloped the globe,
lightning flashed, and thunder crashed. On that day all the springs of
the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the
heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth for forty
days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:11-12) It was the worst natural
disaster in history. Except for eight souls sheltered
in the ark, all humanity perished. A proud, unbelieving world
learned the truth too late. Geological and fossil records
affirm the biblical record. From the Sahara
to the Himalayas, marine fossils can be unearthed in the
world’s great deserts and mountains. In His mercy God is patient, but
in His justice He will judge sin. So what happened to Noah and his
family, and the animals in the ark? They were saved from
God’s judgment. God remembered Noah and
all the wild animals and the livestock that
were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and
the waters receded. (Genesis 8:1) The huge ark floated down,
finally resting on Ararat, a massive double-peaked
mountain in eastern Turkey. Three times Noah sent out a dove to
see if it could find dry ground. The first time the
dove just came back. The second time the dove returned to
Noah with an olive leaf in its beak. The third time the dove did not return.
It had found a home! Noah knew it was time
to exit the ark. A whole year had passed
since the flood began. Do you know the first thing Noah did after his
family and the animals came out of the ark? Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking
some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt
offerings on it. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma….
(Genesis 8:20-21) God’s justice and mercy had not changed.
Sin still required a death payment. That is why Noah shed the blood of innocent
creatures and burned their bodies on an altar, suspended between heaven and
earth, between God and man. Such sacrifices pointed
to the sinless Messiah who would one day come to earth to
provide the real payment for sin. Next, God gave a command
to Noah and his family: “Be fruitful and increase in number
and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9:1) The LORD God also made a
covenant with Planet Earth: “I have set my rainbow
in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the
covenant between me and the earth… Never again will the waters become a
flood to destroy all life.” (Genesis 9:13,15) As a symbol of His covenant, God
unveiled a glorious rainbow towering up into the cloudy sky. God promised that He would never again send a global flood. The rainbow reminds us that,
whether to punish or to protect, God always keeps His promises. Always. Even when blessed
with a fresh start, within a few generations most people had
turned away from the LORD to go their own way. For example, God had commanded
mankind to spread out “and fill the earth.”
(Genesis 1:28; 9:1) So what did man do? The Scripture tells us. Now the whole world had one
language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in
Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s
make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of
stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let
us build ourselves a city, with a tower that
reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a
name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of
the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:1-4) Instead of praising the
great name of the LORD, the builders of this city
wanted people to praise them. Like Satan, they were controlled by
a spirit of pride and rebellion. By wanting to build “a tower
that reaches to the heavens,” they were like religious people today who
hope to reach heaven by their own efforts. Like Cain, these
people were religious, but they ignored God’s way of
forgiveness and righteousness. They did not trust
God and His plan. So the LORD God said, “Come, let’s go down and give
them different languages. Then they won’t be able to
understand each other.” In that way, the LORD scattered
them all over the earth; and that ended the
building of the city. That is why the city
was called Babel, because it was there that the LORD confused
the people by giving them many languages, thus scattering them across the earth.
(Genesis 11:7-9 NLT) By giving each family or
clan a different language, the LORD stopped their
building project. The people had no choice but to move
away from Babel and fill the earth, just as God had commanded. The people did not
finish their tower, but God’s plans were
right on schedule. Ten generations had passed since
the time of the prophet Noah. Satan had a solid grip on the
nations, or so it seemed. Instead of trusting in the LORD,
people trusted in their religions. Some nations worshiped the sun
instead of the One who made it. Others bowed to the moon. The year was about 1925 BC. In a land northeast of Arabia
lived an elderly man named Abram. Later God changed his name to Abraham,
meaning Father of a multitude. Abraham was 75 years old. Sarah,
his wife, was 65 and childless. Their parents and
neighbors were idolators, worshiping created things
instead of the Creator. One day the LORD
said to Abraham, “Leave your country, your people
and your father’s household and go to the land
I will show you. “I will make you into a great
nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and
whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3) The LORD wanted to make a
covenant with Abraham. If he would leave his father’s
family and go to an unknown land, then the LORD would do two
great things with him: 1. God would make Abraham the
father of a great nation. 2. Through that new nation, God
would bless people in every nation. If Abraham would trust
and follow the LORD, he would become the father of a nation
from which would come the prophets, the Scriptures, and the
Savior of the world. What did Abraham do? By faith Abraham, when
called to go to a place he would later receive as his
inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where
he was going. (Hebrews 11:8) It was not easy for Abraham and
his wife to leave their relatives and turn their backs on
the family religion. Yet they chose to endure the
criticism of their community in order to follow
the one true God. To trust and obey God is not always
easy, but it is always best. Abraham and his wife were old and
had no children. Yet the LORD had promised to make Abraham
the father of a great nation. How did Abraham react to
God’s “impossible” promise? Abraham believed God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.
(James 2:23; Genesis 15:6) Like all of Adam’s descendants, Abraham
was a sinner, but like Abel and Noah, Abraham offered sin
offerings to God. Because Abraham believed
the LORD and His promises, God credited righteousness to
Abraham’s record in heaven, and gave him the gift
of eternal life. Sarah also trusted in the LORD, and
God declared her righteous too. But it’s hard to wait. After they had been in the land
of Palestine for ten years, hoping and praying that
Sarah would get pregnant, they decided to “help” God fulfill
His promise to give Abraham a son. Following a local custom, Sarah gave
her Egyptian maid Hagar to Abraham. He slept with Hagar and she got
pregnant and gave birth to a son. They named him Ishmael. About 13 years later, when
Abraham was 99 and Sarah 89, Almighty God appeared
to them again. He told them that they would
have a son and call him Isaac. The LORD also told Abraham, As for Ishmael… I will
surely bless him… But my covenant I will
establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this
time next year.” (Genesis 17:20-21) A year later, Sarah gave birth to
Isaac, the son of the promise. Look at the picture. Do you see Abraham and
his wife looking up into the night sky? They are thanking the LORD
for His faithfulness. Later, Hagar and Ishmael were sent
away, but God was good to them too. God was with the boy as he grew
up in the wilderness of Paran. He became an expert archer, and his
mother arranged a marriage for him with a young woman from Egypt.
(Genesis 21:20-21 NLT) Ishmael became the father
of the mighty Arab people, whom God has blessed
in so many ways. As for Isaac, he remained at home, caring
for his father’s cattle and flocks. Sometimes Isaac helped his
father select a healthy lamb, kill it, and burn it on
an altar for their sins. But neither Isaac nor his father could imagine
the sacrifice God was about to require. God planned to use Abraham and
his son to set before the world some prophecies and pictures
of His plan to rescue sinners from sin and death. God also planned to test
Abraham’s faith to the extreme by asking him to do
something dreadful, something that would not make
sense until the test was over. At this stage in his life Abraham
had absolute trust in the LORD. Abraham knew God. Abraham knew
that God is good and just. Yet, would Abraham be able
to trust and obey Him, even if what God asked
him to do seemed wrong? Here is the story, straight
from the Scriptures: Some time later, God
tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your
only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on
one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Early the next morning Abraham
got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his
servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood
for the burnt offering, he set out for the place
God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up
and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while
I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then
we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the
burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself
carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them
went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his
father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are
here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb
for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide
the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
(Genesis 22:1-8) Did you hear what Abraham
told his servants before he and his son climbed
the mountain of sacrifice? “We will worship and then
we will come back to you.” How could Abraham’s son come back if he
was to be killed and his body burned? The Scripture says, Abraham reasoned that
God could raise the dead. (Hebrews 11:19) God had promised to make Isaac
the father of a new nation (through which the
promised Savior would come). God cannot lie. For Abraham, that was enough. Meanwhile, what was
Isaac thinking? He knew he was a sinner and that
he deserved to die for his sins. He also knew that God would
accept a substitute. But today they were going to a place
of sacrifice without a ram or a lamb? It made no sense! So
Isaac said to his dad, “The fire and wood are here, but where
is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide
the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Now let’s continue the story. When they reached the place
God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there
and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him
on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and
took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to
him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on
the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because
you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
(Genesis 22:9-12) Abraham and his son rejoiced! But what about the
required sacrifice? Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw
a ram caught by its horns. (Genesis 22:13) Abraham’s son would be
spared the death penalty. God had provided a substitute! How did God rescue
Abraham’s condemned son? He provided a blemish-free, innocent
animal to die in his place. Abraham looked up and there in a thicket
he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering
instead of his son. (Genesis 22:13) All these events pictured God’s
plan to send to earth a holy Savior who would satisfy the requirements
of the law of sin and death, and rescue sinners from
every nation on earth. So Abraham called that place
The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD
it will be provided.” (Genesis 22:14) Why did Abraham name the
mountain The LORD Will Provide instead of The
LORD Has Provided? Had not God just
provided a ransom? By naming the mountain
The LORD Will Provide, the prophet Abraham was foretelling
the day when, on this same mountain, God Himself would provide a
Sacrifice with blood so costly that God would accept it as full
payment for the sin debt of the world, so that whoever believes in that Sacrifice
will not perish, but have eternal life. Some 1,900 years after the prophet
Abraham offered the ram on the altar, the promised Savior Himself would look
back to this historic event and say, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at
the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
(John 8:56) As the smoke of the
ram rose heavenward, God gave Abraham a glimpse
of a future burnt offering that would be sacrificed on
this same mountain ridge. Suddenly Abraham’s answer
to his son’s question “Where is the lamb?” took
on a deeper meaning. “God himself will provide the lamb for the
burnt offering, my son.” (Genesis 22:8) For Abraham and his son, God
had not yet provided the lamb. He had provided a ram. Where was the Lamb? At the right time, God Himself
would provide the answer. Do you remember the two big
promises the LORD made to Abraham? First God had said: “I will make you into a great nation.”
(Genesis 12:2) God kept His word. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had
Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons whose families became the twelve
tribes of Israel. God also said: “All peoples on earth will be blessed
through you.” (Genesis 12:3) God would keep that part
of His promise too. By working with this special—and
often rebellious—nation, God wanted to show all people on earth what
He is like and how sinners can come to Him. Whenever God protected this nation, He was
protecting His plans to bless you and me— for it was from this
nation that the prophets, the Holy Scriptures, and the
promised Savior would come. God’s secret plan
was moving forward. Around 1500 BC, God called Moses, a
descendant of Abraham, to be His prophet. Moses wrote the first
five books of the Bible. God also used Moses to lead
Abraham’s three million descendants away from four
centuries of slavery. God Himself guided them through the
hostile desert with a pillar of cloud to provide shade during the day, and with a
pillar of fire to provide light at night. By His mighty arm, He opened a path
of escape for them in the Red Sea, gave them bread from heaven
and water from a rock, and brought them to Mount Sinai. There at the base of the
mountain God told the people, “You will be for me a kingdom…
and a holy nation!” (Exodus 19:6) God wanted this
nation to be holy: set apart for Him and distinct
from the nations around them. But the people did not understand
what it meant to be holy. They did not see themselves
as helpless sinners. They thought they could
somehow earn God’s favor. To teach them a lesson about
His burning anger against sin, the LORD came down in an earth-shaking display
of blazing fire and blasting trumpet. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke,
because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it
like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain
trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet
grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God
answered him.” (Exodus 19:18-19 NLT) God had given Adam one rule. He was about to give
this new nation ten. Most of the people in the nation thought
they were good enough to be God’s people. So the LORD gave them
Ten Commandments, first in a thundering voice from Mount
Sinai, then on two stone tablets. Let’s read the Ten Commandments. Number 1: “You shall have
no other gods before me”. Number 2: “You shall not make for yourself
an idol for I am the Lord your God” Number 3: “You shall not misuse
the name of the Lord your God” Number 4: “Remember the Sabbath
day by keeping it holy.” Number 5: “Honor your
father and your mother” Number 6: “You shall not murder.” Number 7: “You shall
not commit adultery.” Number 8: “You shall not steal.” Number 9: “You shall not give false
testimony against your neighbor.” Number 10: “You shall not
covet your neighbor’s wife, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
(Condensed from Exodus 20) God told Moses that they must
obey all ten rules perfectly. “Cursed is the man who does not uphold the
words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 27:26) How do you think the people felt
after they heard these ten commands? Do you think they still thought
they were good enough? How about you?
Do you think you are good
enough to live in God’s perfect kingdom? Read again rule number one. “You shall have
no other gods before me.” Do you always put God first? If not, you have failed
to keep this law. Read number five. “Honor your father and your mother.” If you have ever disobeyed
your father or mother, you are guilty before God.
Now look at rule eight. “You shall not steal.” If you have ever taken something that
is not yours or cheated on an exam, you have broken this law.
Have you ever told a lie? Then you have not obeyed
rule number nine. The last commandment tells
us it is wrong even to want to have what belongs to someone else.
God sees the sin in our hearts. How many sins did it take to ruin
Adam and Eve’s relationship with God? Just one. God’s perfect
standard has not changed. Whoever keeps the whole
law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of
breaking all of it. (James 2:10) God is holy and
cannot ignore sin. How would you like to share a room
with the rotting body of a dead pig? That is what our sin
is like to God. Just as spraying perfume on the stinking
body would not cleanse the room, so no amount of religious
efforts can cleanse our hearts. Like a mirror that shows
me the dirt on my face, God’s law shows me
the sin in my heart. Just as the mirror
cannot clean my face, so the Ten Commandments
cannot cleanse my heart. No one will be declared righteous
in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become
conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20) No matter how good
we think we are, we are not good enough to
live with God in heaven. We need a Savior. The Ten Commandments gave the new nation
a clear standard of right and wrong. That was a good thing. But God’s
Law also brought bad news. It showed the people that
they were in big trouble. Because of their sins they must all
die and be separated from God. The good news was that the LORD would
still accept the shed blood of lambs, bulls, goats, and doves
to cover their sins. And so, on the same day that God thundered
out His Ten Commandments, God told Moses, “Make an altar… and sacrifice on it
your burnt offerings.” (Exodus 20:24) Do you see Moses with his
hand on the lamb’s head? Do you see people reaching out
their hands towards the lamb? Because they believe God and
His way of forgiveness, their sins are being put
on the innocent lamb. The lamb would then be
killed on the altar. The shed blood would cover
the sins of the people. Next, the animal’s body
would be burned to ashes. The ashes would show the people what God had
done with their sins. They were forgiven! But this system of offering animal
blood for the forgiveness of sins was only a picture of
what God really required. The sacrifices under the old system were
repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect
cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect
cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have
been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt
would have disappeared. But just the opposite happened. Those yearly sacrifices reminded
them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
(Hebrews 10:1-4 NLT) Animals were not created
in God’s image. The value of a lamb is not
equal to the value of a man. Just as you cannot take a toy car to a car
dealer and offer it as payment for a real car, so the blood of a lamb could not pay the high price required
by the law of sin and death. A better sacrifice was needed. While animal sacrifices could not
take away the sin debt of the world, they gave sinners a picture
of the One who could. As the time for the Savior’s
arrival got closer and closer, the LORD told His prophets to write many
more prophecies about this Messiah-King. Here are a few of those
ancient promises: The virgin will be with child and will give
birth to a son… (Prophet Isaiah 7:14) “But you, Bethlehem… out of you will
come for me one who will be ruler… whose origins are from of old, from
ancient times.” (Prophet Micah 5:2) For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given… he will be called
Wonderful… Mighty God… Prince of Peace.
(Prophet Isaiah 9:6) Your God will come
…to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer….
(Prophet Isaiah 35:4-6) He was led like a lamb to the slaughter….
(Prophet Isaiah 53:7) “They have pierced my hands and my
feet.” (Prophet David, Psalm 22:16) The promised Savior was coming! But when? And who would He be? How would these
prophecies be fulfilled? How did you like the first
part of the King’s book? What did you learn from
the Old Testament? Testament means
agreement or covenant. Long before God gave the New
Testament Scriptures, He said, “The time is coming… when I will
make a new covenant.” (Jeremiah 31:31) In the first covenant
with His people, God gave them many laws to show them
His holiness and their sinfulness. He also gave them many pictures and
prophecies about the coming Savior. In the old covenant the
prophets foretold: The Messiah-King will come. But
in the new covenant we read: The Messiah-King has come! The New Testament contains the Gospel.
In the Arabic language it is called the Injil. Both words mean Good News. The
Gospel begins with these words: This is a record of the
ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of King David and of
Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob….
(Matthew 1:1-2 NLT) Name by name, the Scriptures register an unbroken
chain of descendants from Abraham to Jesus. God would keep His promise
to bless all nations by sending the Savior through
Abraham’s family line. The New Testament contains
four gospel books. Why four? Why not just one? In the Old Testament,
God told Moses, “The facts of the case
must be established by the testimony of two or three
witnesses.” (Deuteronomy 19:15 NLT) To confirm His story and message,
God chose, not just two or three, but four people to write four separate
reports about the Messiah’s life. Their names are Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. Like four news reporters covering the
same event, each tells the same story, but from four
different viewpoints. The New Testament has
27 books in all. The book of Acts,
written by Luke, tells what happened after the
Messiah finished His mission. God inspired Paul (a former terrorist),
James and Jude (Jesus’ half brothers), and Peter and John (fishermen) to
write the rest of the New Testament. Each book reveals more and more about the
King and His plans for all who love Him. Here now is the
rest of His story. It was time. After thousands of years of preparation, God was about to send the promised
Savior-Messiah-King into the world. But who would He be? And how would He come? In the time of Herod king of Judea… God
sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged
to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel said to her… “Do not be afraid,
Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child
and give birth to a son, and you are to give
him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be
called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the
throne of his father David, and he will reign… his
kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the
angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy
Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called
the Son of God.” (Luke 1:5, 26-27, 30-35) Why did Gabriel call
Jesus “the Son of God”? Some people think this term means that
God took a wife and fathered a son. That is not what it means.
If you are from the continent of Africa, some may call you a
“son of Africa.” Does this mean Africa got
married and had a child? No! It means you
come from Africa. The Messiah is called the Son of
God because He came from God. He came into Adam’s sin-ruined family
but did not originate from it. He is the very Word,
Soul, and Son of God. In the beginning the
Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God.
He created everything there is. Nothing exists that
he didn’t make…. So the Word became human and
lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing
love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the
only Son of the Father. (John 1:1-3,14 NLT) Do you remember the promise God made on
the day Adam ate the forbidden fruit? God had announced that the Offspring of
a woman would crush the Serpent’s head. That promised Offspring was now
in the womb of a virgin girl. How He would crush the Serpent’s
head remained to be seen. Mary had been pledged
in marriage to Joseph, a carpenter living in Nazareth, a
border town in northern Palestine. Both Mary and Joseph were Jews, tracing their ancestry to King
David and on back to Abraham. Joseph would have been the crown prince,
but his country was ruled by Rome. Roman soldiers
patrolled the streets. Jews suspected of treason
were arrested and crucified. Tax collectors robbed the people.
Life was bitter. But Joseph was excited. Soon he
would take Mary to be his wife. He worked hard to prepare a place where
they could live together after the wedding. Then one day he learned
the shocking news: Mary was pregnant. How do you think Joseph felt? It appeared that Mary had
been unfaithful to him. Joseph was heartbroken, but he
wanted to do the right thing. So he decided to break
the engagement quietly, because he did not want
to put Mary to shame. As he considered this,
he fell asleep, and an angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,”
the angel said, “do not be afraid to go ahead
with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been
conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and
you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his
people from their sins.” All of this happened to fulfill the
Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will
conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel (meaning,
God is with us).”(Matthew 1:20-23 NLT) Joseph’s grief turned to joy. What an honor! Mary would be the
mother of the promised Messiah! And he, Joseph, would be the
child’s legal guardian! The holy Messiah would have a human
mother, but no human father. His name would be Jesus, meaning
The LORD Saves, or simply, Savior. When Joseph woke up, he did what
the angel of the Lord commanded. He brought Mary home
to be his wife, but she remained a virgin
until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
(Matthew 1:24-25 NLT) The hand of God was
in the whole thing. Seven hundred years earlier,
the prophet Micah had foretold that the Messiah-King would
be born in Bethlehem, the ancient hometown
of King David. But there was a problem. Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, a three-day journey
to the north. How would the Scriptures
be fulfilled? God had everything
under control. As the time approached
for Mary to give birth, the Roman Emperor Caesar
Augustus issued a decree that all subjects of the
empire must return at once to the city of their ancestors
to register to pay taxes. So Joseph and a very-pregnant Mary
traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem. While they were there, the time
came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to
her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths
and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for
them in the inn. (Luke 2:6-7) There in Bethlehem, overcrowded
with weary travelers (in town for the tax registration), the
promised Offspring of a woman was born. The Gospel records the
event with precision: She gave birth to her firstborn, a son.
(Luke 2:6) On His mother’s side, this baby
was the newborn son of Mary, but on His Father’s side, He
was the eternal Son of God. The same Word by which
God created the world, the same Voice which thundered
from fiery Mount Sinai could now be heard in
a baby’s soft cry. And where was He born? Not in the palace of a king, not in a
hospital, not even in a wayside inn. The King from heaven was born where
baby lambs are born—in a barn, with a feeding
trough for His bed. It was all part of God’s plan. For you know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty
might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9) But couldn’t God have arranged some sort of
celebration to honor the arrival of His Son? He did. To whom did God first make known the
news of the Messiah’s coming to earth? To the emperor? The rich and famous?
The religious leaders? No. The first to receive the electrifying
news were poor shepherds, men who raised lambs to be sacrificed
on the temple altar in Jerusalem. There were shepherds
living out in the fields, keeping watch over
their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord
appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to
them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a
Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord!
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in
cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the
heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men
on whom his favor rests!” When the angels had left
them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said
to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see
this thing that has happened, which the Lord has
told us about.” So they hurried off and
found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was
lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they
spread the word concerning what had been told
them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what
the shepherds said to them. (Luke 2:8-18) What a story the
shepherds had to tell! The Savior is born! We saw Him!
We touched Him! The angel told us He
is Christ the LORD! A choir of angels filled the sky!
The night was like day! The Messiah has come! He is here!
He is here! Some people believed the shepherds’ message.
Most did not. But believe it or not, the King, whose birthday split world history
in two, had joined the human race. Eight days later, when the baby was
circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel even
before he was conceived. (Luke 2:21 NLT) After Jesus’ birth in the barn, Joseph arranged to have proper
lodging for his little family. One day some excited Magi (wise men who
study the stars) arrived in Jerusalem. Led by a special star, these men had come from faraway
Persia in search of the newborn King. These wise men had one
question and one purpose: “Where is the one who has
been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and
have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was
disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together
all the teachers of the law, he asked them where the
Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for
this is what the prophet has written….” Then Herod called the
Magi secretly… and said, “Go and make a careful
search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me,
so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king,
they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the
east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place
where the child was. When they saw the star,
they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw
the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down
and worshiped him. Then they opened their
treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and
of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a
dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their
country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the
Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child
and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the
child to kill him.” (Matthew 2:1-13) Herod tried to murder the child. The
people of Jerusalem ignored Him. But the Magi, who crossed a
scorching desert to find Him, worshiped Him and gave Him
gifts fit for a king: gold, incense, and a costly spice for
embalming the dead. Why the embalming spice? Did these wise men know that
Jesus had been born to die? After the angel’s warning, Joseph took
Mary and the child Jesus to Egypt, where they lived as refugees until
the death of cruel King Herod. After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared
in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his
mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the
child’s life are dead.” (Matthew 2:19-20) This fulfilled another ancient
prophecy spoken by the LORD: Out of Egypt I called my son.
(Hosea 11:1) So Joseph and Mary took
Jesus to Nazareth, where He grew up along with His
half brothers and sisters. In many ways the boy Jesus
was like other children. He ate, slept, played,
studied, and learned a trade. But in other ways, Jesus was
different from other kids. He was never selfish. He
always honored His parents. He never lied. He always
pleased His Father in heaven. He was holy, blameless, pure, set
apart from sinners. (Hebrews 7:26) Jesus is the only perfect
child in history. Perfect does not mean He never
had a skinned knee or a pimple. It means He had a perfect nature.
He was perfectly holy and good. He was also perfect
in power and wisdom, but before entering Mary’s womb He
imposed on Himself certain limitations so that He might live as
a human among humans. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and
in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:52) When Jesus was 12 years old He traveled
with His parents from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the annual Feast of the
Sacrifice, known as the Passover. While His boyhood friends
explored the big city, Jesus spent the week in
the temple courtyard, sitting among the teachers, listening
to them and asking them questions. All who heard him were amazed at his
understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:47 NLT) The temple was the place where lambs were
burned on an altar for the sins of the people. The boy Jesus understood
what the scholars did not. He had come to offer
the last Lamb. Thirty years had passed since
Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Caesar Augustus was dead, his stepson Caesar
Tiberius reigned over the Roman Empire. Herod Antipas ruled in Galilee.
Pontius Pilate governed in Judea. And a new prophet was
preaching in Palestine. In those days John
the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert
of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is near.” This is he who was spoken of
through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling
in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’” John’s clothes were
made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather
belt round his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
(Matthew 3:1-4) While many people of his
day dressed in fine silk and ate the best food,
John lived simply. He was a man on a mission. John was the King’s forerunner. Hundreds of years earlier, two
prophets, Isaiah and Malachi, wrote about a future prophet who would
announce the Messiah-King’s arrival. John was that prophet. While the previous prophets had
prophesied: At the right time, the promised Savior
will come to earth, John preached: That time has come.
The Savior is here! Crowds streamed into the
desert to hear John. Those who confessed their condition
as sinners in need of the Savior were baptized in
the Jordan River. In this way they showed
their faith in the Messiah, who would wash away their great debt of
sin and clothe them in His righteousness. Day after day, week after week, John spoke to the people about the
long-awaited Savior from heaven, “whose sandals I am
not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the
Holy Spirit” (Matthew 3:11). Then one day, the Savior
came—over the hill, through the crowd, and down
to where John was baptizing. John pointed to Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Why did John call Jesus
the Lamb of God? If you know why, then you
know the King’s mission. Jesus asked John to baptize Him. John objected because the Messiah-King who
came from heaven had no need to repent. Jesus replied, “Let it be
so now, it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all
righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) So John baptized Jesus. By being baptized, Jesus showed that He belonged to the
human family He had come to rescue. As soon as Jesus was baptized,
he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened,
and [John] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love, with him
I am well pleased!” (Matthew 3:16-17) As on the first day of creation, God’s
complex unity is again revealed. Even as God, His Spirit, and His Word
worked as one to create the world, so now they would work
as one to save it. We see the Spirit of God (who in the beginning was hovering
over the waters) come upon Jesus. We watch the Son of God (the Word who created
the world) walk up out of the river. We hear the Father
speaking from heaven. Over the past 30 years, Jesus had lived
in obscurity, out of the public eye, but His Father in heaven had observed
His every thought, word, and action. And what was God’s verdict
on His Son’s life? “With him I am well pleased!” In all human history, Jesus is the only
one who did everything God requires. Everything. Always. Perfectly. Jesus did what Adam failed to
do: reflect the image of God. But Jesus did more than reflect it.
He was it. In the past God spoke to our forefathers
through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last
days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things,
and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and
the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word….
(Hebrews 1:1-3) No wonder Jesus would later say, “I and the Father are
one.” (John 10:30) Jesus is the perfect Son. Satan was not happy that this perfect
Man was living in his kingdom! But the devil had a strategy. Just as he had tempted
the first man to sin, so now he would try to
get this Man to sin. Satan wanted to bring
Jesus under his control even as he had brought
Adam under his control. If the Son of God could
be enticed to sin, then He would not be qualified to
save His people from their sin. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into
the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and
forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came
to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these
stones to become bread.” (Matthew 4:1-3) Jesus was hungry, but He
did not obey the devil. He would not act outside
His Father’s will. He would not use His infinite power
to satisfy His human desires. To combat the devil, Jesus
quoted from the Torah of Moses: “It is written: ‘Man does
not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth
of God.’” (Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3) In his stupid pride, the devil
tried again to tempt the Holy One. The devil took him to
a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world and their splendor. “All this I will
give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and
worship me.” (Matthew 4:8-9) When Adam sinned, mankind lost
the right to rule the earth. Satan had stolen the dominion of the
world, making himself its king. Now the King of glory was on
earth to take back the dominion, but He would not do it by bowing
to the one He had come to crush. Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan!
For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and
serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:10) Finally, the devil left Jesus. Satan
had never tempted anyone like Him, a man who had no desire
or capacity to sin. Jesus was different from
Adam and his descendants. The first man was of
the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.
(1 Corinthians 15:47) Adam was the first perfect man.
Jesus was the second perfect man. When Satan tempted Adam to
sin, Adam lost and Satan won. When Satan tried to get Jesus to sin, Satan lost and Jesus won. The first man led us into Satan’s
kingdom of sin and death. The Second Man came
to lead us out. After Satan’s futile
attempts to get Him to sin, Jesus returned to Nazareth, where He had
grown up and had worked as a carpenter. On the Sabbath day he went into the
synagogue, as was his custom. (Luke 4:16) The synagogue was a
house of worship where the Scriptures were read
and explained every Saturday. On this particular Saturday Jesus
had an announcement to make. He stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet
Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the
place where it is written: “The Spirit of the
Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to
preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind….” (Luke 4:17-18) What Jesus read in the Scriptures was an
ancient prophecy about the Messiah-King who would show the
world what God is like and rescue sinners from the dominion
of Satan, sin, death, and hell. Then [Jesus] rolled up the scroll, gave
it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the
synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled
in your hearing!” (Luke 4:20-21) How did Jesus’ neighbors react
to His claim to be the Messiah who came from heaven to fulfill what the
prophets had written in the Scriptures? All the people in the synagogue
were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove
him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the
hill on which the town was built, in order to throw
him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd
and went on his way. (Luke 4:28-30) Jesus had dominion. Unlike Adam’s
sin-infected and dying descendants, the Messiah-King anointed by
God was in perfect control. No one could touch Him
unless He allowed it. But He would touch them. In the Scriptures of the prophets,
one of the Messiah’s titles is: The Arm of the LORD (Isaiah 53:1). The miracles of Jesus showed
Him to be God’s Arm on earth. With a touch of His hand
or a word from His mouth, the sick and dying were
instantly made well. Great crowds came to him,
bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many
others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.
(Matthew 15:30) The words of the prophets
were being fulfilled. The blind receive
sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
(Matthew 11:5 [Isaiah 35:4-6, 61:1]) There was no disease
Jesus could not cure. Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him,
kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You
can make me clean.” Then Jesus, moved with compassion,
stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am
willing, be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him,
and he was cleansed. (Mark 1:40-42) When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who
had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on
each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people,
shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would
not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.
(Luke 4:40-41) Jesus did not want the
demons testifying about Him. These evil angels had
witnessed His authority and power when He spoke the
heavens and earth into place. They shuddered as they recalled the
day He threw them out of heaven. And now He was living
on earth as a man! Their master’s dominion
was crumbling. The King of glory had
invaded their domain. Wherever Jesus went, Satan’s
power was being weakened. Wherever Jesus went, sin’s
curse was being rolled back. Along with the miracles,
Jesus had a message: “The time has come,” he said. “The
kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe
the good news!” (Mark 1:15) Jesus selected twelve men to travel
with Him and learn from Him. Also following Him
were many women. They supported Jesus and His disciples
by giving them food and money. To those who believed in
Him, Jesus’ call was simple: “Follow me.” (Luke 5:27) But His call was also costly: “Anyone who loves his father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37) Since several of His
disciples were fishermen, Jesus often spent the day
down by the Sea of Galilee. People came to Him
from near and far. Once again Jesus began
teaching by the lakeshore. There was such a large crowd along
the shore that he got into a boat and sat down and spoke from there.
(Mark 4:1 NLT) After a day of teaching,
Jesus said to His disciples, “Let’s go to the other side.” He was already in the boat so they
started out, leaving the crowd behind. But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat,
and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the
boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke
him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care
that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked
the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped,
and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid?
Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were
absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?”
they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey
him!” (Mark 4:37-41 NLT) Who is this man? A thousand years earlier, the prophet
David had already answered the question: They were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the
LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out
of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper, the waves
of the sea were hushed. (Psalm 107:27-29) Who can calm the wind and waves
by simply speaking to them? The same Voice
that created them. One day, four men
carrying a stretcher with a crippled man came to
the house where Jesus was. The men tried to push
their way inside but the room was so crowded
they could not get in. So they climbed to the
roof, removed some tiles, and lowered the mat into the
room, right in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus
said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are
forgiven.” (Mark 2:5 NLT) Jesus knew that this man’s greatest
need was not to walk again, but to be forgiven of his sins. But some of the teachers
of religious law who were sitting there
thought to themselves, “What is he saying? This is blasphemy!
Only God can forgive sins!” Jesus knew immediately what they
were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question
this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed
man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up, pick up
your mat, and walk’? So I will prove to you
that the Son of Man has the authority on
earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the
paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your
mat, and go home!” And the man jumped
up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through
the stunned onlookers. They were all amazed and
praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like
this before!” (Mark 2:6-12 NLT) The teachers of the law were blinded
by their religion and pride. Their thoughts went something like
this: Jesus, you are a blasphemer! You are insulting God because
you claim to forgive sins, but only God can do that! They were right in thinking
that only God can forgive sins, but they were wrong in their
conclusions about who Jesus is. Who do you think Jesus is?
Do you remember the meaning of His name? It means The LORD Saves. In one Palestinian town
where Jesus taught, the people came to
this conclusion: “Now, we have heard
for ourselves, and we know that this man really is
the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42) Jesus had dominion over
every part of creation. Yet He didn’t go around saying, “Worship Me!
I am God! I am God!” He simply did the things
that only God can do and then let people draw
their own conclusions. Based on the next two stories,
who do you think Jesus is? Jesus went to a
town called Nain, and his disciples and a large
crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried
out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large
crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went
out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then he went up and touched the coffin,
and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I
say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk,
and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God.
(Luke 7:11-16) On another day, Jesus visited
two grieving sisters, Martha and Mary. Four days earlier, their
brother Lazarus had died. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my
brother would not have died….” Jesus said to her, “I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will
live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I
believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was
to come into the world.” Jesus… came to the tomb. It was a cave
with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha,
the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor,
for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not
tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and
feet wrapped with strips of linen. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
(John 11:21, 25-27, 38-41, 43-44) The Lord Jesus is the only
person in history who could say, “I AM the resurrection
and the life.” His works proved that
His words were true. Huge crowds shadowed Jesus, sometimes for days at a time. Often they found Him
in deserted areas, where He would go to spend
time with His disciples. Sometimes the crowd got hungry. This is what happened one afternoon
as more than 5,000 people had gathered on a hillside
east of the Sea of Galilee. So Jesus asked Philip,
one of His disciples, “Where can we buy bread to
feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already
knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “It would take
a small fortune to feed them!” Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s
brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with
five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that
with this huge crowd?” “Tell everyone to sit
down,” Jesus ordered. So all of them—the men alone numbered five
thousand—sat down on the grassy slopes. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to
God, and passed them out to the people. Afterward he did the
same with the fish. And they all ate until
they were full. “Now gather the leftovers,” Jesus told his
disciples, “so that nothing is wasted.” There were only five barley loaves to start
with, but twelve baskets were filled with the pieces of bread the people did not eat!
(John 6:5-13 NLT) The next day some of the crowd
came looking for Jesus. They wanted to make
Him their king, but only so He could save them
from their Roman oppressors and give them more food. Jesus told them, “You shouldn’t be so concerned
about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life
that I, the Son of Man, can give you. For God the Father has sent
me for that very purpose. “I am the bread of life. No one who
comes to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never
thirst.” (John 6:27,35 NLT) Food can keep your
body alive for a time, but only the Lord Jesus can give you
true life, for time and for eternity. Only Jesus can say, “I AM the bread of life.” Jesus was not like the religious
teachers who said things like, “Do this! Don’t do that! Follow these rules!
This is the way!” Only Jesus could say, “I AM the way and the truth
and the life.” (John 14:6) Jesus was also different from the prophets
who offered sacrifices for their sins and wrote about the
coming Messiah. Jesus said, “Don’t
misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of
Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them.”
(Matthew 5:17 NLT) Jesus often taught His disciples how
citizens of the kingdom of heaven should live in order to reflect the
character and glory of their King. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you. “When you pray, do not
be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray… to be seen by men.
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and
pray to your Father, who is unseen. This, then, is how
you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed
be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us today our
daily bread….’ “Do not worry, saying,
‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’
or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after
all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom
and his righteousness, and all these things will
be given to you as well. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. “Everyone who hears
these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a
wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down,
the streams rose, and the winds blew and
beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it
had its foundation on the rock. “But everyone who hears
these words of mine and does not put them into
practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down,
the streams rose, and the winds blew and
beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
(Matthew 5:43-44, 6:5-6, 9-11, 31-33, 7:15, 24-27) No one ever spoke like
the Teacher from heaven. The teachers and priests
of the Jews were not happy to see the crowds
listening to Jesus. They wanted the people to
listen to them, not Him! One day the chief priests sent their
temple guards to arrest Jesus, but they could not do it.
When they returned, the priests asked them,
“Why didn’t you bring him in?” The guards answered, “No one ever spoke the way
this man does.” (John 7:46) Not even the prophets
spoke like Jesus. The prophets were like candles casting
shimmering rays of light in a dark world, but the Messiah was “the Sun of Righteousness.”
(Malachi 4:2) Who needs candles once
the sun has risen? Jesus said, “I AM the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light
of life.” (John 8:12) Jesus is the Word who in the beginning
said, “Let there be light.” He is the ultimate Source of
physical and spiritual light. As the time approached for the
Messiah to fulfill His mission, He led three of His disciples, Peter,
James, and John, up a high mountain. There he was transfigured
before them. His face shone like the sun, and his
clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them
Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. A bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.
Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell
face down to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up,
they saw no one except Jesus.
(Matthew 17:1-3, 5-8) The disciples never forgot
what they saw that day. Later, Peter would write, “We were eye-witnesses of his majesty!”
(2 Peter 1:16) and John would say, “We have seen his glory,
the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father,
full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). But for now, the Son’s glory would
remain hidden in His body of flesh. It was time for the King
to fulfill His mission. For three years, the Lord Jesus had
been traveling around Palestine “doing good, and healing all who were under
the power of the devil” (Acts 10:38). The common people loved Him, but
the religious leaders in Jerusalem were plotting to kill
Him—and Jesus knew it. As the time approached for him
to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
(Luke 9:51) If you knew that a band of evil men in a
distant city were planning to capture, torture, and kill you,
would you go there? That is what Jesus did. From that time on Jesus began
to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer
many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and
teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third
day be raised to life. (Matthew 16:21) This was not the sort of King
the disciples were looking for. A crucified Messiah? Surely God
would not allow His Chosen One to suffer such pain and shame!
So Peter said to Jesus, “Never, Lord! This shall
never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to
Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me, you
do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
(Matthew 16:22-23) The disciples wanted a Messiah-King
who would destroy the Roman occupiers and set up a new
government in Jerusalem. Even as they journeyed,
the disciples argued over who would get the top positions
in the kingdom of God. So Jesus told His disciples, “Whoever wants to become great
among you must be your servant… just as the Son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26, 28) At His first coming to earth, the Messiah did not come to
conquer political kingdoms and rule on earthly thrones, He came to
conquer Satan and rule in human hearts. That is why Jesus taught, “The kingdom of God is
within you.” (Luke 17:21) But before the King from
heaven could reign in hearts (and later over
the whole earth), the sin debt of the
world had to be paid and death had to be defeated. That was His mission. Everything was going
according to plan. As the Lord neared Jerusalem, He sent two disciples
on an errand. “Go into that village over
there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see
a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden.
Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that
colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So they went and found the
colt, just as Jesus had said. And sure enough, as they were
untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?” And the disciples simply
replied, “The Lord needs it.” So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw
their garments over it for him to ride on. As he rode along, the crowds spread out
their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the
road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout
and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful
miracles they had seen. “Blessings on the King who
comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory
in highest heaven!” But some of the Pharisees
among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers
for saying things like that!” He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst
into cheers!” (Luke 19:30-40 NLT) What a different kind of king! The Messiah-King did not storm the
capital with a blast of trumpets and a mighty army. He did not
enter on a gallant war-horse. He rode in on a lowly
donkey—a young donkey, an unbroken donkey (that would
normally have kicked and bucked), an animal with the distinctive mark
of a cross on its back and shoulders, and, most importantly,
the only animal that could fulfill what the prophet Zechariah had
written five hundred years earlier: Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
(Zechariah 9:9) Why did the Messiah-King not ride
into Jerusalem on a mighty war-horse? Because He had not come to save the
people from their Roman oppressors. He had come to save His
people from their sins. Over the next few days, Jesus taught
the people in the temple where, as a boy, He had amazed the scholars with
His deep questions and wise answers. The leaders in the temple now
had a different attitude: “We don’t want this man to
be our king!” (Luke 19:14) So they assaulted Jesus
with explosive questions, hoping to turn the common
people against Him. Watching for their opportunity, the leaders
sent spies pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus
to say something that could be reported to the Roman
governor so he would arrest Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that
you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced
by what others think. You teach the way
of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes
to Caesar or not?” (Luke 20:20-22 NLT) What would Jesus answer? If He said,
“Yes, pay taxes to the emperor,” the Jewish population would accuse
Him of disloyalty to their cause. On the other hand, if Jesus
answered, “No, do not pay taxes,” the Roman governor would hear of
it and condemn Him for treason. He saw through their
trickery and said, “Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture
and title are stamped on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well then,” he said, “give to
Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what
belongs to God.” So they failed to trap him by what
he said in front of the people. Instead, they were amazed by his answer, and
they became silent. (Luke 20:23-26 NLT) Again and again, different groups of
religious teachers tried to trap Jesus, but each time He answered
them with perfect wisdom. After that, no one dared to ask him any
more questions. (Matthew 22:46 NLT) Put to shame, the men slipped away
to conspire with the chief priests to have Jesus arrested
and executed. What blindness! These priests, responsible
to offer sacrifices on the temple altar, had no idea the Man they wanted
to kill was the very One who was pictured in
those sacrifices. God’s secret plan was
about to be fulfilled. It was the eve of the annual Feast of
the Sacrifice, called the Passover. The next day thousands of
lambs would be killed. Though Jesus knew that He too
would be killed the next day, He spent the evening sharing a
last supper with His disciples. During the meal, He took the bread, blessed
it, broke it, and gave it to them to eat. He also passed around a cup. He told them the torn bread should
make them think about His body and the red juice about His
blood that would be shed to bring in the new covenant
for the forgiveness of sins. At midnight, He led His disciples
to a garden called Gethsemane. There, knowing the horrors that
awaited Him, He prayed to His Father. Then, as if on cue, the religious leaders
arrived with a mob of armed men. Jesus said to them, “Am I some dangerous
revolutionary, that you come with swords
and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple?
I was there teaching every day. But this is all
happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as
recorded in the Scriptures.” At that point, all the disciples deserted
him and fled. (Matthew 26:55-56 NLT) Jesus let the men bind Him and lead
Him to the high priest’s house where the Jewish rulers had gathered.
There many men told lies about Jesus. Then the high priest stood up
before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these
men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent
and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the
Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting
at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the
clouds of heaven.” The high priest
tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more
witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy.
What do you think?” They all condemned him
as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at
him, they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists,
and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.
(Mark 14:60-65) The Jewish court had
passed the death sentence, but it did not have the
authority to carry it out. Only a Roman court
could do that. It was early morning when
the religious rulers and a growing mob led Jesus
from the high priest’s house through the streets of Jerusalem to the
palace of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The religious leaders wanted
Pilate to put Jesus to death. They began at once
to state their case: “This man has been leading our
people to ruin by telling them not to pay their taxes to
the Roman government and by claiming he is
the Messiah, a king.” [After interrogating Jesus] Pilate
turned to the leading priests and to the crowd and said, “I find nothing wrong with
this man!” (Luke 23:2,4 NLT) “If he were not a
criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed
him over to you.” … Pilate then went back inside the
palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?
…What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom
is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight
to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is
from another place.” “You are a king,
then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are
right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born,
and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of
truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again
to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge
against him.” (John 18:30,33,35-38) But the mob kept screaming, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” For the third time
he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has
this man committed? I have found in him no grounds
for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him
punished and then release him.” But with loud shouts they insistently
demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.
(Luke 23:21-23) Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, but because he was afraid of the
religious leaders and their mob, he condemned Jesus to death. Pilate sentenced Jesus to the
extreme penalty of Roman law: a brutal beating
followed by crucifixion. Condemned victims were flogged with whips
imbedded with sharp pieces of metal. Seven hundred years earlier, the Lord
had told the prophet Isaiah to write: “I offered my back to
those who beat me, my cheeks to those who
pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking
and spitting.” (Isaiah 50:6). The gospel tells us what happened
after the Lord was whipped. Some of the governor’s soldiers
took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the
entire battalion. They stripped him and put
a scarlet robe on him. They made a crown of long, sharp
thorns and put it on his head, and they placed a stick in
his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery,
yelling, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they spit on him
and grabbed the stick and beat him on the head with it.
(Matthew 27:27-30 NLT) The soldiers were ignorant of the
meaning of the crown of thorns they had jammed
onto Jesus’ head. Thorns were part of the curse that came
over the earth because of Adam’s sin. The holy King of glory had come
to take sin’s curse for us. When they were finally tired of
mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own
clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
(Matthew 27:31 NLT) Two convicted criminals were
also led out with Jesus. Each was made to carry his own
cross to the place of execution. Partway into the grim parade, the Roman soldiers forced a man from north
Africa to carry Jesus’ cross for Him. Then on they went, through
Jerusalem’s crowded streets, outside the city walls, and
up a hill called Golgotha, the northern part of
Mount Moriah where, about 1,900 years earlier, the
prophet Abraham had said, “God himself will provide the lamb for the
burnt offering, my son.” (Genesis 22:8). It was time for
that Lamb to die. Crucifixion is the most horrific state-sponsored
method of execution ever devised. To add public shame
to excruciating pain, the Roman soldiers
stripped victims naked before driving nails through their
hands and feet, into a cross or tree. When they came to the
place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with
the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for
they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his
clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and
the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others, let him
save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
(Luke 23:33-35) If Jesus had saved Himself,
He could not have saved us. The crowd had no idea
they were fulfilling what the Lord had spoken
to the prophet David: “They have pierced my hands and my feet.
…People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing. All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
‘…Let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights
in him!’” (Psalm 22:16-18, 6-8) God’s rescue plan was being
fulfilled in every detail. On the same mountain where the
prophet Abraham had said, “God himself will
provide the lamb,” and “The LORD Will Provide”
(Genesis 22:8,14), God had provided His
very own Lamb—Jesus. Do you remember how the innocent ram
was sacrificed on the wood on an altar to ransom Abraham’s
condemned son? Now the sinless Son of God was
being sacrificed on a wooden cross to ransom Adam’s
condemned descendants. God spared Abraham’s son, but He “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up
for us all” (Romans 8:32). For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
(John 3:16 NKJV) God paid a ransom to save you from the empty
life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was
not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the
precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
(1 Peter 1:18-19 NLT) That is how much you
are worth to God. To fulfill God’s rescue plan, the
Lord Jesus felt the shame sin brings. He was cursed in our place. He took the punishment
we deserve. On the day Adam broke God’s
law, God made it known that the Messiah would one
day crush the Serpent. God had told Satan, “He will crush your head, and you
will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) This ancient,
mysterious prophecy about Satan striking the
Savior’s heel foretold the shame and pain the Lamb of God
would suffer on the cross as “he was pierced for our
transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). Those who crucified Jesus were
ignorant of God’s secret plan. None of the rulers of this age
understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory. For the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is
the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:8, 1:18) Jesus’ cross was placed
between the two criminals. One of the criminals who hung
there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ?
Save yourself and us!” But the other
criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since
you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are
getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has
done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me
when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I
tell you the truth, today you will be with me in
paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43) The first criminal only wanted to be
saved from his physical sufferings. He didn’t think he needed a
Savior to die in his place. The second criminal had
also insulted Jesus. But as he faced death, he
had a change of heart. He wanted the Lord to rescue
him from Satan’s kingdom. He wanted to become a citizen of God’s
kingdom, if the King would have him. Jesus’ answer left no doubt: “Today you will be with me
in paradise.” (Luke 23:43). Later that evening, both criminals died.
One went to hell. The other went to paradise.
What made the difference? One did not put his trust in the Savior-King.
The other did. It is noon. Jesus has already been
on the cross for three hours. Dark clouds roll in. Day
becomes like night. Terrified onlookers scatter. An eerie silence
covers the hill. Three hours later,
Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) On the altar of the cross,
the eternal Son of God felt the horror of being
separated from God in heaven. During those hours of darkness,
hidden from the eyes of men, God took all our sins and
put them on His holy Son. Jesus became the
final sin offering. As the past, present, and future sins
of the world were loaded onto Jesus, God in heaven had to
look away because His “eyes are too pure to look
on evil” (Habakkuk 1:13). For three long hours, God’s anger against
sin blazed down on His own burnt offering. Like a lamb sacrificed
on an altar, the Lamb of God was suspended on the
cross between heaven and earth, between God and man. The infinite One endured our hell in time
so that we need not endure it in eternity. Then it was done. Knowing that He had absorbed
the punishment sinners deserve and that He had fulfilled the prophecies
of the Old Testament, Jesus said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.
(John 19:30 NLT) At that moment the curtain of the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.
(Matthew 27:51) For centuries, lambs had been killed
and burned on the temple altar. When Jesus died, God
tore open the curtain that hid the special room where the blood
was sprinkled each year to cover sin. By ripping the curtain,
God was declaring: It is finished! The sin
debt is paid in full! My Lamb has shed His holy blood
for the sin of the world. I will no longer accept
animal blood for sins. My beloved Son is the
Final Sacrifice. For all who believe in Him,
heaven’s door is wide open! Seven hundred years earlier,
the prophet Isaiah wrote, He was pierced for our
rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep,
have strayed away. We have left God’s paths
to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.
(Isaiah 53:5-6 NLT) It is finished. Jesus of Nazareth was dead.
Just to be sure, a soldier rammed a spear into His side.
Blood and water gushed out. The disciples’ hopes
were also dead. Thinking Jesus should have crushed the
Romans and set up His kingdom on earth, the disciples had not yet understood
His promise to rise on the third day. The dead bodies of crucified victims
were usually tossed onto a garbage dump outside the city or into a mass grave.
Not so with Jesus’ body. Seven hundred years earlier, the
prophet Isaiah had written, “He was assigned a
grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death….” (Isaiah 53:9) God planned for His Son to be
buried in a tomb of honor. As evening approached, there
came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself
become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he
asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.
(Matthew 27:57-58) Before Jesus’ death,
Joseph of Arimathea and his friend Nicodemus had been
secret followers of Jesus the Messiah. They were afraid of the
religious leaders. But after seeing Jesus suffer on the
cross, they weren’t afraid anymore. So they took the body
of Jesus, washed it, and wrapped it in strips of clean linen
along with about 35 kilos of myrrh, the same kind of costly embalming spice
the Magi had given the child Jesus. They placed the body
in Joseph’s own new tomb. After rolling a huge stone across
the entrance, they went home. It was a royal burial,
fit for a king. The next morning the religious
leaders went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while
he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I
will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to
be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and
steal the body and tell the people that he has been
raised from the dead. This last deception will
be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as
secure as you know how.” So they went and
made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and
posting the guard. (Matthew 27:63-66) Meanwhile, inside the grave, what
was happening to Jesus’ body? Nothing. Since the day Adam sinned, Death had reigned like a cruel
king over the human family. If Jesus had ever sinned, Death would
also have made His body begin to decay, stink, and slowly
turn into dust. But 1,000 years earlier, the
prophet David had written, “You will not… let your Holy
One see decay.” (Psalm 16:9-10) Death and the grave had no power
over the One who never sinned. On the third day after Jesus
was killed and buried, early Sunday morning, several women
came to the tomb to pay their respects. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake
as an angel came down from heaven, pushed aside the stone, and sat on it. The soldiers fainted, but
the angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid!” “I know you are looking for
Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He has been
raised from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come,
see where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples
he has been raised from the dead….” The women ran quickly
from the tomb. They were very frightened but
also filled with great joy, and they rushed to find the disciples
to give them the angel’s message. And as they went,
Jesus met them. “Greetings!” he said. And they
ran to him, held his feet, and worshiped him.
(Matthew 28:5-9 NLT) Meanwhile, the soldiers
came into the city and told the religious
leaders what had happened. So the leaders bribed them with a
huge sum of money, telling them, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came
during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’”
(Matthew 28:13 NLT) But their lies could
not hide the truth. The Tomb was empty! By His death, Jesus
paid our sin debt. By His burial, Jesus went down
into the pit of death and decay. By His resurrection, Jesus
overcame Death, and now says, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last.
I am the living one who died. Look, I am alive
forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the
grave.” (Revelation 1:17-18 NLT) For all who believe
this good news, Death is merely the door that opens
into the presence of the King who says, “Because I live, you also
will live.” (John 14:19) On the day of His resurrection, Jesus
appeared to many of His disciples: first to the women, then to Peter,
and next to two travelers… That same day two of Jesus’ followers
were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. Jesus himself suddenly came
and began walking with them. But God kept them
from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing
so intently as you walk along?” They stopped short, sadness
written across their faces. Then one of them,
Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem
who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there
the last few days.” “What things?” Jesus asked.
(Luke 24:13,15-19 NLT) The travelers told how they
had hoped Jesus of Nazareth would have been the Messiah
to conquer their enemies. But He was crucified! And now the tomb was empty.
It made no sense! Then Jesus said to them,
“You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that
the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted
that the Messiah would have to suffer all these
things before entering his glory?” Then Jesus took them through the
writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself. By this time they were nearing
Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going
on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us,
since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he
took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and
gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened,
and they recognized him. And at that moment
he disappeared! They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us
as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures
to us?” (Luke 24:25-32 NLT) They jumped up and hurried back to
Jerusalem to tell the disciples: The Lord is alive! He is the
Savior promised in the Scriptures! He is the Lamb pictured in the sacrifices!
He is the LORD! At last the message of
the prophets made sense. Perfect sense. It was Sunday evening. The disciples were together,
with the doors locked. Suddenly Jesus appeared
in the room and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed
them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when
they saw the Lord. (John 20:19-20) Thomas, one of Jesus’ twelve
disciples, was not there that evening. Later, the disciples told
him, “We have seen the Lord!” But Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands
and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side,
I will not believe it.” A week later his disciples were in the
house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them
and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put
your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side.
Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him,
“My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you
have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and
yet have believed.” (John 20:24-29) Over the next forty days, the Lord would
abruptly appear to His followers, talk with them, and
then disappear. Jesus’ resurrected body could go through
walls and travel at the speed of thought. While He is the first to have such
a body, He will not be the last. Just as we have borne the
image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image
of the heavenly man. For since death
came through a man, the resurrection of the dead
comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will
be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:49,21-22) Do you understand that you
are a helpless sinner with no way to earn the right
to live in God’s kingdom? Do you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ died in your place, for your sins and came back to
life, defeating death for you? If so, then God says you
are no longer in Adam. God sees you as
righteous in Christ. One day you too will receive a
transformed body—just like His. But without the nail scars. The dominion Adam had lost to
Satan, Jesus had taken back. By His total authority over the
devil and demons, wind and waves, sickness and hunger, sin and death—
Jesus showed He was in perfect control. Even when the religious leaders
and soldiers arrested, tortured, and crucified
Him, He had let them do it. That is why, before going
back up to His Father’s home, the Lord Jesus said
to His disciples: “All authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) Jesus also told His followers, “A new command I give
you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you
must love one another. By this all men will know
that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
(John 13:34-35). Forty days after
His resurrection, Jesus gathered His disciples on the
Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem. The disciples wanted to
know when He would return. Jesus answered, “It is not
for you to know the times or dates the Father has
set by his own authority. But you will receive power when
the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken
up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him
from their sight. They were looking intently up
into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed
in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here
looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been
taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you
have seen him go into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem….
(Acts 1:7-12) Meanwhile up in heaven, it
was time for the King to be “crowned with glory and honor”
(Psalm 8:5, Hebrews 2:9). Imagine the splendor. The colors. The music. The excitement. A hundred million angels
talking among themselves: The King is coming home! But
He will look different. The One who created man in the image of God
will forevermore bear the image of man! A hush settles over
the celestial city. Suddenly the silence is broken with
a majestic chorus of trumpets, followed by a booming
proclamation: Open up, ancient gates!
Open up, ancient doors, And let the King of glory enter. Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the
LORD, invincible in battle! Who is the King of glory? The LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory!
(Psalm 24:7-8,10 NLT) The gates swing open wide and,
to the thunderous applause of heaven, in comes the Champion, the Lamb,
the battle-scarred Son of Man—Jesus! Through the adoring
multitude He walks, up to His Father’s throne. Turning, He looks out over Adam’s
ransomed race, and sits down. Mission accomplished. Later, heaven’s citizens sing this
new song to their beloved King: “You are worthy… for
you were killed, and your blood has ransomed
people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
(Revelation 5:9 NLT) Then the angels encircle the
throne, praising God, and saying, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was
slain, to receive… honor and glory and praise!”
(Revelation 5:12) On earth today, most
of Adam’s descendants are still captives in Satan’s
doomed kingdom of sin and death. But freedom is available. By His death, burial, and resurrection,
the Lord Jesus won the decisive battle. To all who trust Him, He says, “Don’t let your
hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and
trust also in me. There is more than enough room in
my Father’s home… When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you
will also be with me where I am.” “I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except
through me.” (John 14:1-3, 6 NLT) One of these days, while the world
is busy with its trivial pursuits and false religions, the King
of glory will return to Earth, but not on a lowly donkey, nor to
be mocked and crowned with thorns. The risen King gave John a
preview of that future day: I saw heaven standing open and
there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called
Faithful and True. With justice he
judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns.
…His name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven
were following him, riding on white horses and dressed
in fine linen, white and clean…. On his robe and on his thigh
he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
(Revelation 19:11-14,16) As the King returns, a voice
will thunder from heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the
kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and
ever!” (Revelation 11:15) The King’s enemies
will melt before Him. He will then bind Satan and show a weary world
what a righteous government looks like. It will be Earth’s finest hour. The LORD will be king
over the whole earth. On that day there
will be one LORD, and his name the only name.
(Prophet Zechariah 14:9) On the Day of Judgment, the
LORD Jesus will be the Judge. He sat on a fiery throne
with wheels of blazing fire, and a river of fire was pouring
out, flowing from his presence. Millions of angels ministered to him;
many millions stood to attend him. Then the court
began its session, and the books were opened.
(Prophet Daniel 7:9-10 NLT) Satan and his kingdom
of darkness will be “thrown into the lake of burning
sulphur” (Revelation 20:10). At last, the Serpent’s head
will be forever crushed. As for the citizens of
the kingdom of light, God will make for them “a new heaven and
a new earth …They will be his people, and God himself will be
with them and be their God. He will wipe every
tear from their eyes. There will be no more death
or mourning or crying.” (Revelation 21:1,3-4) At last, the prayer of all who love
their King will be forever realized: “Your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven!” (Matthew 6:10) Is this your prayer? Have you bowed to
the King of glory? Is He your King?
