Mensa Otabil - God Sent His Son
- Watch
- Donate
Well, this week we’ll be looking at prophecies leading, uh, to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve looked at them from the book of Isaiah, we’ve looked at them from Genesis, we’ve looked at Numbers, and we’ve looked at Jeremiah. We’ve examined all these prophecies pointing to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they’re all in the Old Testament. But for today, we go to the New Testament and read something from the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 4:4 and 5. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. This passage summarizes everything about the prophecies of Jesus Christ and their fulfillment. This passage also places Jesus at the center of human history. What the passage is saying is that all of human history is centered on Jesus Christ. Before He came, human history was pointing to His coming; after He came, human history points to His coming and what He did.
So, Jesus is the center of our story. The story of mankind is the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s what this passage is telling us. A couple of things I want you to note: The first is that Christ was born in the fullness of time. Now, why does the passage say that? Because every prophecy that God made from the first one in the Garden of Eden kept building up. Not only the prophecies, but the activities of the law and the sacrifices of the law-all of that pointed to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the question is, when is all of this coming to pass? For years, people were waiting for the fulfillment of all these things, and the passage says that there was a fulfillment of time — a period when God brought everything together in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The timing of history was designed so that all the prophecies about Jesus Christ would be fulfilled.
The second thing you note here is that Christ was born of a woman. This goes back to the first prophecy that says the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. The passage is particular about that; of course, every human being is born by a woman. In a general sense, it is saying that Jesus was a human being like everybody else, but in a particular sense, it is also saying that Jesus is this unique individual born of the virgin woman. So, in this one statement, it tells us that the fulfillment of all prophecies was met in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the fullness of time came, God brought forth Jesus and brought Him forth under or through a woman.
The third thing that the passage says is that Christ was born to redeem us, and that talks about His mission. We can talk about Jesus Christ in many ways; we can look at Him as a great philosopher-of course, He propounded some great ideas-as a great teacher. We can talk about Him as a great healer; we can talk about Him as a good person, a good human being; we can talk about Him as a leader. But beyond all of that, the most crucial thing about Jesus Christ is that He’s the Redeemer of mankind. He came to redeem us from sin, so we must never overlook that aspect of redemption. If we talk about Jesus in all terms but avoid the fact that He is the Redeemer, we’ve missed the purpose of His coming. God brought Him forth to redeem us. I pray that this Christmas season, if you have not experienced the redemption of Christ, you experience Him in your heart and in your life. May Christ the Redeemer come to live inside of you.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, at the right time, You brought forth Your purposes. Thank You for fulfilling Your word to the world. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»