Christ's Ministry No Afterthought
You were set free by Christ's precious blood, blood like that of a lamb without mark or blemish. He was predestined before the foundation of the world, but in this last period of time he has been revealed for your sake. 1 Peter 1:19, 20, REB.
God the Son's earthly ministry was not an afterthought--something that caught God the Father off guard and forced Him into a last-minute decision to send Christ to head off our unexpected disaster. To the contrary, "He was predestined before the foundation of the world" to become the Lamb of God.
The Message paraphrase puts the issue graphically in context: "It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately--at the end of the ages--become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God" (1 Peter 1:18-21, Message).
We serve a God who knows the end from the beginning. He knew that sin and death would enter the universe through the rebellion of Lucifer and He realized that it would spread to earth through the fall of Adam and Eve. The Lord understood the destructiveness of sin and that it would bring about eternal death (Rom. 6:23).
But God also knew that He would not stand idly by as His earthly children suffered and died. As a result, the heavenly Trinity "predestined" one of its own members "before the foundation of the world" to descend to earth and become altogether human to solve the sin problem and its results.
The Lord provided a glimpse of that predestined role to the shattered Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15. Speaking to the devil, God proclaimed that He would "put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (RSV).
The repeated slaying of sacrificial lambs foreshadowed that promise all through Jewish history, but it was not put into effect until the incarnation, ministry, and death of Jesus, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
The message of that life is that the Godhead cares. They are never caught off guard, and They predestined one of Their own number for my salvation.
You were set free by Christ's precious blood, blood like that of a lamb without mark or blemish. He was predestined before the foundation of the world, but in this last period of time he has been revealed for your sake. 1 Peter 1:19, 20, REB.
God the Son's earthly ministry was not an afterthought--something that caught God the Father off guard and forced Him into a last-minute decision to send Christ to head off our unexpected disaster. To the contrary, "He was predestined before the foundation of the world" to become the Lamb of God.
The Message paraphrase puts the issue graphically in context: "It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately--at the end of the ages--become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God" (1 Peter 1:18-21, Message).
We serve a God who knows the end from the beginning. He knew that sin and death would enter the universe through the rebellion of Lucifer and He realized that it would spread to earth through the fall of Adam and Eve. The Lord understood the destructiveness of sin and that it would bring about eternal death (Rom. 6:23).
But God also knew that He would not stand idly by as His earthly children suffered and died. As a result, the heavenly Trinity "predestined" one of its own members "before the foundation of the world" to descend to earth and become altogether human to solve the sin problem and its results.
The Lord provided a glimpse of that predestined role to the shattered Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15. Speaking to the devil, God proclaimed that He would "put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (RSV).
The repeated slaying of sacrificial lambs foreshadowed that promise all through Jewish history, but it was not put into effect until the incarnation, ministry, and death of Jesus, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
The message of that life is that the Godhead cares. They are never caught off guard, and They predestined one of Their own number for my salvation.
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