Bible Studies
The 1st century apostles and teachers and other Christians who sought to convince and persuade people that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the promised Messiah, had a problem: God is invisible; He cannot be sensed with the five human senses. The Scriptures say that we cannot know God apart from true faith, which is a gift from God to those who sincerely seek Him.
These new Christians of the 1st century reached out to unbelievers with three important proofs:
1) the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which is why we celebrate Easter in a week.
2) their own changed lives; sinners had become saints: not perfect, still human, but undeniably different and now in love with Jesus and their fellow man.
3) the testimony of fulfilled prophecy, which we have been covering in past articles.
The importance of fulfilled prophecy, especially as it points like an arrow to the identity of the true Messiah, the promised One Israel had looked for since the beginning of their race, cannot be overstated! The Lord God reveals early in Scripture that "He is the only true God, whose knowledge is infinite and whose word is never broken."1
"God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" Numbers 23:19.
In another place, He says: "I declared the former things long ago, and they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. Therefore, I declared them to you long ago, before they took place I proclaimed them to you, lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.'" Isaiah 48:3,5.
The purpose of fulfilled Scripture is to unerringly point to the reality of who Jesus, the Son of Mary, the carpenter of Nazareth, truly was and is: the risen Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, the Savior!
"Which He promised beforehand through His prophets, in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 1:2-4.
Next time I hope to look further into the powerful testimony of fulfilled prophecy. In upcoming posts, Lord willing, I intend to talk with you about faith, the true and the counterfeit. And then I hope to begin an in depth study of the book of Romans, an incredible letter from Paul, the Apostle, covering subjects like the depravity of man, the sovereignty of God, true faith, how to defeat sin and live by grace, the future of Israel, and much more. Until then, take care and God bless you...Mike
1. Josh McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol. 1, pg. 141, 142.
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