Wednesday, March 4, 2009

God's "Yes"


 “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen…” (2 Corinthians 1:20)


         Jesus is the “yes” to all God’s promises. He is the fulfillment of every Old Testament prophecy of redemption and the guarantor of every promise He has made for today and tomorrow. I was reminded of this truth while reading Alister McGrath’s wonderful book, Knowing Christ. We may look back now and line up things like Daniel’s prophecies of end time empires and the apostle John’s picture of church history in the Book of Revelation, but these prognostications are often argued to be just that: prognostications. But when God invaded time, lived among us, died for our sins, and rose from the dead for our justification—all in the person of Jesus Christ—He put the seal of authenticity on everything He had said previously.


         It is apparent that everyone who invokes the name of god may or may not be speaking of true Deity. In the end, the word is an abstract concept that must be defined in more concrete terms; and the God of the Bible is defined by Jesus Christ. It’s that simple. He is not the god of the Koran, which may claim to be identical by citing Abraham as a common progenitor, but shows its bogus beginning by ending with the prophet Mohammed. Nor is it the god of the Eastern religions that end with a contrived deification of man. The only God who can rightfully claim to be the Beginning and End, Creator and Consummator, is the one who incarnated Himself in only one Man for all eternity: Jesus Christ (Jno. 1:1-14; 1 Tim. 3:16).


         Without the (historical) reality of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the promises you and I lay hold upon in the Word of God are only beautiful words, the commands are only suggestions, and the warnings are only threats. As Paul tells us, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only proof we have that God will judge man for his sin (Acts 17:31). Everything depends of Him, good or bad.


         There is nothing ambiguous about Jesus. He is everything He claimed to be, nothing more, nothing less. And He claimed to be God. Without Him, the promises of God are only “maybe”; but with Him, they are all “yea, and in him Amen.”  


        Jesus Christ is God’s eternal “Yes!” 



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