Jesus: The Prophesied One
- James Ward
- Dec 19, 2017
- 5 min read
One of the fundamental tenets of Christianity is that God entered flesh and lived as a man. This is called the incarnation of Christ. Ostensibly, that's what Christmas is celebrating. We celebrate the fact that the One who was prophesied to come, has come!
The Bible moves along very quickly in the beginning and gets right to the point. God created everything. Everything was good. Then sin happened. Then the rest of the Old Testament is the record of the way history unfolded in order to prepare the world for Christ. God provided atonement for Adam and Eve, told the first gospel in Genesis 3:15, and then He started shaping human history according to His will. He made families flourish or die out. He made kingdoms rise and battle each other, some won and some lost, all according to His purposes, all carving the shape of the world as God saw fit. The ages passed by and history played out exactly as God ordained, all so that the Saviour would come exactly when He planned to come, under the precise circumstances that He planned ahead of time, for His purposes that He had planned from before the foundation of the world.
The Bible is special. It's verifiable. It carries authority. It was clearly written by supernatural means. It's Author is clearly God. Anyone who wishes to drop their pride and study the Bible with an open mind will quickly discover this fact. About 1/4 of the Bible is prophecy. And the focus of the Old Testament was a progression toward the coming Messiah, about whom there were numerous prophecies. Christ was no ordinary man. He was also God. No other person in history made such a large impact on history as Jesus Christ. And no other book is brave enough to make such bold prophecies, because no other book is actually God's word. God is wise enough to put a supernatural signature to His word, as authentication. He tells the end from the beginning. Let's look at just a few of the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah.
1. He would be the seed of a woman, virgin birth (Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14)
2. He would be a sacrifice for His people (Genesis 22:1-18)
3. The Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:1-51)
4. Lifted up for our healing (Numbers 21:6-9)
5. He would be a lawgiver like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19)
6. The Kinsman-Redeemer who saves His family (Ruth 4:4-9)
7. A descendant of Abraham through whom all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3)
8. A descendant of Judah (Genesis 49:10)
9. A descendant of David (2 Samuel 7:12-16)
10. But greater than David (Psalm 110:1-4)
11. Son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14)
12. But also Son of God (Psalm 2:1-12)
13. Forsaken, hands and feet pierced, in tremendous pain (Psalm 22, Zech 12:10)
14. The righteous sufferer (Psalm 69)
15. The rejected cornerstone (Psalm 118:22-24)
16. Born before the destruction of the 2nd temple (Daniel 9:24-27)
17. His coming would be announced (Isaiah 40:3-5, Malachi 3:1, Malachi 4:5-6)
18. The suffering servant (Isaiah 52:13–53:12)
19. He would have the Spirit of the Lord and perform great signs (Isaiah 61:1-2)
20. He would be plotted against and murdered (Jeremiah 31:15)
21. He would bring in a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31)
22. Called from out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:15)
23. He would be a Nazarene (Isaiah 11:1, Isaiah 53:3)
24. Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
25. He would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9)
26. Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13)
27. The blood money would go to a potter (Zechariah 11:12–13)
28. He would die on a piece of wood (Deuteronomy 21:22–23)
29. They would gamble for his possessions (Psalm 22:18)
30. He would not stay dead (Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53)
That's just 30 prophecies. I could easily list hundreds. Here's a list of over 350 of them. It is verified by archaeology that those prophecies were written centuries before the birth of Christ. Daniel chapter 9 tells when in history Messiah would come. He had to come before the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Now, with these prophecies in mind, can you think of anyone who could be the Messiah? Any Nazarenes who were born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, who preached and did miracles, and was crucified shortly before the time of the destruction of the 2nd temple? Can you think of anyone who lived during that time who called Himself Son of Man (Like Daniel did), but was also the Son of God (like Isaiah said), who authenticated Himself by fulfilling Messianic prophecies left and right, and was resurrected from the death? Of course only Jesus Christ fits the profile. It would be beyond absurd to claim anyone else in history came anywhere near fulfilling these prophecies. No one else was in the right time, at the right place, under the right circumstances, and did the right things to be the Messiah. He proved Himself beyond any shadow of a doubt, and God was gracious enough to record the New Testament for us and have it survive the passage of time. In the New Testament we can see all of these things coming true.
We believe in Jesus because the evidence is overwhelming. It would be absolutely foolish to ignore the claims of Christianity. It is foolish to not believe in Jesus. Each believer knows Christ is the Truth, but we can also point to physical evidence like Bible prophecy if any unbeliever wishes to argue. One will quickly discover that the unbeliever does not want to believe, and is therefore not actually seeking evidence because their issue is not intellectual.
"But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4-5)
"...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13)
"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” So Paul went out of their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.” (Acts 17:30-34)
“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:32-39)
Thanks for reading. God bless.
see also
Comentarios