October 9: THREE KEYS & A THREEFOLD BLESSING
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. Revelation 1:3
God is prepared to bless us with growing wisdom and understanding. To facilitate this, we must ‘pack and take along’ some basic principles as we journey through the Bible. Many consider God’s Word to be His “love letter” to us; which brings us to the first principle: God is love! His actions at Creation declare it without words. A single, panoramic view of the majestic beauty that He put into place before forming the first human being speaks of His loving forethought. When God breathed life into Adam’s perfectly formed body, Adam opened his eyes and beheld the face of God before he saw an incredibly beautiful world.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they felt shame and hid from God. Immediately He came looking for them. It was the first episode of “hide and seek.” That very day, He gave them His promise of the Savior to come, the Lamb of God who would willingly bear their sin.
This points to forethought before the aforementioned forethought: The plan of salvation had been established in the mind of the Heavenly Father and His Son before our world was created. In addition to the silent declaration of His love for us expressed in the sheer beauty of creation, He tells us of His love, using plain words. For example, in Jeremiah 31:33 the prophet wrote: The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
It is a fact that the Son of God became flesh (incarnate) – Immanuel, God with us. He was a little baby who grew up as a child in our fallen world, continually fulfilling the will of His heavenly Father. His death to bear sin’s penalty and His resurrection from death were accomplished on our behalf. Even now, He intercedes for us in the heavenly courts as our great High Priest. These things combine to give us the reality of Jesus in bodily form: the next essential principle to ‘pack and take along’ in the quest for understanding of the Bible.
A third principle of Scripture to ‘pack and take along’ is its historicity. Many things have already happened, and we are also being told what to expect regarding things to come. Details from both the past and the future have a major bearing on how we are to live right now. This precious truth is behind the words of Jesus as He appears to John on the Isle of Patmos. The present is a razor-thin, ever-sliding moment between the past and the future. Revelation, a “fifth gospel,” reveals Jesus Christ and history from John’s day forward until His Second Coming.
1) God is love. 2) His Son became flesh to show us what the Father is like. 3) The Scriptures are given to shape our character development today, in light of eternity. Read + hear + keep = BLESSED.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, The Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty… Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.” Revelation 1:8, 19
References: Genesis 3:15; Psalm 19; Matthew 1:23; John 1:29; 3:16; 10:17-18; Luke 22:42; Acts 2:23-24; Philippians 2:7-8; Hebrews 4:14-15; 5:5; 7:26; 8:1; 9:11; 10:21; 1 John 4:2, 8; Revelation 5:6