God's Gracious Plan

 

            Perhaps one of the most marvelous things about the birth of Christ is God’s preparation for it.  I think some people think if they bother to consider it at all, that God’s plans didn’t work out the way He wanted so as a last resort, He sent His Son to “fix it”.  However, if you look at scripture, you will see that is the farthest thing from the truth.  God had one plan from the very beginning and He never waivered in bringing it to fruition.  Christ made that clear on the cross, when He said, “It is finished”.  He had completed the plan that God first revealed back in Genesis, some thousands of years before Christ was born. 

            The Old Testament was written over about 1500 years, and the last words of that testament were completed about 400 years before Christ was born.  Yet, the pages of the Old Testament are filled with bits and pieces of God’s plan as He slowly revealed it to men.

            The first hint of God’s plan appears in Genesis 3 when God tells Satan that Eve’s offspring will ultimately crush him even though Satan would get the first blow.  Later, in Genesis, God reveals the plan in general terms to Abraham when he promises to make Abraham the father of a great nation that will ultimately bless all the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:2-3).

            Later, after God had created that great nation through Abraham’s descendants, He spoke to David, the King of Israel, through the Prophet, Nathaniel.  His message was that the promised Messiah would be a descendant of David (II Samuel 7: 12 – 16).

Then came the other prophecies.  There would be one who would come before the Messiah to prepare the way for Him (Malachi 3: 1 & 4: 5 – 6; Isaiah 40: 3 – 5). The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, a small city best known as the birthplace of King David (Micah 5: 2 – 5).  The prophet Isaiah also foretold that He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) so Mary, who would have known of that prophecy, was probably not as surprised as we might have been when Gabriel came to give her the news. 

The prophecies didn’t end with Christ’s birth.  Jeremiah 31:15 foretold the senseless massacre that King Herod perpetrated when he ordered the murder of all the baby boys under two years of age.  God protected the baby Christ by telling Joseph to flee to Egypt, which fulfilled the prophecy of Hosea who said “…out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11: 1). 

These are only a few of the prophecies concerning the Messiah but Jesus fulfilled every one of them.  He is the child that Isaiah talks about in Isaiah 9: 6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (NIV84)”.

The bottom line is that God had one plan of salvation from the very beginning.  He gradually revealed that plan to mankind through His word, and then Christ brought it all to fruition on the Cross and with His resurrection.  The writer of Hebrews says He did it “once for all” (Hebrews 7:27). 

As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, don’t ever forget that God’s plan was put into action at the manger, but it wasn’t finished until Christ rose from the grave.  It’s all about the cross!

Check out the song "It's About the Cross!" by the Ball Brothers