After hundreds of years of prophecy, God’s salvation plan was finally revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, Jesus provides all of the righteousness we need to atone for our sins and shortcomings in life. Even if we wished to follow all of God’s commandments, we could never do so well enough to earn our righteousness and salvation. It is a gift of God through faith in Jesus.
1 Thus says the Lord:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come,
And My righteousness to be revealed. Isaiah 56:1 (NKJV)
Though Isaiah prophesied about the righteousness to be obtained through the coming of Christ, he likely did not know all the specifics of the plan, but was given various messages and images from God to share through the scriptures. As Jesus later pointed out to His disciples,
7 for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Matthew 13:7 (NKJV)
Though we were given many details to look for by the prophets, God kept the specifics of His salvation plan a mystery until He determined that the time was right to reveal it to the world. Such will likely also be the case for Christ’s second coming at the end of the age – we have been given many images and prophecies about those events to come, but exactly what it will look like and when it will all happen, we do not yet know.
The writer of Hebrews summarizes God’s salvation plan at the beginning of the book.
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:1-3 (NKJV)
In Christ is found all the fullness of God. He is the wellspring of our eternal lives and the co-author of creation itself. In Him, all things hold together in power and love. He is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Nothing is here that did not come into existence through Him.
God began to lay out His righteous requirements for living when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Few, if any of us, could keep these without falling short. But then, Jesus raised the bar even higher by telling us that not only doing the sin is wrong, but even thinking about and desiring to sin is just as bad as committing the act. If we are unable to obey the law of Moses, how could we possibly hope to meet these higher standards, even for a single day or hour? The truth is, we cannot.
Here is the good news: no one is able to successfully obey all these requirements, only God in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was able to live a sinless life, then He laid down His life for us as the spotless and innocent Lamb of God. All of our failures, sins, and shortcomings were nailed to the cross along with Him. He bore the punishment that we deserve for our sins, and took it all upon Himself in our place. He is so good and loving towards us, and it is such a great privilege to have the opportunity to believe and to follow Him in faith, today and each day of our lives.
Through Isaiah and the prophets, God began to reveal to us His complete plan of salvation. After centuries of prophecy about Jesus’ coming, it is available to all people worldwide who would reach out to Jesus in faith. Have you done so? He is standing at the door and knocking.
Reflection
If I have not done so, what is preventing me from reaching out to Christ in faith today? Or perhaps I need a restoration or renewal in my relationship with Him.
Lord Jesus, we ask You to remove any barriers that are preventing us from accepting Your generous plan of salvation by faith in You. Perhaps someone in our past said or did something to us, or some tragedy occurred in our life that, to this day, we blame on You. Show us the truth about Your goodness and Your love for us every day of our life, and grant us the faith to receive You. Help us to walk in the brightness of Your glory, completely forgiven and cleansed of our sin and shame. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
May the Lord bless, heal, protect, and prosper you as you walk with Him today.
The Maker of the Universe
F. W. Pitt (1859-1943)
The Maker of the Universe
As man for man was made a curse;
The claims of laws which He had made,
Unto the uttermost He paid.
His holy fingers made the bough
Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.
The nails that pierced his hands were mined
In secret places He designed;
He made the forests whence there sprung
The tree on which His body hung.
He died upon a cross of wood,
Yet made the hill on which it stood.
The sky that darkened o’er His head
By Him above the earth was spread;
The sun that hid from Him its face
By His decree was poised in space;
The spear that spilled His precious blood
Was tempered in the fires of God.
The grave in which His form was laid
Was hewn in rock His hands had made;
The throne on which He now appears
Was His from everlasting years;
But a new glory crowns His brow,
And every knee to Him shall bow.
F. W. Pitt (1859-1943)
Daily Meditations from the Genealogy of Jesus 