We have one more person in the People of Christmas series to look at – the Messiah Himself. How did He fulfill the promise to Abraham? How did He fulfill the promise to Adam and Eve? This devotion looks at how Jesus fulfilled those two promises.
Nuggets
- God also promised Abraham that, through him, all the world would be blessed; he was through the birth of the Savior.
- If we do not believe Jesus was the Messiah who died for our sins, we don’t gain salvation.
- The need for a Messiah has been around a long time.
To read devotions in the People of Christmas series, click the appropriate button below.
Some people question that Jesus is the Son of God because of His lowly birth. Let’s face it. How many stories have the Prince being born in a manger?
Royalty is born in palaces with all the comforts money can buy. And from Nazareth – that dinky hole in the wall? Come on, folks!
Jesus also wasn’t accepted as the Messiah because He wasn’t what people expected. Everyone was looking for some great military leader, not some little snot-nosed kid they’d have to wait 30 years to grow up.
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Jesus just did not fill the want ad they put out advertising for a Savior.
But He was.
Let's Put It into Context
Messiah means “the anointed one” or “the chosen one.” There are many verses where God promises to send His Chosen One to save people from their sins.
Abraham’s Messiah
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Messiah is a child of God and whoever loves a father loves his child also” (I Jn. 5: 1 GNT)
The Jews were sure they were children of God because they were children of Abraham. God said, no. We have to believe in Jesus as the Messiah as Abraham did.
Romans 4: 3 says, “For the Scriptures tell us, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith’” (NLT). Faith is the belief that the doctrines stated in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them. Abraham believed in a Deliverer. Jesus is our Deliverer.
“And even when he [Abraham] reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith — for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God” (Heb. 12: 9-10 NLT).
God also promised Abraham that, through him, all the world would be blessed. “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12: 3 NIV).
Who is blessed by the Father? Jeremiah 17: 7 says, “But I [God the Father] will bless the person who puts his trust in me” (GNT). “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Mt. 25: 34 ESV emphasis added). Conversely, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25: 41 ESV emphasis added).
How do we come to the Father? “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NLT).
Abraham believed this.
The Jews thought knew the kind of Messiah God was going to send. They had waited hundreds of years for the Deliverer to come, and Jesus was not it.
How could Jesus be? God wouldn’t use a nobody like that!
But they were wrong. Jesus was and is God’s Son.
That belief brings us faith. We have to have faith just like Abraham did.
We could believe Jesus was just a prophet and died. But if we do not believe He was the Messiah who died for our sins, we don’t gain salvation.
We have to believe Jesus is the son of God. We have to know that He came to bring a salvation.
“‘I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.’ I will declare the LORD’s decree. He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’” (Ps. 2: 6-7 CSB).
That belief brings the salvation. Salvation is the deliverance from the consequences of sin. Sin is when we disobey God and break one of his laws and commandments. This deliverance is necessitated by the original sin committed by Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, which made everyone centers.
That belief brings us regeneration. Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive. It is where God breaks Satan’s hold on us.
No, we don’t have to understand this. This is all on God to accomplish. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11: 1 NIV).
That belief is available to all. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, what job you have, or how much money you have. It doesn’t matter what you have done or haven’t done.
Salvation is only about either believing Jesus is God’s Son and our Substitute — or not. You believe, you get salvation. You don’t believe, you pay the consequences.
The product of this salvation is love. God is love (I Jn. 4: 8), so when we accept His love and love His Son, that love just bubbles out of us.
Adam and Eve’s Messiah
“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3: 15 NLT)
The need for a Messiah has been around a long time. We don’t know how long after the creation of the world the first sin occurred. We do know that God had the plan of salvation in the wings since before the universe was created (Eph. 1: 4).
The Messiah was promised when God meted out the punishment for that original sin. He told the serpent/Satan that one of Eve’s offspring would crush him.
I’ve always gotten that Jesus would go for the head and defeat Satan. But look what it says. “… He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3: 15 NLT).
Satan is going to strike his heel. I always took that to mean Satan was going to be gunning for mankind, hoping to keep us from giving our allegiance to God. Also, I got that physical pain would now be a thing.
Buddicom reminded us that “… Jesus should not get the victory unwounded.” Jesus had to suffer as Messiah to fulfill this prophecy. He had to suffer, not just to spill His blood, but as one of us. That is another reason why the cross was necessary.
So, the very first promise God ever gave to us was that He had a way to restore our relationship with Him. Even though we had rebelled and been disobedient, He had a way to love us back into His food.
This verse gives a wonderful picture of the gospel. Jesus is going to stand in the gap between mankind and Satan. He will protect us from Satan.
But Jesus is also in the gap between mankind and God. He has provided the way in which we can once again have access to our Heavenly Father.
However, as Gibson says, the promise is also a curse. No, not a curse for mankind, but for Satan.
Still, mankind will have to pay the consequences of their disobedience. Gibson nails it when he said, “There are those who, shutting their eyes to the terrible fact of sin with all its dreadful consequences, as they are seen in the world, please themselves and try to please others by preaching a gospel of easy good nature, of love and mercy and goodwill to all mankind — a sort of universal salvation on the easiest terms possible, or without any terms at all. But sin and its terrible consequences are fearful facts that cannot be ignored.”
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Making the Connections
Jesus is the Messiah. He is our Redeemer and Savior.
Unless we admit our sins, believe on Jesus as our Redeemer, and confess God as Sovereign Lord, we aren’t given spiritual life. That means when the Jesus comes again, He won’t accept us as His own. We have to ABC.
The ABCDs of Salvation
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
How Do We Apply This?
After we ABC, we have D. We have to demonstrate our commitment to God by living the lives He wants us to live. We have to seek Him. Seek Him today.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17 NLT).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3 ESV).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16 ESV).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11 NLT).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11 NLT).
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Loving Heavenly Father. You sent your Son to be born and placed in a manager. You gave Him earthly parents that do not fit earthly standards for parents of a King. Lord, we thank You for your love and mercy. Father, we feel we are unworthy of Your love and being allowed to serve You. Yet by Your grace, with Your Son Jesus in our hearts, we are able to serve You. Help us, Lord, as we share Your love with others. Amen.
What do you think?
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