The Beginning of an Unending Story
Dearly beloved of God, the birth of Jesus was a marvelous event which had been in the making for some 4,000 years. His birth was forecast in the Scriptures from Genesis 3:15, from the beginning of the reign of sin and death over man.
The hope of the Coming One, the birth of the seed of the woman became a living reality on Tishri 1, 3 B.C., but his birth was only the beginning of an unending story of deliverance which was according to the purpose of the ages which God purposed in His Son, Christ Jesus the Lord.
His birth was indeed marvelous but what he accomplished in his resurrection, ascension, and seating at God’s right hand far exceeds his birth at Bethlehem.
The purpose of the ages turns on the Lord Jesus Christ, what he has accomplished, and what he will yet accomplish.
God marked out Jesus Christ as the Son of God with power when he raised him from the dead. This begs the question, just how much power does the Lord Jesus Christ have, dearly beloved?
He has the power of salvation. He has the power to save all who believe in him. He is the Savior and there is salvation in no other.
He has the power to redeem from the reign of sin and death.
He has the power to give spirit life to anyone that confesses him as Lord and believes that God raised him from the dead. He has the power to give life, everlasting life. He became a life-giving spirit.
He has the power to justify us from all things from which the law could not.
He has the power to forgive all sins by the riches of his grace which he abounded to us.
He has the power to make righteous. In Christ we now stand before God without any sense of sin, guilt, or condemnation.
He has the power to give peace because he is the Prince of Peace. He made the peace between God and man.
He had the power to send the promise of His Father: the gift of holy spirit.
He has the power over the devil and over all of his kingdom of darkness.
He has the power to deliver all who are oppressed by the devil.
He has the power to heal all sickness.
He has the power to lead captivity captive and give gifts unto men.
He has the power to give some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to the Church.
He has the power to gather together the Church up to meet him in the air when he comes; both to raise the dead in Christ and to transform those who are living when he comes.
He has the power to transform our humiliated body that it may have the same form as his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
He has the power to raise all that are dead and those corrupting in the grave.
He has the authority to execute all judgment. The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth at his command, some to the resurrection of life and some unto the resurrection of damnation.
He has the power to put down all rule and all authority and power. He must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Once he has accomplished all that the Father has entrusted to him he will deliver the kingdom to God, and he himself will be subject unto Him so that God may be all in all.
You see, as wonderful as his birth was, it was only the beginning of far, far greater things to come. Because of his birth, we can be born again of the spirit from God and enter the kingdom of God. Rejoice!
Dearly beloved, we will partake of the glory to come with Christ. We will acquire the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will not only be with him; we will be like him.
His birth was only the beginning of an unending story of deliverance, dearly beloved.