Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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Christ Is God
Chapter 48 – The Last Step of God’s Journey Through Christ
The last step of God’s journey through Christ was the Second Coming of Christ – also known as the coming of the kingdom of God.
This step was prophesied by both the Old and New Testaments. Unlike all the preceding steps in God’s journey, its fulfillment is not documented in the Bible. That’s because it happened shortly after all the New Testament texts were written. One of the proofs that the Second Coming occurred at that time is not that people saw it, but that they didn’t see it.
Huh?
Yes. Consider this parallel from the time when God confirmed to Samson’s parents – Manoah and his wife – that they would finally have a child.
Judges 13:15 Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.”
Judges13:16 The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD.” For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.
Judges 13:17 Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?”
Judges 13:18 But the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”
Judges 13:19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the LORD, and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on.
Judges 13:20 For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.
Judges 13:21 Now the angel of the LORD did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD.
Judges 13:22 So Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, for we have seen God.”
It was God’s revelation – not another physical appearance – that convinced Manoah of the angel’s identity.
The first step in God’s journey was to give up invisibility; the last step was to regain it.
Read carefully this exhortation and prophecy from Paul to Timothy.
1 Timothy 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
1 Timothy 6:14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 Timothy 6:15 which He will bring about at the proper time–He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
1 Timothy 6:16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
God gave up invisibility when He became Christ before the dawn of creation. He gained it back in the Second Coming – that is, the coming of the kingdom of God – once He had completed the revelation of Himself through Christ.
1 Kings 20:11 “…’Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.’”
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