Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived on the earth as a man for about 33-34 years. He was probably born in the year 4 BC – our calendar is slightly out of line. During His life He never committed any sin whatsoever. He was …
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How Jesus’ death on the cross made it possible for our sins to be forgiven and for us to be made righteous in God’s eyes
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (NKJV) 5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form …
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Isaiah prophesied that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son who would be Immanuel – “God with us”
In the eighth century BC Isaiah spoke of how a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son and how that son born to her would be God. The word that the prophet Isaiah uses is ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us’. So, even centuries …
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Setting the scene for the coming of the Kingdom of God
Everything that God did during the time of the Old Testament was directed towards the coming of His Son to be the Messiah and to establish a Kingdom. This would make all the other kingdoms in this world seem small and insignificant by comparison. In …
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What about the Gentiles?
You will note that so far in this chapter we have looked solely at what God was doing for Israel, His chosen people. However, if you are a Gentile (non Jew) like me, then be reassured. This whole plan that God made foresaw you and …
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God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his adult son, Isaac, as a type of what God would do to Jesus
We saw above how God promised to form a nation (Israel) through Abraham. God told him that that promise would be fulfilled through his adult son Isaac and through no other son. However, when Isaac was about 33 years of age God told Abraham to go to …
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The setting up of the temple system of animal sacrifice – to illustrate how Jesus would one day die as a sacrifice on our behalf
Another important background fact to show the way that God established the nation of Israel to prepare for the coming of His Messiah is that He set up the Temple system of worship and sacrifices. King David had a son called Solomon who built the …
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Jesus is a direct descendant of King David
About 1000 years BC, which is about 1000 years after Abraham’s days, God took a shepherd boy called David and raised him up to be King of Israel. God also promised that one of King David’s descendants would sit on David’s throne forever as King …
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Setting the scene for the first coming of Jesus
In about the year 2000 BC, God began the process of forming a unique nation called Israel into which His Son, the Second Person of The Trinity, could be born as a human being. This was not done overnight. God spent many centuries developing the …
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God’s dilemma and the plan He made to solve it – The background facts which set the scene for the coming of Jesus Christ and the establishing of His kingdom
It is clear from the chapters above that there is a major problem. Our sin separates us from God and makes it necessary for Him to judge us and punish us. But that creates a dilemma for God because He doesn’t want to condemn us. He actually …
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