Church members gathered on Sunday, November 19, starting a series on the history of salvation as we enter the advent and prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. The opening passage of the series was in Galatians 4:4-5 which tells us, along with Romans 5:6, that the birth of Jesus is not random but comes at a set time, according to God’s plan that he has been working out since the creation. The series will take us on a journey through the Old Testament key events and key people revealing God’s redemptive work with its climax in the birth of Christ.

As John testifies in John 1:1-4, in order to speak of the history of salvation, we must start at the beginning. We must look at the history recorded in the scriptures in order to recognize and receive Christ for who he really is lest we fail – John 1:10-12. During the times of Jesus, people saw in him a man, a sinner, a teacher, and at best a prophet, but the truth about Jesus revealed to Peter was not by blood and flesh but by the Father himself that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The way to know God is through the revealed truth, the Word, not through our thoughts or feelings, not the subjective, but the objective and absolute as demonstrated in Christ.

The history of salvation is the history of restoration of the purpose of creation, and since the all things are through him and to him (Rom 11:36), and nothing that has been made was made without him, and so there is no one better qualified to carry out the work of restoration. Through Christ, the Word that was with God at the beginning and who was God, we were created, and through him, the Word, we are being saved. The most important lesson of creation is that we owe all to God’s word who out of nothing spoke all things into existence (Heb 11:3), that the word of God is not additional or optional in our lives, but essential, as Jesus reminds us in Matthew 4:4 saying, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. God’s history of creation didn’t end in Genesis 1 and 2, but he continuously creates in us his purpose, and by the power of the word he transforms is into the image of Christ. And we can be sure that he will not waver in his purpose and will accomplish his plan for this world – Isaiah 46:9-10.