For 4,000 years God gave glimpses (not clues) of His promised Man-Child, Who would save the human race from eternal separation from God. The extent of the Gift was not just a Son for us or a Son to us, it was His Son in us personally and corporately. See notes below.
MERRY CHRISTMAS...
Colossians 1:21-23, 26-28
(21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
DLG note...
Ever since Adam's sin in the garden, eventuating in our own disobedience to God, God has promised a Man-Child who would deliver Adam's race from the clutches of sin and death. This has been accomplished through the virgin birth, sinless life, sacrificial death and physical resurrection of Christ.
(22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
DLG note...
God not only saves us from sin and death, He transforms and conforms us into His own likeness, which was lost when Adam rebelled.
(23) If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
DLG note...
God's promise of deliverance is only for those who receive God's Gift by faith and then continue to live by faith, day by day. While it is possible to move away from the hope of the gospel, it is also possible to remain grounded and settled, by faith.
(26) Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
DLG note...
Glimpses of the promise of the Gift was given through prophecies, ceremonies, sacrifices and the tabernacle, but it was never revealed. For four thousand years the revelation of the Gift was HIDDEN. A Biblical “mystery” is a secret with God, only discovered when God reveals it. The Gift of the Man-Child and the depth/height, breadth and extent of His salvation was not revealed until the birth of the Babe in Bethlehem and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
(27) To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
DLG note...
This Gift, which is greater than can be comprehended, includes the depth and height of God's salvation (complete deliverance from all sin in this present evil world, including sins penalty, pollution and power), the breadth of God's salvation (including Jews and Gentiles, all humanity), the extent of God's salvation (reaching to the very core of the human condition and continuing forever).
(28) Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
DLG note...
The Good News is that God perfects His children in this present evil world through forgiveness, cleansing, regeneration, adoption, empowering, enlightening and guidance. This is our message, anything less is robbery.
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