Jesus Didn't Begin in Bethlehem

Do you want to get closer to Jesus this year? I do.

Come along with me as I seek to get to know Jesus even better. I want to learn more about the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus and how they were fulfilled.

We have recently had Christmas, where we celebrated the birth of Jesus. But sometimes His birth makes it sound like this was the very beginning of Jesus. It wasn’t.

In the past, I’ve taught children’s Bible classes. One thing I tried to get across to them was that God the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, had always existed. The second part of the Trinity (the Son) always existed-even before Jesus was born into the world in Bethlehem.

One place that clearly teaches this is the first chapter of John.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1-2

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MY PREVIOUS POST “THE WORD BECAME FLESH”:

Sending His son to be born in Bethlehem was not God’s last-minute plan to fix the mess mankind had made of everything.

Instead, sending the second part of the Trinity (the Son) into the world to pay the sin debt of all mankind was God’s plan all along, from eternity past.

The birth of Jesus, His ministry, His sacrificial death, and His resurrection had always been planned as the focal point of all history. Everything before these events looked forward to it, and everything after these events look back to it.

The entire Bible, the Old and New Testaments together, are one continuous truth of how a loving God made a way for sinful mankind to come to Him, through His son Jesus.  

Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve listened to Satan in the Garden of Eden. Sin separated them, and all their descendants, from God.

God provided a way to take away the sin of all mankind. The Savior, the second part of the Trinity, the Son of God we call Jesus, would pay for the sins of all people with His own blood.

This was God’s plan all along. In the Old Testament, God gave His prophets glimpses about the Savior who would come in the future. Jesus fulfilled each and every one of the prophecies.

Next week, we will take a step closer to Jesus when we see the very first reference of the Savior in the Bible.

Carla Killough McClafferty