What is it that you admire so much about Jesus Christ?
|
"So ... What is it that
you admire so much about Jesus Christ?" Three students from The Bible records the story of a
man who found that Christianity is primarily about Jesus Christ., and is
founded on the prophecies made about him throughout the Old Testament of the
Bible. Those books, from Genesis to Malachi, are a portrait in words of the
promised Saviour. But let’s get back to the story of a man who discovered
this 2000 years ago. The man had money, influence and
power, (he was the equivalent of the Chancellor of the Exchequer of Egypt),
but something was wrong. He did not lack religion, but he did not know God.
He went on a pilgrimage to find God, but all he found was hypocrisy and a
Bible, probably in the form of a scroll. As he went home reading that part of
the Bible he became confused. The great question he was asking was, "Who
is this about?" The writer was a prophet called
Isaiah who had lived 700 years B.C. The reader had just returned from This part of the Bible written so
many years before Christ came into the world tells so graphically of the time
when He went to the Cross, to be the substitute for sinners - to be punished
in their place. This is the passage he was reading. “Behold, My Servant shall deal
prudently; He shall be exalted and
extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men; So
shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings
shall shut their mouths at Him; For
what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider. Who has believed our
report? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? For He shall
grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him, There is
no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. And we hid, as it were, our
faces from Him; He was despised, and
we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows; Yet we
esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God,
and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for
our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His
stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own
way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was
afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the
slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His
mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His
generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the
transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with
the wicked—But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His
soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be
satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a
portion with the great, And He shall
divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah
52:13-53:12 |
|
