God is not only our Judge because of His righteousness, but He is also our Savior-God because He loves us. God judged man according to His righteousness after man sinned in the garden of Eden; yet because He loved man, He also promised to save him.
Man was made by God to contain Him as life. This is man’s birthright. A birthright means something that is rightfully yours by birth. The birthright of a young prince is the kingship, that is, to become the king to rule and to enjoy all the privileges of being king. If the prince were kidnapped and taken away to another land, he would lose his birthright, even though he is still the son of the king. When man was deceived by Satan to disobey God and to take in the satanic life and nature, he was kidnapped away from God’s purpose and lost his birthright to contain God as life. Man is “kidnapped” and under the control of Satan. Because of this, he has lost God as life.
To take care of both problems, God gave man two main promises. God promised to rescue man from Satan’s control. He also promised to give His life to man to fulfill His purpose.
In Genesis 3:15, God promised that the seed of woman would come to bruise the head of the serpent. In Genesis 22:18, God promised that in the seed of Abraham all the nations would be blessed.
According to these promises God prophesied in the Old Testament concerning this coming One who is just God Himself coming in the flesh to save man.
First, the Old Testament prophesies concerning His birth; that is, of whom He would be born (Isa. 7:14) and where (Micah 5:2). Next, it tells us how He would look (Isa. 52:14; 53:2) and how He would minister (Isa. 61:1; 42:1). Then, it foretells the year, the month, the day, the place and the way in which He would die (Dan. 9:24-26; Exo. 12:1-6; Gen. 22:2; Deut. 21:23; Zech. 12:10; Psa. 34:20). It tells in a picture that He would enter into death and the tomb and resurrect on the third day (Jonah 1:2,17; 3:2-10; Matt. 12:40). When Christ came, He fulfilled all these promises and prophecies. How marvelous! The subject of the entire Old Testament is just this wonderful One, this One promised and prophesied by God.
John 1:1 says that the Word was God. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh. This Word who became flesh is Jesus Christ. He is truly God and truly man. When He came, He fulfilled all of the promises and prophecies of God in the Old Testament. As the God-man, He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem, and lived for thirty-three and a half years as a genuine human being, yet without sin. Then He was crucified in the year, month, day and place which were prophesied hundreds of years earlier.
The death of Christ has accomplished many wonderful things for us. We are redeemed, forgiven, washed, justified and reconciled to God. Redeemed means a price has been paid to buy us back to God. Justified means God considers us to be as righteous as He is. Reconciled means that we, who were God’s enemies, have now made up with God. On top of all that, His death also bruised Satan’s head, as God had promised to do in Genesis 3:15. (See Heb. 2:14.)
On the third day, He resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit to give life to man, thus fulfilling the promise in Genesis 22:18. (See Gal. 3:14.) He became the promised Spirit to give man life as the eternal blessing. How wonderful! Man’s negative problem was solved and his birthright was restored by the death of this Man, Jesus Christ. All of man’s problems with sins before God were solved, and the head of Satan, the serpent who had kidnapped man, was crushed. Now, man can believe in this Jesus to be saved from sin and death, and to receive the life of God to fulfill God’s eternal purpose. We have been restored back to God and can now enjoy our birthright, which is to contain God’s life. We need to praise and love our Savior-God for all that He has done.