Consider This: The Shocking Truth
At the beginning of his first letter, Peter talks about what Jesus did for us on the cross. He then writes, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things” (1 Peter 1:10-12).
Did you see what he said? The prophets had no idea what would happen. All they knew was that God was going to do something sometime. They searched, thought and wondered, but never in a million years would they have guessed that God would become one of us in order to save us!
Jump to the bottom of the paragraph and notice that even the angels who live in God’s presence did not know what he was planning either.
However, the mystery has been revealed to us. We have heard the gospel message that says, “God made him who had no sin to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Many guessed that God would say, “Be better! Try harder. Earn your way in.” No one thought he would pay the debt for us.
The gospel message is amazing, incredible, unheard of and, unfortunately, familiar! We have heard it so many times that it can lose its impact. The challenge is to hear it anew and remember how much we have been offered.
The message of God’s love would have shocked both the prophets and the angels.
We need to recover that same appreciation for what God has done.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).
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