Daily Bible Verses for 12/14/2016

Advent: A King is Born to Us, Our Mighty God, Our Prince of Peace – (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Daily Verse(s)
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Reading Notes
These verses give us an early prophecy of “Immanuel” who is Christ Jesus our Lord, the child born to the virgin. They speak about Jesus of course, who is the very God of the universe. The name “Immanuel” means “God with us” and that’s exactly who Jesus is; He is the living God of the universe who stepped out of eternity and added humanity to His divinity, through the incarnation. Jesus did this for us, that He should save us from our sins. Jesus is also the royal son of David making Him the Father and King of the Jewish people. The Bible tells us that Jesus is our “Wonderful Counselor,” our “Prince of Peace” and our “Mighty God.” These are just a few of the names given to Jesus who is the living God of Heaven. This prophecy has both a near and a far fulfillment. We know the near fulfillment, Jesus was born to a virgin more than two thousand years ago. He lived a sinless life, proved He was God in the flesh, died on the Cross of Calvary for our sins and rose again the third day. For forty days Jesus was witnessed by numerous people, He ascended into heaven in front of a crowd of hundreds of onlookers. There were angels present and they spoke to the crowd saying, “why do you stand staring at the sky, do you not know He will return in the same manner.”

The first time Jesus came as the “Suffering Servant,” to take away the sins of the world. This was necessary because mankind had no way to save themselves. All of humanity is dead in our trespasses and sins. Because of our sin-nature, humanity has no way to reconcile our sins with a holy God. The true gift at Christmas time, is the free gift of salvation and eternal life through faith in Christ. We have to understand we were each chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid in place. The incarnation of Christ was not an afterthought, God planned to send Himself before the foundations of the world were laid in place. Jesus is the culmination of God’s plan of redemption. And the virgin birth was necessary because in order to take our place and pay the price for our sins, Jesus had to share in our humanity. However, He also had to be holy and without a sin-nature which was only possible by the virgin birth. Through the incarnation or “advent” Jesus took on humanity without diminishing His divinity. And His first incarnation was to carry out the grace of God and provide a means of salvation for all of mankind. The second time, which is fast approaching, He will return as our Mighty God, King of kings and Lord of Lords. A time when He will rule the nations with a rod of iron and there will be peace. Dear child of God, we must remember when Jesus comes the second time, it will be too late for those who have rejected Him, to then accept Him as their Lord and Savior. Therefore, at this time of the year we are to be about our Father’s business of sharing the gift of God’s grace with the rest of the world.