The Beginning

                Have you ever wondered who you would be without your history?  The things that have happened to you, changed you, and made you the person you are today?  I was watching a show recently.  A scene within that show triggered something within me that reminded me of the way that I was many years ago.  Many people I talk to now have no idea how I was.  If I talk about it, I get kind of a “well that’s nice that you have changed” reaction.  However, they never knew me the way that I was, nor can they.  The problem with that is they can never know of the magnitude of change that has taken place.

                I bring this up because as we dive into this journey looking at Christ, if people never understood who He really was, we lose the gravity of what He did.  We can sing it in a song, we can hear it in a sermon, but realizing the weight of Christ leaving Heaven and all that came with it to be here with us is unfathomable.  I wonder if Mary or Joseph understood as they were visited by angels (Luke 1 & Matt. 1) did it ever really hit them? Imagine, raising the eternal One in a temporal world. 

Yet, in John 1, we see He is indeed eternal.

 

Did they understand the magnitude of His history?  Who He was in an eternal sense?  What about those who grew up with Christ knew Him as He was at that moment?  I am sure most didn’t “get it”.  Think about what He had seen, created, and lived through. 

 If we read John 1, He is the Word.  In the beginning was the Word.  This Word became flesh and lived among us.  He, the eternal One, came here.  I find it very humbling to apply this idea to any aspect that I read about Christ.  I often find myself asking, “why?”  I mean, I understand it is because of His great love.  However, I find it so far beyond my understanding that I sit rather baffled and yet accepting. 

There are hundreds of prophecies that Christ fulfilled.  I have heard from several sources (I know this is supposed to be rather unfiltered, but the statistic is astonishing to me) that for Christ to fulfill even eight of the hundreds of prophecies that were prophesied over a thousand years or so, the odds of Him fulfilling just 8 prophesies is 1 in 10…to the 17^th power.  That is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. 

Let that sink in.

God revealed Himself, His plan to be carried out in the work of Christ, to prophets of old, over a large span of time…and Christ fulfilled them all.  He is eternal.  

He was there at Creation.  He is at the end of time now, because time does not restrict Him.

So what?

If we want to take a look at whom He is and what He did while walking this earth, we need to understand the gravity of who He is.  Who is this Jesus we are talking about?  He is eternal.  He is God .  I believe this brings a greater understanding to the weight of Him coming here to earth.  I believe it brings great understanding of His character shown in His love, omniscience (all-knowing), sovereignty, and many other signs.  As we dig into Jesus, we cannot forget that before He arrived on earth, He had history.  

While my history was rage, hatred, and a host of other self destructive characteristics, Christ’s was holiness, righteousness, sovereignty, and life.  He came here to bring us the opportunity to take part in His kingdom, to be a part of a relationship with Him.  This was planned before He even stepped foot on this planet.  

I find it easy to lose sight of all that He was before we read of His story here.  While His life on earth is profound (I don't want to short sell that point), understanding who He was before the gospels is vital to understanding the gravity and magnitude of His life lived here.  Even before the cross, His sacrifice was profound and His love undeniable.