To Encourage You

1 Peter 1:10-12 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”

If you were to choose one word to describe the theme of the Bible, what would it be?  Well, according to the passage above, a strong case could be made for the word “salvation.”  In this short passage we are told that it’s what the prophets of the Old Testament wrote about in their prophecies.  Although they didn’t fully understand all that was to come, what they did know and what they spoke of was that salvation was by grace.  It was the totally unmerited favor of God poured out on those who would believe. It wasn’t something people could do for themselves. It was something that only a great Savior could bring about.  They also knew that it was by the Spirit of Christ (the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Messiah”) that this salvation would come. And they understood that in some strange and wonderful way this salvation would involve the sufferings of the Messiah (which was pointing to the cross) and the subsequent glories (which was obviously pointing to the resurrection). 

Then the passage above tells us that the prophets were writing for OUR benefit. Their writings were given to serve a great purpose that nothing else can do, for they explain to each and every one of us the way to be saved.  No one else has this message. It’s in only one place; the pages of the Scriptures. It’s the theme of the entire Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi. But then the passage above also points to the writers of the New Testament, i.e., “those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.” This was the same Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, mentioned as the divine inspiration by which the writings of the Old Testament prophets came. 

The Bible; it is the Sword of the Spirit, not just in the Old Testament, but also in the New.  But in the New Testament we have the fuller message, i.e., the full reality of all that the Old Testament writers pointed to with types and shadows.  Here we have the four gospels, which reveal the life of the Messiah and detail for us His teachings, His miracles, His way of life, His sufferings up to and including His death on a cross, and the glories of His resurrection and ascension into heaven. The Acts give us the history of the early church as they spread the gospel soon after Christ’s ascension. Finally, the Epistles reveal more fully all the glories of Christ and the glorious wonders of what salvation means for those who have placed their faith in Him for eternal life.  It’s such a wonderful story of amazing grace that even the angels “long to look” into it. 

Salvation: that one word could sum up the Bible’s theme. But there’s another word that could do this as well. That word is Jesus, a name that means “Jehovah IS salvation,” for you see, it is only in Him that this salvation comes. 

So, are you saved?  Are you saved from sin, death, and hell?  You can be if you will turn to the message of the Bible and believe what it says.  But that salvation cannot be separated from the One Who alone is the MEANS of salvation in His suffering and death for OUR sin, and He alone is the WAY to salvation if we will put our trust in Him alone.  Jesus told the unbelieving Jews who were trying to kill Him, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). 

May God’s Holy Spirit, the Spirit Who indwelt the prophets who wrote about Christ, and the One through Whom the apostles, likewise, wrote and preached about Christ, enlighten your eyes to the Truth of the Scriptures if you don’t yet know the Savior. His name is Jesus, Jehovah is salvation, this One Who came for One primary purpose, i.e., to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).