GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

1. THE OLD TESTAMENT TELLS US THAT THE REDEEMER IS COMING. No sooner had Adam sinned against God and plunged our race into spiritual death and sin under the wrath of God, than God graciously promised that he would send his own Son to redeem sinful man. God spoke to the serpent and said, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her SEED: and IT shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise HIS heel" (Gen. 3:15). Through-out the ages the promise of Christ's incarnation and redemptive work became clearer and clearer, until at last the prophet Isaiah wrote, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities"(Isa. 53:10-11). Taking God at his Word, the Old Testament saints were saved by faith in that Redeemer whom God had promised.

2. The FOUR GOSPELS AND THE BOOK OF ACTS TELL US THAT THE REDEEMER HAS COME. This is what old Simeon said as he held the child in his arms - "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy Word: for mine eyes have seen thy SALVATION, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people" (Luke 2:29-31). He blessed God and said, THE REDEEMER HAS COME! Peter said the same thing after the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost - "This is THE STONE which was set at nought of you builders, which is become THE HEADSTONE OF THE CORNER. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved"(Acts 4:11-12).

3. THE EPISTLES AND THE BOOK OF REVELATION TELL US THAT THE REDEEMER IS COMING AGAIN. One day soon, at the time appointed by God, the Lord Jesus Christ shall return to this earth, to gather his own elect and to take vengeance upon his enemies. "Behold, HE COMETH with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wall because of him. Even so, Amen" (Rev. 1:7).

PREVIOUS ARTICLES