Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Beginnings


Mark 1:1-3 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.” “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’”

Many lives have been blessed by the “Through the Bible” ministry of Dr. J. Vernon McGee. Though he went to be with the Lord on December 1, 1988, his radio ministry of going through the entire Bible in five years, that started in 1967, continues on that “bible bus trip” today, “putting the cookies down on the lower shelf for the children to get” by explaining the meaning and life application for us today.

For example, in his edited notes, Dr. McGee writes that the Bible passage above is not the beginning of either John or Jesus. It is the beginning of the gospel, when the Lord Jesus came to this earth and died upon a cross and rose again. That is the gospel.

He states that there are three beginnings recorded in Scripture. And he put them down in chronological order. (1) “In the beginning was the Word” – John 1:1.  This goes back to a dateless beginning, a beginning before all time. Here the human mind con only grope. It is logical rather than chronological because in our thinking, we must put our peg in somewhere in the past in order to take off. If we see an airplane in the air, we can assume there is an airport somewhere. We may not know where it ism but we know the plane took off from some place. So when we look around at the universe, we know that it took off from somewhere and that somewhere there is a God. God we don’t know anything about that beginning. God comes out of eternity to meet us. We just have to put down the peg at the point where He does meet us, back as far as we can think, and realize He was there before that.


(2) “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” – Genesis 1:1. This is where we move out of eternity into time. However, although many people have been attempting to date this universe, no man so far knows. Man’s guesses have ranged from six thousand years to three billion year. We know so little, but when we come into His presence and begin to know even as we are known, then we will realize how we saw through a glass darkly. I’m sure we will marvel at our stupidity and our ignorance. God is Almighty. He has plenty of time.

 (3) “The beginning of the gospel …” Mark 1:1 is the same as “That which was from the beginning…” in 1 John 1:1. This is dated. It goes back to Jesus Christ at the precise moment He took upon Himself human flesh. Jesus Christ is the gospel! - V. Vernon McGee

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”


In Christ, Brian

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