WEDNESDAY August 16th
1 Peter 1:20-21
‘He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.’
We carry on with our verses today with the train of thought that was in the previous verses, which tell us that Christ who was the Lamb slain for the sin of the world was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Jesus already existed as the Word of God as we read in John 1:1 and as the eternal Son of God.
Jesus has never known a beginning and will never no an ending because he is God and he is eternal. And yet the wonder is that as God, and even before the foundation or the creation of the world, he was the Lamb who was going to be made manifest in the last times for the sake of all who would become believers in God. In Galatians 4:4-5 we read ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’
Remember back in verse 12 we read that God’s plan of redemption was so incredible that the angels longed to look into it. From heavens viewpoint they marvelled and wondered, and when the fulness of time arrived and Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Luke records that after the shepherds had visited, Mary ‘treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart’ (Luke 2:19) and the shepherds went away, ‘glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them’ (v20).
And the more I ponder or wonder on these things, the more amazed I am that even before Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden, God had a plan ready, he had a Son who was ready and when the fullness of time came the plan was put into effect and he came into this world to be our Passover Lamb. We will continue with the remainder of the text from today in the devotion tomorrow, but for now, spend some time pondering and wondering on how amazing God’s plan of eternal redemption really is, that we lost and hopeless sinners have been rescued and set free and brought into a living hope.
In the words of this song, which I have included in the audio devotion, we are reminded that for it to happen it took a Lamb.
He could ‘ve come in all His splendour.
Greater than the eye has ever seen.
He could’ve come in robes of scarlet.
And all the world would see that He is king.
He could’ve ridden on a White Horse.
As a warrior and conquered every land.
But He knew that if redemptions price
were paid, it would take a Lamb.
It took a Lamb, to die upon a rugged Cross, it took a Lamb.
(Just a Lamb)
Only One could pay the cost.
Nothing less, could take away my sin.
That is why the Great I Am.
Didn’t come as a King because He knew.
It took a Lamb.
For many years the temple altars,
were stained with sacrifices every day.
And though the blood appeased the Father,
still the curse of sin was never wiped away.
Till one day the Rule of Justice was
halted by a touch from Mercy’s
Hand, (Mercy’s Hand)
As the Father in compassion said it’s time,
to send the spotless Lamb. (Precious Spotless Lamb!)
Geron Davis CCLI 788682