Wounded Healer: A great victory looks at first like defeat

Today's reading: Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53:3: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

In at least ten places, New Testament writers identify Jesus as the suffering servant. In one instance, Philip corrects an Ethiopian official who wonders if the servant refers to an ancient prophet (see Acts 8:26-35). Isaiah 49-55 includes vivid scenes of the servant's sufferings, predictions that find their fulfillment in Jesus' death on the cross.

Indeed this chapter reads almost like an eyewitness account of Jesus' last days on Earth, even though it was composed centuries before Christ's death ... The physical description-the Bible contains no other physical description of Jesus-is shocking. The servant "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him" (Isaiah 53:2); he was "like one from whom people hide their faces." (Isaiah 53:3).

Baptism and Children: Is it Time to Get Wet?

by Caroline Bergeron

Family ministry specialist Caroline Bergeron 

gives her take on how, why, and 

when a child should be baptized.

What is baptism? 

The practice of baptism didn’t start with the prophet John. It was a common practice in the first century for religious teachers to baptize their followers. By agreeing to be baptized, the follower expressed his commitment to learn, practice and pass on the teachings of his master. The act of immersion in water was a public declaration that one was taking his relationship to the next level: from simply being a follower to becoming a dedicated student, or disciple, of a religious master. 

How were people saved before Jesus died for our sins-

Since the fall of man, the basis of salvation has always been the death of Christ. No one, either prior to the cross or since the cross, would ever be saved without that one pivotal event in the history of the world. Christ‘s death paid the penalty for past sins of Old Testament saints and future sins of New Testament saints.

The requirement for salvation has always been faith. The object of one’s faith for salvation has always been God. The psalmist wrote, Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psalm 2:12). Genesis 15:6 tells us that Abraham believed God and that was enough for God to credit it to him for righteousness (see also Romans 4:3-8). The OldTestament sacrificial system did not take away sin, as Hebrews 10:1-10 clearly teaches. It did, however, point to the day when the Son of God would shed His blood for the sinful human race.

What has changed through the ages is the content of a believer’s faith. God‘s requirement of what must be believed is based on the amount of revelation He has given mankind up to that time. This is called progressive revelation. Adam believed the promise God gave in Genesis 3:15 that the Seed of the woman would conquer Satan. Adam believed Him, demonstrated by the name he gave Eve (v. 20) and the Lord indicated His acceptance immediately by covering them with coats of skin (v. 21). At that point that is all Adam knew, but he believed it.