In this chapter I will be discussing briefly Jesus Christ’s fulfillment of messianic prophesy. In the process, I will be examining two core doctrines of the fundamental faith.

At one time I considered both of these doctrines to be debatable topics, but as I have grown in my own walk with the Lord I have come to realize that they are among the most important and fundamental teachings of our faith. The reason I believe their acceptance to be so very vital is that they are each a primary truth by which we understand and are able to teach the identity of Jesus Christ.

Many will disagree with this position I am certain, but I firmly believe that the omission of each of these great teachings in many of today’s churches is a primary weapon which Satan is using to confuse people concerning the divine nature of the Messiah. The doctrines in question are those of the virgin birth and the fulfillment of messianic prophesy by Christ during His earthly ministry.

I want to begin the discussion of these matters with the topic of the virgin birth. Once I feel I have settled that dispute, I will then move into the fulfillment of prophesy in His ministry.

When I was young it was a common thing among even the most lukewarm lip-service Christians to speak openly of the virgin birth of Christ. Today it is absolute taboo in many cases, even among “Christians” who call themselves “Bible believers.”

This perplexes me every time I run into one of these “believers,” because I am forced at each new encounter to “defend” what I believe and lately I tend to do that by asking them if they have ever read what they “believe.” These same people claim to believe that Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh, yet they want to question what the Word of God says concerning Jesus Christ.

If you are one of those “believers” who believes selectively what the Word says concerning Christ’s birth, or if you have ever found yourself at a loss when attempting to defend your belief in the virgin birth, I pray that this chapter will be of great benefit to you. In either case I want you to ask yourself this all important question: “If I do not believe what the Bible says about the birth of Christ, how then can I believe what it says concerning His death, resurrection and perfect atonement for my sins?”

Okay, now that I have you thinking, let me remind you of the three questions I challenged you to ask and answer concerning every doctrine mentioned in this book. Ask first, “Do I believe this?” Then, ask “Does this offend me?” Finally ask yourself, “What am I going to do with this Jesus who is called Christ?”

Typically, when I teach or preach anything concerning the birth of the Messiah, I refer to the Gospel of Luke, but for our present purposes I want you to take a look at the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. In relating the story of Christ’s birth, he tells us, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was this way (for His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph) before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. But Joseph, her husband to be, being just, and not willing to make her a public example, he purposed to put her away secretly. And as he thought upon these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take to you Mary as your wife. For that in her is fathered of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bear a son, and you shall call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins. Now all this happened so that might be fulfilled that which was spoken of the LORD by the prophet, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and will bear a son. And they will call His name Emmanuel," which being interpreted is, God with us. And Joseph, being roused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife, and did not know her until she bore her son, the First-born. And he called His name JESUS. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He who is born king of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”-Matthew 1: 18 - 2:1

Having already addressed the issue of our responsibility to believe all of the Word of God if we believe any of it and, by way of simple logic then, throw out all of the Word if we are to disregard any of it, let us look at the words “before they came together, she was found to be with child.” Many have claimed that this passage is mistranslated and that it actually only says that she was pregnant prior to their marriage.

Most who make this argument, do so in an attempt to discredit Christ by making Him out to be simply the illegitimate son of a carpenter and his girlfriend. However, a careful study of the Greek gives us ????? ??????? ??????????? ??????? ??? ????? ?????????, which is literally translated to mean , “Before they associated stomach in held found” or “before they were together, she was found to be holding something in her stomach.”

So before they associated she was pregnant. Logic, a basic knowledge of the human reproductive system and the fact that Joseph “purposed to put her away secretly” because of the pregnancy dictate that Jesus could not have been the natural son of Joseph conceived out of wedlock.

This generally leads those arguing against the virgin birth to claim that Mary was a promiscuous young woman, became pregnant through a premarital encounter and conceived the concept of the virgin birth in order to prevent Joseph from having her stoned in his wrath. However, Scripture indicates that as “her husband to be, being just, and not willing to make her a public example,” Joseph spared her from the death to which most perspective husbands of the time might have given her over.

The next big argument comes from those who argue against the translation “by the Holy Spirit.” This debate actually has slight grounds, since the words translated as “Holy Spirit” are ??????? ???????, which is literally translated “sacred breath.”

This argument generally is supported with the opening verses of John’s Gospel which refer to Christ as “the Word” and thus “sacred breath” is taken to mean that God the Father spoke or breathed Jesus into existence. However, this line of thinking tends to unravel when placed under scrutiny through comparison with the greater volume of Scripture.

Genesis 1: 2 says “And the earth was without form and empty. And darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.” Most scholars and even those individuals who scoff at the doctrine of the virgin birth, tend to agree that this is a reference to the Holy Spirit. However, the word which is translated here from the Hebrew as “Spirit” is ????, which is literally “breath.” Are we to believe then that the “sacred breath” of Mattew one is not also the Holy Spirit?

Many would say at this point, “That’s nice Philip, but I can be a good Christian and not necessarily believe in the virgin birth. After all, those passages are still pretty vague and nothing says Messiah has to be born of a virgin.” That my friend is exactly what Satan wants us to believe. Matthew goes on to write, “Now all this happened so that might be fulfilled that which was spoken of the LORD by the prophet, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and will bear a son. And they will call His name Emmanuel." Most Christians completely gloss over this verse, saying only that God had promised a Savior and never considering that the words are “all of this.”

This does not merely mean Christ’s birth. It means all of the circumstances of his birth, including his mother’s virginity.

Isaiah 7: 10-14 says, “And Jehovah spoke again to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of Jehovah your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I tempt Jehovah. And He said, Hear now, O house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? So, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel.” So you see, nothing about His birth was an accident.

Everything was prophesied, right down to the house into which he would be born. The prophet named specifically the house of David and we know that Jesus was born into that house, because the angel of the Lord addressed Joseph as “Joseph, son of David.”

The Lord said through His prophet that a virgin would be the mother of the one to be called Immanuel. Therefore, if we say that Jesus was not born of a virgin, we are in fact saying that He is not the Messiah foretold and His sacrifice is therefore made useless to us.

Still, many persist in claiming that this passage is not translated literally. They make the argument that the Hebrew word ???? is actually rendered directly as “lass” or “young lady” rather than “virgin.”

Now before you run off thinking that the doctrine of the virgin birth has a huge hole in it, I want you to consider the culture and linguistics from which this passage comes to us. The ancient Jewish culture was by far the most conservative and, many would claim, the most reserved people of the world and, while it may be no big thing in the eyes of our perverse western culture for a woman to be pregnant out of wedlock, to the ancient Jews it was a matter worthy of death.

Now let us think of modesty. In such a culture, it would have been offensive to speak of carnal relations in the blunt manner in which most people do today.

No self resecting father would have said “My daughter is a virgin” or “My daughter is not a virgin.” He would have said, “My daughter is a young lady” and therefore the use of ???? here instead of a more sexually revealing word should not be surprizing, nor lead us to question its meaning, but should cause us to apreciate more deeply the modesty of the prophet through whom God spoke.

Still there are those who say the term should mean an unmarried woman, not a virgin. Again, Mary was not yet officially married to Joseph when christ was conceived, as the relationship had not been consumated.

Still, the word must be taken to mean more than an unmarried woman, since there were infact women who were not married but had conceived children. For instance, in Genesis 38: 24, when Judah was told that his widowed daughter-in-law was pregant, he said “Bring her forth, and let her be burned.” He said this because her pregnancy was obviously due to a sinful activity and the word used to describe her actions was nothing similar to ????.

The word is ???, which means to “commit adultery” or as it is commonly translated, “to play the harlot,” but Isaiah 7 does not say that the mother of the Messiah would “play the harlot.” It says that she would be a “maiden,” a “lass” and, by implication, “a virgin!

The next big stumbling block for most people in regard to the virgin birth is the seeming self-contradiction of the angel, who commanded Joseph, “and you shall call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins. Now all this happened so that might be fulfilled that which was spoken of the LORD by the prophet, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and will bear a son. And they will call His name Emmanuel," which being interpreted is, God with us.” I cannot tell you the number of people who have thrown this out to me as their “absolute evidence” that the virgin birth never happened, that the Bible contradicts itself, that Jesus is not the Messiah and any number of other heretical claims.

In fact, the seeming contradiction comes not from any error in Scripture, but from the fact that the Bible most people read today was translated from the original languages into the reader’s individual language by flawed men. The problem arises from the fact that the New Testament writers spent a great deal of time telling us about Jews who spoke a form of Hebrew which no longer exists, using a form of the Greek language which has now all but died out and all of that has then been translated, or transliterated, into languages which did not exist in the time when the Scriptures were recorded.

Add to this the natural tendency toward human error in the translation process and what you have is a perfect recipe for confused readers. This is one of the many reasons why I encourage all of my discipleship students to seriously consider taking up a study of the biblical languages and thereby equip themselves with the necessary tools to study the Word of God personally.

Whether you are of the common camp of belief which considers to whole of the New Testament to have been originally penned in Greek or, like me, consider the Greek texts to be for the most part translations of older Hebrew texts, the problem in the above passage is the same. In recording the birth of the Jewish, Hebrew speaking Messiah, the Greek translators used a transliteration system based upon the principle of phonetics to render the Greek name, “Jesus” and it thus became this accepted “name” of Messiah.

Regardless of where you go in the world today, the name Jesus is recognized as that of the Son of the God of Abraham. It may be pronounced differently, but the meaning is always the same.

But history gives us a different account. According to several historical accounts from the first century A. D., the name of the itinerant rabbi who was crucified on a cross for claiming to be the Son of God and whose followers came to be known as “Christians,” was in fact not “Jesus,” but Yeshua. It is a name, which comes from the same origin as Joshua and, depending upon the context it can literally mean “God saves,” “the God who saves” or “the salvation of God.” When I first realized this most basic discovery, it totally revolutionized my Bible study, my witness to the unsaved and my preaching and, at the same time, reinforced the very foundational aspects of my personal faith. Still there are those who argue and say, “Yeshua is not Immanuel.” Before you jump on that bandwagon though, I ask you to consider what happens if you exchange the name “Jesus” for the name “Yeshua” in the passage above.

The angel told Joseph, “and you shall call His name [God saves]: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Or how about “and you shall call His name [the God who saves]: for He shall save His people from their sins.”

Okay one more time now, “and you shall call His name [the salvation of God]: for He shall save His people from their sins.” The angel was telling Joseph that the Child in his future wife’s womb was, without reservation, without hesitation and without apology, the salvation of God come in the flesh to dwell among men.

Thus Yeshua walked this earth to be Immanuel: God Saves, The Salvation Of God, even The God Who Saves, walked this earth to be God With Us. So where, I ask, is the contradiction?

With that said, it would be easy to close this chapter and move on to the topic of the crucifixion. However, I feel the leading of the Spirit to spend some time discussing two other great messianic prophesies.

I pray that seeing how clearly they were fulfilled in the birth and life Christ will reemphasize in your heart the fact that every aspect of Christ’s life and ministry was in fact purposed and ordained from before the foundation of the world. Absolutely none of it was an accident.

For that, we need to look at a different Gospel. The Gospel of Luke 2: 4-6 says “And Joseph also went up from Galilee to be taxed out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David. And he took Mary his betrothed wife, being with child. And while they were there, the days for her deliverance were fulfilled.”

It may seem to no special thing to many that Jesus Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem. After all, there is nothing particularly special about the dusty little hill top town, outside of it having been the place where the Prophet Samuel was sent to find the boy David, whom God had anointed to be king over Israel.

Indeed, some have speculated that the naming of Bethlehem as the place of Christ’s birth is more of a pseudo-poetic allusion to the earlier king and an attempt to set Him up as the prophesied King of Kings. However, it is highly important that we consider the fact that had Christ been born at any other time in Mary and Joseph’s lives, even so much as a month prior or a month later, they would not have been in Bethlehem, but in Nazareth.

If that had been the case, then Jesus could not have made the claim of being the Christ, because it was known from of old that the Messiah would come out of the city of David. Many Christians know that in Matthew 2: 4, Herod asked where he should seek for the new born King of the Jews and that the answer he received in verses 5-6, was “Bethlehem of Judea. For so it is written by the prophet, "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the governors of Judah. For out of you shall come a Governor who shall rule My people Israel," but few can name the prophet who is being quoted and still fewer can point to the verses directly.

In fact, this is only a partial quote of the statement found in Micah 5: 2, which reads “And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you being least among the thousands of Judah, out of you He shall come forth to Me, to become Ruler in Israel, He whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity.” The prophet tells us that Bethlehem was “the least among the thousands of Judah,” which makes it apparent that, other than an imperial order from the occupying nation, a man from Nazareth and his pregnant, virgin wife-to-be would have had absolutely no reason to leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem.

As you ponder this point, I pray that you will let it soak in completely, that not only did God speak through his prophet indicating the locality of His Son’s birth, He put into the heart of Cesar Agustus, Emperor of Rome, the desire to hold a census of the entire known world at exactly the time of His working. Then, consider prayerfully the fact that God put this man on the throne and ordained his order for the census from before the foundation of the world. Now let us move on to Christ’s earthly ministry.

The TNK, or Old Testament, overflows with prophesies concerning the Savior of the world. Because there are so many of these prophesies, it would be impossible for any one, single mortal man to fulfill all of them.

However, that same large number combined with a lack of study of the subject by the masses, has throughout history caused many followers of the Judeo-Christian belief system to stumble off of the path of sound doctrine and into the pits of demigodism. History records countless men who have met a handful of the biblical requirements for Messiah and have thus either named themselves Savior or been named such by their followers.

The Bible tells us in II Timothy 2: 15 “Study earnestly to present yourself approved to God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” Within the first year of my new life as a Christian, I found this verse and through it the Lord spoke to my heart, the result being the first step in a quest to find God’s will according to His Word.

As I was searching out the truth, longing to know absolutely whether or not what I believed was true, the facts I dug up forced me to change my position on many aspects of my faith. However, among the points which were not changed and in fact were reinforced, was the identification of Yeshua ha Meshiac, commonly called Jesus the Christ, as the only begotten Son of God, a perfect sacrifice for my sins.

The study I performed into the messianic prophesies and their fulfillment took more than a year and the results would fill a book in themselves. What I found was that while many men throughout history have fulfilled, or claimed to fulfill these prophesies, some even claiming to have been born of a virgin mother, only Christ fulfilled every messianic prophesy found in Old Testament Scripture.

For our purposes we are going to look at one specific prophesy which Christ fulfilled and discuss the manner in which He did so, which is far more significant than the manner in which most Christians perceive its fulfillment. Isaiah 61: 1-2 reads ““The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is on Me; because Jehovah has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to preach the acceptable year of Jehovah and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit of heaviness; so that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that He might be glorified.”

Nearly every believing Jew of Christ’s time knew this prophetic statement, as it is one of the most looked to promises, which God made to His people. It states that through the coming and the work of the Messiah, His people would be delivered from pain and oppression.

In Luke 4: 14-21 we read “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And a report went out throughout all the neighborhood concerning Him. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And, as His custom was, He went in to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And unrolling the book, He found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me; because of this He has anointed Me to proclaim the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and new sight to the blind, to set at liberty those having been crushed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" And rolling up the book, returning it to the attendant, He sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.”

Most non-believers will point to this passage and say, “How did he fulfill the Scripture? All he did was read it!” and, sadly most believers finding themselves inadequately prepared to defend their beliefs, point to the physical miracles He performed throughout His ministry and in doing so fail completely to answer the challenge.

If we as believers are going to adequately answer the questions of the nay sayers, we are going to have to do three things. First, we are going to have to determine whether our position is truly sound according to Scripture.

Second, we are going to have to understand why it is sound. Third, if it is sound, we are going to have to find a more effective way of conveying this truth to others.

First, we will tackle the question “Is the position that Christ’s Messiahship can be proven using these two passages of Scripture sound?” Personally, I believe the answer is “Yes,” but I also believe most modern Christians are going about it all wrong.

Let us take a closer look at the words of the prophesy as Christ read them. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me;” which many have taken to be a reference to His deity.

This assumption is easy to make, based upon the fact that Luke tells us earlier in His Gospel that Christ’s conception was the result of the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary. However, the fact of Christ’s deity is hotly debated, even among “believers.”

Also, this interpretation leaves open the already all too often used door to the false doctrine of Mariology, in that it lends itself to the notion that the prophesy is fulfilled in the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary. Both of these views fail to view the prophesy in light of the current context of Luke 4, in which the Holy Spirit has descended upon Jesus and the voice of God the Father has been heard declaring His pleasure with His Son, whose identity is made very apparent.

Since we have seen that it is not enough to simply say that He was the Son of God and leave it, we have to rebuild the long since abandoned and desolated bridge of logic. This is a position for which I am often accused of speaking out both sides of my mouth.

So often, once I have established my full belief in the inerrancy of the Bible in its original languages, people assume that I therefore refuse to look outside of Scripture for truth. In fact, I believe it to be a paradox of our faith that one cannot fully adhere to and preach Sola Scriptura as a doctrine, without first being able to back the position with supporting evidence from other sources.

This is a point I will come back to a spend much more time on in Chapter 18 which is titled The Origins And Authority Of The Bible. For now, it is enough to say that while I place my whole trust in Scripture as the source of all truth, I could not do so if I had not discovered long ago that when man was wrong the Bible was right.

In discussing the fulfillment of the prophesy by Christ, Christians need to stop pointing back to the story of the birth and start pointing to the context of the story. It is important to remember that while we look to Scripture for truth, Christ was a man whom the world’s history records as having walked upon the earth and interacted with people.

In fact, Luke himself records that “a report went out throughout all the neighborhood concerning Him. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” In other words, what had just happened at His baptism in the Jordan river was known about throughout all the land, not only by a select few.

Some to whom I have made this point argue that the only proof we have of any of this comes from the Bible, which is why I say we must look to other, corroborating sources of information. It is important to look both at what other sources from that time say about the incidents recorded here and, of equal importance is what they do not say.

While I have never come across a non-biblical account of the baptism of Jesus, there are many affirmations of both John’s ministry and Christ’s ministry. I find therefore that even among His enemies who attempted to defame Him, not one account is given to discredit this story which was obviously known throughout the region.

The next piece says, “because of this He has anointed Me to proclaim the Gospel to the poor.” This may be one of the most misunderstood lines in the whole Bible.

Many have taken this to mean that Christ only went to those who were financially deprived and entire associations of Christians have dedicated themselves to preaching “the Gospel to the poor” through various means of assisting those who are monetarily burdened. Please do not take me to mean that we should not help those who are in need, for having spent most of my ministry thus far working as a street preacher, reaching out to gang bangers, drug addicts and alcoholics, I know the need for such ministries.

What I am saying is that we need to look beyond the letter of Christ’s words, to their Spirit. Consider if you will Matthew 5:3, which says “Blessed are the poor in spirit! For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”

The God of Israel did not come just for the financially depraved. If that were the case, then He would not have blessed Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with such plenty.

If that were the case, then He would not have given to them all the plunder of Egypt. Neither would He have given Solomon wealth on top of riches. No, the “poor” of whom both Isaiah and Christ spoke were not those without coins in their money bags. They were those who were much more needy in a much more important way.

Christ came to those of us who realized that we were lacking. He came to give all the riches of His Father’s Kingdom to those of us who had discovered our own inadequacy in regard to the keeping of His perfect Law and would therefore desire to cling to Him for our salvation.

The next line says, “He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.” So often when I hear this line preached no or read a teaching on it, the preacher of teacher claims it is a reference to Matthew 11: 28:30, which reads, “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

While these individuals undoubtedly mean well, I feel that they stumble into the trap of making a superficial thing out of one of the most important truths regarding our Messiah and the salvation He brings. In Matthew 11 Christ is obviously speaking to believers, saying that our cares can be easily given to Him, but in Luke 4 He is most definitely speaking to those who do not yet know Him for who he is. I believe that when Christ said He fulfilled the words “He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,” he was again making reference to the Law and its convicting power over the sinner. He came to heal those whose hearts are broken over their own recognition of their sins.

I have had some scoff at me, saying that I am reading allegorically into Christ’s words those ideas which I want to preach. However, I have to point out to them the fact that Psalm 51: 15-17 reads, “O Jehovah, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice; or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

This is just one more perfect example of why we must always remember to follow Paul’s instruction and study to show ourselves approved, that means never failing to examine our beliefs with the greatest of scrutiny, under the all powerful microscope of God’s Word. If it fails, then we need to change our doctrine, but unfortunately there are many today who would have us to change the Word.

Next we have what I think is, at least in my opinion, the most compelling line of the whole passage. Christ reads, “to proclaim deliverance to the captives.” I have read many commentaries on this verse, but none seem to really grasp the essence of the Greek, which reads “???????? ???????? ????????????” or , quite literally, “to herald a pardon to the prisoners of war.”

To me that is the crux of Christ’s whole message here. We are bound by sin and condemned by the Law, and we face a certain and terrible torture in accordance with the keeping of the Law. In the unsaved state, I was guilty of fighting for the other side and even so much as the prisoner of war looks with frightened anticipation toward his execution, once I was confronted with my own sinful nature, I knew that there was a certain and unescapable judgement to come.

Then Christ came and heralded to me a pardon for this spiritual prisoner of war, healing my broken heart by the preaching of the Gospel. That was the day He became my personal Savior and I would be so bold as to say that if you have not had a similar experience with Him in your life, you are probably not saved.

Christ went on to read the words, “and new sight to the blind.” This wonderful truth was among the many biblical references to which the Hymn writer turned in writing the beloved song “Amazing Grace.” When we are lost, we are natural creatures with natural eyes, incapable of seeing the truth of God’s Word for what it is. This fact is what undoubtedly caused the Apostle Paul to write in I Corinthians 2: 14, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

However, Paul also told us that when we are saved, we “put on Christ” and thus become new men. This in turn brings us back to Christ’s reading of Isaiah and the next line He pronounced, which was “to set at liberty those having been crushed.”

Again, Christ’s message is to those who, being crushed and broken under the pressure of the Law’s condemnation, have cried out to God for mercy. It is interesting to note that the word which is translated here as “liberty” is ????????, the same word which is translated “pardon” earlier in the verse.

So often Christians, even many who stand in pulpits on a regular basis, will quote me this verse when I have attempted to confront them concerning blatant sin issues in their lives, and say “See, I have liberty in Christ. That means I am free to do as I please.” Oh how they tend to dislike me after I point out to them that they have not received Christ’s “liberty,” merely His “pardon.”

Finally we come to the last words Christ read that day in the synagogue. He said, “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Few would hesitate to say that He was announcing the coming Kingdom of God. I, however, would have to disagree.

The word ?????????? is translated here as “year” and that is its common usage, but it can also indicate a specified time, especially one which is long anticipated or even one which only come once a year. I would argue that both of these latter two usages are more applicable to Christ’s words.

The reason that I do not believe Christ was speaking of the coming Kingdom, is because that had already been done. Isaiah had declared it in the book from which Christ was reading and John had preached it during his ministry, as had countless others throughout Jewish history.

I believe what Christ was indicating here was the timing of His death, which had both been long anticipated and would be necessity occur at an hour which only occurs once every year.

From the very initiation of the curse, when God had declared that the seed of Eve would crush the head of the serpent which had bruised its heel. Since that day, all of creation had been waiting in its fallen, corrupt form for the one who would pay the debt of sacrifice and perfect that which had been made imperfect.

Also, as we will see in Chapter 5, titled Christ And Him Crucified, Jesus came to be the once and for all perfect sacrifice for sin. He lived for the purpose of dying and He perfected the feast of the Passover of the Lord, by doing so at the exact hour when God’s Law dictated that it must be done. If there remain in you any doubts, I would urge you to give the matter to prayer and study.

I would also ask you to recall that the man who spoke that day and claimed to be the fulfillment of messianic prophesy is the same man who said in John 14:1-7, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You go, and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

If you believe in God, believe in Jesus and if you want to know God the Father, get to know Jesus. It is the only way, because no one gets to see His Father except that they come by way of the Son. Now comes the moment of truth. I ask you t consider the three questions everyone must ask.

I have shown from Scripture both why a Christian must believe in the virgin birth if we are to believe that Christ is our Messiah and how it is that we may prove Christ’s messiahship from the claim He made in the synagogue in Luke 4. Now you as an individual must answer the questions “Does this offend you” and “Do you believe this,” and you must ask yourself, “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?”

As always I pray that your answers to these questions have been “No, this does not offend me,” “Yes, I believe this” and “I am going to follow Him with all of my heart.”