-
Sale
The Evidence Study Bible (Hardback)
Original price was: $39.99.$26.99Current price is: $26.99.
When you examine the life of Christ, one evidence that this is no mere man is the fact that His life and work were witnessed and supported by angels. Jesus lived His life, I am confident, as an incomprehensible spectacle to angels.
The Bible tells us that angels are ministering spirits. Just like humans, they are creations of God, but are of a higher order than you and I. They were created for God’s service. The Greek word literally means “messengers.” They are simply creatures that God has created to serve Him and to serve believers. And they are seen throughout the life of Jesus Christ.
They praised God at Jesus’ birth. Angels filled the heavens in a moment, praised God, and sang the first Christmas song, celebrating that the Word had become flesh (see Luke 2:13,14).
They served Jesus after His temptation by Satan. They met Him in the desert and ministered to Him after His days of fasting and temptation by Satan (see Matt. 4:11).
“When Jesus was on earth, after becoming manifested in the flesh, after living a righteous life, after being justified by the Spirit, He was seen by angels.”
An angel strengthened Jesus as He prayed in Gethsemane. As Jesus agonized, to the point where His sweat became as drops of blood due to the severe physical and spiritual stress He was under, when His prayers were concluded, an angel came to Him and strengthened Him (see Luke 22:43).
Thousands of angels were available to rescue Him from His crucifixion. A mob with weapons and sticks has come to arrest Jesus. The boldest and most impetuous of His disciples strides forward and lops off a man’s ear. Jesus stopped this well-intentioned but practically meaningless defense, healed the man, and said this:
“Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?” (Matt. 26:52–54)
A Roman legion was 6,000 men. Jesus is saying to Peter, “Put your sword away. It’s not necessary. Don’t you know that I have more than 72,000 angels who would be here at a moment’s notice to rescue Me?” And here’s the part that moved my heart, because it speaks so deeply of the courage, strength, and absolute self-sacrifice that marks Jesus Christ as not only a man among men but the God-man. At the very moment that vile, wicked men laid hands on Him, more than 72,000 angels stood ready to come at a moment in His defense. In the Old Testament, you will find that on one occasion, the Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 men of a foreign army in one night. And that was one angel! It’s as if Jesus says, “This moment is so great that twelve legions and more— 72,000 angels—stand ready to come rescue Me, but put that sword away, Peter, because this is exactly what the Scriptures said must happen.” Though the Bible simply does not tell us much about angels, I can imagine these created beings, perfect in holiness, amazing in power, are without a doubt the most feared fighting force that has ever intersected human history. They were ready… waiting… just a word from the Father to put an end to it… to stop our salvation, to set our redemption aside. It would take just one word from the Father, but both Father and Son refused. And the Son went on to endure the crucifixion that those men had come to deliver Him to, and wicked hands laid Him on a cross and made a public spectacle of Him, beating Him and cursing Him, and tearing out His beard, and blaspheming Him, and He did it all—for you…and for me. That’s love.
And that makes such an astonishing difference in your day-to-day life. If you know God loves you like that, it pushes all your questions about Him and against Him out of the way, because you know for a fact that He refused rescue so that you could be saved and forgiven. That an amazing rescuing force stayed its hand because the Father and the Son did not will it to come. And the angels could have come at any moment, and you and I would have remained lost… forever.
All of that in this single phrase. When Jesus was on earth, after becoming manifested in the flesh, after living a righteous life, after being justified by the Spirit, He was seen by angels.
Order The Evidence Study Bible today.
