The Beginning

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Mark 1:1

Every story has a beginning.

The greatest story ever told has it's beginnings, its roots and origins, in eternity past, for it is the story of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God eternally existent in three persons--Father, Son and Holy Ghost. For eon upon eon and so on with neither beginning nor end forever, He Was, He Is, and He Is To Come. But on a night 2012 years ago, the Holy Ghost moved upon and overshadowed a Jewish virgin, through His sovereign power conceiving in her womb the Father's Only Begotten Son. And that's where this story begins.

The story itself is good news to the world. At a time when things are so bad, or at the very least uncertain, in our world, there is still good news, and only one source for that good news. It is found in this which we call Gospel. When disorder, depression, disease, divorce, and death seem to be the overriding factors in our society, there is good news. When war and terrorism and violence among men is all we hear, there is good news. When lust and greed and envy and sloth and gluttony and wrath and pride are the celebrated virtues of the day, encouraged and fulfilled in whatever way seems best to us, there is good news. When sin abounds and the love of many has grown cold, there is good news.

And the good news is this--that Jesus came to save us!

At the heart of this story is the principal character, the one about whom the story is and around whom the story revolves. He is Jesus, whose name means God is Salvation. From His inception within the eternal Godhead to His conception in the womb of a virgin, from His birth in humble surroundings to His death with the base and His burial with the rich, and from His victory over death and hell by His resurrection from the dead to His promised return to rule and to reign, He is salvation for all who will believe and receive this good news!

He is also the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. He is the one chosen to redeem us from our sins, slain before the foundation of the world was ever laid, always destined from time immemorial to be the Savior of All. He is the Anointed Prophet, for He came proclaiming the Word of God. He is the Anointed Priest, for He ever lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of the throne of God. He is the Anointed King of Kings, and He shall reign forever and ever! He was conceived under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and later commissioned by the coming of the Holy Ghost upon Him, and He read the words that said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me and has anointed Me!"

Not only is He Jesus Christ, the Anointed Savior, but He is also the Son of God. He was one with God from the beginning of eternity, but at the beginning of His earthly mission, He willingly took off the glory of the Godhead and came in the form of a humble servant, weak in the flesh, but still the Son. Though we are all called sons of God, He was the only begotten, the only one ever conceived simply by the power of the Word of God and the Will of God. He came from the Father, yet He was always one with the Father. He came to do the will of the Father, and fulfilled it completely before He returned to the presence of the Father. And one day He will return and gather us to Himself that He may present us to the Father as sons also, sons not by birth but by choice, His choosing and ours.

This is the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God.