Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

divine provision, guaranteeing life more abundantly to all who choose it. Because all the beauty, glory, power, and love in God’s holy and righteous character are manifest in this de sign, the better it is understood, the more deeply the believer will love its divine Author. Originally, this plan was devised to weld all sinless intelligences into a growing intimate fellow ship, infused with light and life from the heavenly Source. So God needed to choose Someone to fill this role of Connect or. Who would qualify for such a unique position? Only a Being who was both God and creature at the same time could link the two. We know that Christ was both divine and human when he was born in Bethlehem (see Micah 5:2; Luke 1:35), but what happened before He was begotten as a human being? How could He fulfill the role of Connector then? Christ did not become God’s only begotten Son when he was born in Bethlehem. He already held that position before He ap peared on earth. Christ testified to this when He told Nicodemus that God gave His only begotten Son to save humanity from per ishing. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begot ten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (NKJV). God did not give Christ to fallen beings to become begotten but “He gave His [already] only begotten Son.” If that is what God gave, then that is what the Saviour was when He was giv en—God’s only begotten Son. God has never revealed to us just how far back in the distant recesses of eternity Christ became His only begotten Son. There fore, we can be assured that we do not need to know the date. We can rest in His will and make no futile attempts at speculation, but concentrate rather on learning those things which, in His in finite wisdom, He has seen fit to reveal to us. In the Old Testament Micah testifies to the fact that Christ had a “going forth” before His birth in Bethlehem: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2 (NKJV). In the New Testament Jesus Himself witnesses to His beginning: “I proceeded forth and came from God.” John 8:42 (KJV).