On This Day: The Gift of What Was Written and Fulfilled

   “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. (Acts 13:26-31)

   In the "God works all things together for good" category, my traumatic childhood trained me to listen carefully to why people believe what they believe. I can see why this is still helping me grow in my faith in Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

   It’s crazy to think that six decades have passed since I was first aware of God. However, during that whole time, I have never heard anyone present arguments against God's word that hold a candle to the intricate and complex weaving together of divine revelation. What was revealed over the centuries (as “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”) had to be carried out by God’s enemies to fulfill what was written about Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection. Only God could write the script and orchestrate its fulfillment!

   Not only that, but today's gift just happened to come after God helped me accept that I must let go of people and things he is not working in (at least in relation to me), and prepare to fully join him in anything he gives our church to do, while trusting him to provide everything we need to do his will.

   What do we do with such a gift as this? When God shows in the Scriptures how only he could have coordinated 40 different men, over a period of fifteen centuries, to write their puzzle pieces of revelation into God’s word, it calls us to RSVP to his invitation.

   “What invitation?” you ask.

   The invitation to know the Creator through his word.

   The invitation to be raised from death to life in the salvation provided by Jesus Christ.

   The invitation to feel the “faith” that “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). That “assurance” is not speaking of the feeling of assurance, or the feeling of confidence about something.

   Rather, the word in the Greek means, “title (deed) n. — a legal document to effect a transfer of property and to show the legal right to possess it” (Bible Sense Lexicon). In other words, faith is our “document” of assurance, the certificate of authenticity, so to speak. If we have faith, that faith is our deed to eternal life and all it entails.

   After examining the claims of professional skeptics like Bart Ehrman, the priests of the evolutionary religion like Darwin, Dawkins and DeGrasse Tyson, and false teachers like Brad Jersak, I now see in all of them the first words of the serpent in the Scriptures, “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1). They never give evidence against the evidence of Scripture. They only parrot the devil’s own thoughts, to make people question the authority of what God said, so they become pawns in the game of the evil one instead of children of God on assignment from their Father.

   Even though my faith has been growing since childhood, and I believe I am putting into practice Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress” (I Timothy 4:15), what I am getting out of my campout in Acts 13 makes me feel like I am “building yourselves up in your most holy faith” as Jude encouraged (Jude 1:20).

   If you do not yet know that your faith in Jesus Christ stands up to every claim of skeptics and enemies of the cross, read God’s word and take it as the Holy Spirit teaches it to you. Faith DOES come from hearing, and our hearing DOES come from the “word of Christ”, so listen for Jesus’ voice in his word, the Bible, and follow him where he leads, no matter how many wolves are howling in the distance, or roaring lions are prowling around seeking someone to devour. 

   As our big brother John wrote,

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
(I John 5:4)

  

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)