If he had, he would have had to suffer many times since the world was created. No, he has appeared once and for all time, now when God’s work is being completed. He has come to do away with sin by offering himself.
Everyone who lives on the earth will worship the beast if their name hasn’t been written in the book of life that belongs to the Lamb, who was willing to be a sacrifice from the time the world began.
God has enabled me to explain to everyone how this mystery has become a reality. In times past it was kept hidden in the mind of God, who created all things.
But then the chosen time came, and God sent his Son. He was born to a woman, and he was born under the authority of the law. This was so he could set everyone free who was under the authority of the law.
This life has appeared, and we’ve seen him and are witnesses about him. So we’re announcing to you this same eternal life, which was with the Father and has now appeared to us.
God provided him as a sacrifice to purify us through the shedding of his blood, and we receive the benefits of his sacrifice by faith. God did all this to show that what he does is right. He was merciful and overlooked sins from before. But now, in our own time,
The person who does what is sinful belongs to the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the devil’s work.
“Then the King will speak to those on his right and say, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take what is yours. Receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you since the world was created.
Long ago God planned that Jesus would be handed over to you. With the help of those who didn’t know God’s law, and under the plan God spoke long ago, you put him to death by nailing him to a cross.
God planned that those he already knew ahead of time would become like his Son. In that way, Christ would become the first and most honored among many brothers and sisters.
Without question, true godliness comes from this great mystery: Jesus came as a human being, and he was declared right with God by the Holy Spirit. He was seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory.
Because those children have bodies made out of flesh and blood, Jesus became human like them in order to die for them. By doing that, he could stop the one who rules over the kingdom of death, that is, the devil,
God the Father knew you ahead of time, and he chose to make you pure and holy through the Spirit’s work. Then you would obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood to make you holy. May more and more grace and peace be given to you.