Aux Nations Aussi

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Jésus de Nazareth accomplit la promesse de bénir toutes les nations en Abraham. Le Christ est l’Héritier et la “Semence” du Patriarche. 

L’alliance avec Abraham et sa “Semence” est à la base de la doctrine biblique de la rédemption. Cela incluait la promesse que “toutes les nations de la Terre seraient bénies en lui” et que le patriarche aurait d’innombrables descendants. Comment et quand les nations sont-elles bénies? Qui est la “semence” d’Abaham destinée à hériter des promesses?

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To the Nations Also

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Jesus of Nazareth fulfills the promise to bless all nations in Abraham. Christ is the Patriarch’s Heir and “Seed”.

Basic to the biblical doctrine of redemption is the covenant with Abraham and his “Seed.” It included the promise that “all the nations of the Earth would be blessed in him,” and the Patriarch would have innumerable descendants. How and when are the nations blessed? Who is Abaham’s “Seed” destined to inherit the promises?

Jesus Christ is the promised “Seed” along with his New Covenant community, namely, the “Assembly,” the “Body of Christ.” The original covenant was part of God’s larger redemptive plan, the beginning rather than the end of the process. The initial focus on Abraham’s immediate biological descendants was only the first stage in the redemption of humanity.

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Full of the Spirit

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After his baptism, the Spirit “drove Jesus into the wilderness… for forty days and nights.” Like Moses, the Messiah of Israel was alone in the Judean desert confronted by the Devil. His only guide was the Word of God. Like Israel, he was “tested.” Unlike that nation, he overcame every temptation and emerged victorious, for he was “full of the Holy Spirit.”

Moses did not eat during his time on Sinai. Jesus also “fasted” the entire time he was in the Wilderness – “Then was Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the Devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights” – (Matthew 4:1-2).

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He Baptizes in Spirit

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John the Baptist prepared the way for the Messiah, the herald of the Good News of the Kingdom of God. 

All four gospel accounts apply the passage from the Book of Isaiah to John the Baptist, the messenger who called men to repent in preparation for the Messiah’s arrival. The passage identifies John as the forerunner expected before the “Day of Yahweh” to summon the faithful – “The voice of one crying, in the wilderness, prepare the way of the LORD” – (Isaiah 40:3-5).

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The Anointed One

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The Spirit of God and the voice from heaven confirmed who Jesus was – Son, Messiah, and Servant of the LORD.

Jesus first appears in the Gospel of Mark when John baptizes him in the River Jordan. The opening verses identify him with his hometown of Nazareth, a village of no consequence. He was the “Servant of the LORD” anointed by the Spirit who did not conform to popular messianic expectations.

John was baptizing suppliants in the Jordan River. Rather than recount the details of Christ’s baptism, the story in Mark stresses the audible and visual phenomena that accompanied it: The “rending” of the heavens, the voice from Heaven, and the descent of the Spirit “like a dove”:

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