Part 6: The Promise Fulfilled

Doc: Hello everyone! I’m so glad we could gather together today. This Bible study is a ten-part series, so believe it or not, at part 6, we’re into the second half! Iino, what are your thoughts on the Bible so far?

Iino: It’s so interesting. So much so that honestly, coming to this Bible study has become the highlight of my week. I really look forward to it!

Doc: I’m really happy to hear that! And Gō, aren’t you glad you shared the booklet with her? On that note, let’s start today’s study with a question.

If God came to earth, what would you expect that to look like?

Iino: I feel like God would appear out of the clouds. 

Yoshiya: You know when sometimes, you see the light beaming through the clouds, and it looks kind of heavenly? To me, it feels like God’s voice would come from there. 

Gō: I get that. I feel like God would appear with thunder and lightning.

Doc: Good! I can understand why you would think like this.

Doc: Last time we learned about the “grace” that God shows to sinners. We saw from the book of Genesis how God did not treat Adam and Eve as their sin deserved. We noticed several ways in which God in fact blessed them undeservedly. Can you remember what those were?

Gō: The animal skins for clothing. 

Iino: Eve’s name.

Yoshiya: The promise given in Genesis 3:15. 

Doc: I’m impressed! You all remember well. Yes, in Genesis 3:15, God gave a gracious promise that one of Adam and Eve’s offspring would finally crush the head of the serpent.

Doc: Originally, Adam was to “bruise the serpent’s head”, but he messed up, didn’t he?

Gō: Yeah, but even right after Adam and Eve’s great failure, the good news was already being told, right?

Doc: Right. Like we talked about last time, the promise given in Genesis 3:15 was the first time in the Bible that the gospel was announced. It’s called the “protoevangelium” or original gospel. In the ancient world, this word, “gospel” actually refers to the announcement of a great victory. For example, if the Roman army won a victory somewhere, that victory would be reported to the capital at Rome. This was the “gospel”. The gospel of the Bible is also a telling of victory. But victory how, and against what? Well, that is at the heart of a very, long story.

Doc: Today we will see how God’s long and detailed plan comes to its perfect end. 

So, let’s look thousands of years ahead from the story of Genesis, and read from the New Testament. All of the New Testament was written in the 1st Century A.D., 2,000 years before the present day. I hope you all will read the Bible in its entirety one day, especially all of the Old Testament, much of which we skipped over in this study. Only then will you be able to grasp the harmony and consistency of the Bible’s narrative from beginning to end. Anyway, I think I’ve built up today’s lesson enough! Let’s go ahead and read from the New Testament, from Galatians chapter 4. Yoshiya, would you?

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

New Testament, Galatians 4:4-5

We read here that God did something in “the fullness of time”. What do you understand by that expression?

Iino: That there was something decided long ago, and when the timing was right and all that needed to happen had come about, the long-awaited plan was fulfilled. 

Gō: The “something decided long ago”: wouldn’t that be the promise in Genesis 3:15? 

What hints do you see here that the gospel promise in Genesis has been fulfilled?

Yoshiya: Well, in this scripture passage it says, “born of woman”. Is that a reference to the woman’s “offspring” in Genesis?

Doc: Yes, I think so. And what about where it says, “born under the law”?

Iino: Hm… the law…

Gō: God’s commandments. Rules. Regulations. 

Yoshiya: Even in the garden of Eden there was a law, wasn’t there? They were forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Gō: Doesn’t it mean that the Son was in the same position as Adam: that he came as a human being?

Doc: That’s exactly right! In this passage of Galatians, it also says that God sent forth his Son. The person who was sent is clearly a special person. Do you remember we learned before that the God of the Bible is a Trinity: one God eternally existing as three Persons in loving fellowship? Can you remember the three Persons? 

Iino: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Doc: Wonderful!

Doc: The Person who is sent into the world by God is none other than God himself. God the Father sent God the Son outside (soto) the heavenly fellowship but also into the world to fulfil his promise. All right, Gō, would you read our next Bible passage? 

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

New Testament, 1 John 3:8

This verse indicates that the Son of God came for a particular purpose. Again, can you see the links with the promise God made in Genesis?

Gō: The son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. So it talks about the “devil”… The serpent in Genesis wasn’t the kind of snake we might recognize like a python or a viper. I reckon the serpent was possessed or controlled by the devil himself. So I think this passage definitely connects back to the Genesis story and the promise that the woman’s offspring would crush the serpent’s head.

Think back to what we learned from the book of Genesis. What do you understand by “the works of the devil”?

Iino: The devil tempted Eve. So the work of the devil is to cause people to sin. 

Doc: Good answer. The devil is also a creature made by God. But when God saw everything that he had made, do you remember what he said?

Yoshiya: He said that it was very good. 

Doc: You’re exactly right. The passage we just read said, “the devil has been sinning from the beginning”, but at the time of creation, even the devil was good. We couldn’t even have called him the “devil” at that time, because he wasn’t evil! 

Yoshiya: Maybe he could have been called the “d-good”?!

Doc: That’s great! At the time of creation the “d-good” was truly good, but then he disobeyed God. The devil was a spiritual being; you can think of him as a fallen angel.

Doc: When this passage says that “the devil has been sinning since the beginning”, it’s talking about this time when he fell into sin and went from being the “d-good” to the “d-evil”. He rebelled against God and caused people to rebel against God with him, bringing about sin and death. The devil is such a horrible creature because he causes humans to turn away from God. 

Yoshiya: I’m sure glad the Son of God came to defeat the works of the devil. 

Doc: I am as well. The Bible tells us that this “Son of God” came into our world at a particular time and place in history. This is not a myth or a purely “religious” and symbolic story.

Doc: We are talking about flesh and blood! The “Son of God” is the person we know as “Jesus of Nazareth”, who was born as the son of a Jewish carpenter, about 2,000 years ago.

Yoshiya: That reminds me, I actually read a book last year called The Case for Christ.¹

Doc: Yes: that’s a good book for all of us to read. But the best way to learn about this “Jesus of Nazareth” is in the New Testament of the Bible, in one of the books known as the Gospels. For example, one of Jesus’ close friends and disciples, John, wrote his own eyewitness account of the years he spent with Jesus called “The Gospel according to John”. What’s really interesting is that in John’s account, Jesus’ story began long before he was ever born. John refers to the Son of God as “the Word”.

Doc: Let’s see how his Gospel starts. Iino, would you please read John 1:1-5 and verse 14 for us?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

New Testament, John 1:1-5, 14

What do you think John means by “in the beginning”? Why do you think this is written in kanji in the Japanese Bible, unlike in the book of Genesis, where it is written in hiragana?

Gō: That’s a good question. In Genesis 1:1 it says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”, doesn’t it?

Gō: I think that’s about the beginning of this world. But in John’s Gospel, the “beginning” is before the world began: eternal existence.

Doc: You’re exactly right. That’s why “the Word” in this passage is not a creature. John’s Gospel says “the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. This has to be a description of the God who is Trinity.

What did the Word (the Son of God) leave behind when he became flesh?

Iino: It’s God’s inner uchi fellowship that we keep talking about, right?

Gō: I was thinking the same. You could say he left behind the glory of heaven that he enjoyed as God.

What does this passage of the Bible tell us about what the Word (the Son of God) did?

Iino: That he created everything.

Gō: That he won victory against the darkness. 

Yoshiya: That he dwelt among us. 

Doc: Yes! “The Word” is the Creator God who defeated darkness, that is to say, won a victory against all evil. In this passage, light represents good and darkness represents evil. It also says that he “dwelt among us”. “Us” here is talking about John and the other disciples. 

Doc: In verse 14, as the booklet says in lesson 6, “dwelling among us” literally means that the Word “pitched his tent” among us. This has two meanings. First, the Word made his temporary home in our world. As it was only temporary, this definitely wasn’t a luxurious palace, but a dwelling that came with all kinds of restrictions. Second, in the Bible, God’s “tent” or “tabernacle” is a place where God meets with his human creatures. By describing Jesus as “tabernacling” among us, John is emphasizing that the Creator has entered into his creation.

Next time, we’ll see what happened to God in our world.

What do you make of the Bible’s claim that God was born into our world?

Iino: That’s kind of unbelievable. But as we’ve read the Bible more, I’ve come to think it’s not something I can just dismiss out of hand.

Yoshiya: The way the Bible presents God’s promises and how they’re fulfilled is something we can actually look into and verify for ourselves. If it were just one person or even one group of people making these claims, I don’t think I could believe them. But when I saw that the books of the Bible, written by different people over a period of 1,500 years, all tell a consistent and coherent message, that’s when I believed.

How do you think Jesus might win the victory over the devil promised long ago?

Iino: No matter what happens to him, Jesus keeps on going and is never knocked off course. So the devil has no choice but to give up. Maybe that kind of victory?

Gō: Through his death and his bearing the sin of all mankind, he cancels out the devil’s work of causing us to sin.

Doc: Great answers! You all are already making me look forward to next week. See you then!

Footnotes

[1] The Japanese title of The Case for Christ is Is Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God?

The ESV Bible. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org/.