SCRIPTURE’S GRAND THEME.

He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself– Luke 24:27

Henry Ward Beecher, the silver-tongued orator of the 19th century, likened Scripture to a Beethoven symphony. From the beginning to end, said Beecher, runs the single theme of “man’s ruin by sin, and his redemption by grace; in a word, Jesus Christ, the Saviour.”

THIS REDEMPTION was promised in Eden and PORTRAYED IN the ceremonies of the Mosaic law. All the key events of the Old Testament paved the way for the coming of Christ. He was the Redeemer looked for by Job. Christ is foretold in the “sublime strains of the lofty Isaiah; in the writings of the tender Jeremiah; in the mysteries of the contemplative Ezekiel; in the visions of the beloved Daniel.” With each passing century, the great theme grew clearer and clearer.

Beecher concluded, “Then the full harmony broke out in the [declaration] of the angels, ‘Glory to the God in the highest. And on earth peace, good will toward men.’ And evangelists and apostles taking up the theme, the strain closes in the key in which it began; the devil, who troubled the first paradise, forever excluded from the second; man restored to the favour of God; and Jesus Christ the keynote of the whole.’

Praise God for Scripture’s grand theme – Jesus Christ. In Him we have salvation from sin. R.W.D

From Our Daily Bread
11 April 1990