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who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."
That brings us to another prophecy. His star was foretold in Num. 24:17, it says, "I see but not now, I behold but not near; a star shall come from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel, and shall crush through the forehead of Moab and tear down all the sons of Seth."
King David (of the Old Testament) is among the Prophets that preceded Jesus Christ by hundreds of years but wrote of His suffering and atoning death on the cross. He suffered a cruel death at the hands of the Romans, goaded on by the Jews. Psalms 22:1,8,16-18. * The Old Testament prophet Isaiah prophesied about whom He would be crucified with. Is. 53:12 says, "Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressor."
The New Testament writers recorded much of what Jesus suffered. The prophecies can be seen fulfilled in the gospels as in Matt. 27:41-50 and John 19:23-24. * Mark recalls the account of who He was Crucified with, Mark 15:27 "And they crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left."
He fulfilled His own prophecies about being in the grave until the third day. * Matt.12:39-40 * fulfilled in * Matt. .28:1-8 * When everyone was sure that He was dead and gone He rose from the grave with an earthquake conquering death and the grave. Jesus had been obedient all the way through. Now He has been rewarded. He sits with God the Father in heaven waiting for us to be obedient to the end, just like He was.
Jesus was the most obedient person that ever lived on this earth. He obeyed His Father in heaven all the way to the cross. He bore our sins there as He died separated from the Father. But He was under authority from the Father to lay down His life. The sacrifice was made. The blood was shed. Sin had been conquered.
Jesus died, condemned by man and separated from the Father on that cruel cross but He wasn't a loser in God's eyes. He rose again in bodily form, defeating Satan and purchasing our salvation with His blood. God recognized the sacrifice of His perfect Son as the final perfect sacrifice. His was the only sacrifice that could take away our sin. All the other sacrifices of animals offered on the altar were not perfect enough to take sin away. They just rolled the sin forward to the perfect blood of Christ Jesus. No more sacrifices are needed. We can't perfect salvation any more than Jesus did with His blood. We can't do anything more to try to bring about our own salvation than to obey Jesus.
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