The Eudoxy-Mystery Of The Messiah

The eudoxy is the testimony of God about Jesus Christ. You confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You believe He died and rose again to save you from your sins. This is the time when God Himself confessed Jesus.

John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. Jesus is the glorious Messiah and Christ. But John the Baptist had a glorious ministry, one all too often forgotten today.

John baptized people to cleanse them of their sins. He dipped them in water, usually in the Jordan river. He was not simply washing away their sins in water like the washing away of dirt. He was bringing the people to repentance.

Repentance is not commonly taught today. It is forgotten along with John the Baptist. Many teachers do not remember to repent and so they do not remember John the Baptist and his message either.

When the people came to John to be baptized they repented. Deeply. He prepared their hearts to receive Jesus. And to receive Jesus you must repent. There is no other way. If you do not repent you do not receive Him.

And yet one day Jesus came to John. He had already worked some miracles of healing. John knew just who He was. He was not willing to baptize Him. Jesus needed to be baptizing John.

It was only reasonable. Baptizing went with repentance. Jesus should not have needed to repent. John should have been the one in humble subjection and true contrite repentance of his sins before Jesus.

But Jesus would not have it. He said it must be done to "fulfill all righteousness." Jesus was to fulfill the long line of Jewish Prophets by humbling Himself into submission to John the final Prophet.

This was crazy! Since John baptized people to repentance it meant Jesus would be subject to repentance. He who was without sin would need to say He was sorry for what He had done wrong!

John could not do it. He hindered Jesus. He would not say that the Messiah needed to be baptized. But Jesus insisted. This would fulfill all prophecy after all. And John was a great Prophet.

So John did it. He baptized Jesus. And wouldn't you know it another miracle happened. Just after he immersed Him in the water and He rose up the Heavens opened up.

A Voice thundered from Heaven. It was not a stormy day. Not even cloudy. This was surely a sign from God Himself. "This is my beloved Son," the Voice said, "in whom I take pleasure."

John was moved. It had been right to baptize Him. God had blessed it as a great victory. He had spoken in testimony of the greatness of His Son. He had told everyone present who He was.

But everything was not right. First of all, John baptized unto repentance. For Jesus to be baptized meant Jesus had to repent of something. Something wrong. And if that was not enough, a new needy believe
was confessing Jesus.

That needy believe
was God the Father! Jesus had done something wrong and here was God the Father confessing Him! The world had been turned upside down that day. It could not be easily explained.

And yet that day when the Voice of God thundered His assent a Dove came down out of Heaven and rested upo
Jesus. That Dove was the Holy Spirit who came to live withi
Jesus from that day forward.

Even though the world changed in some incomprehensible ways that day, it remains that it will never be the same. And it changed for the better. Jesus received His eudoxy and you can receive yours too when you become sealed.