John 1:11
John 1:11
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Jesus came to save all people throughout the world. In His human life, however, He chose to minister specifically to the people of Israel. Among all cultures on earth, God's chosen people should have been able to recognize the Messiah. Despite this, He was despised and rejected by the very people who were supposed to love Him. He was God incarnate, who, according to Israel's Old Testament scriptures, had come to dwell among His people. Their rejection of Jesus resulted in their rejection of the Father who sent Him. However, their rejection of Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, who wrote: 'Who has believed our message?' Although they rejected Jesus, they opened the floodgates of salvation for those who, on the opposite, received Him and put their trust in the wonderful name of Jesus. To those who believed in Him, He gave them the power to become sons of God. While God may need to set aside His people, Israel, for a period of time, He has not abandoned His earthly inheritance. As Paul reminds us: for if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? (Romans 11:15) In other words, God uses both the good and the evil of this world to accomplish His sovereign will.
Romans 8:29
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Psalms 1:1
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
1 Peter 1:8
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
Hebrews 3:14
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.