day thirty: all history is redemptive

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3)


"What is the superlative way in which God might be displayed for who he is? Find the answer to that question, and you will discover the goal toward which all of history is striving together. Fortunately, the scriptures do not leave us ignorant of this unifying theme; it is nothing other than God’s mightiest act of all: the redemption of his people. All of history is redemptive history; because redemption is the greatest display of God’s essential nature that could have been formulated in the mind of God. Hence, matters related to the accomplishment of redemption are unexceptionally the great events of history and at the same time the great revelations of God. Consider the Old Testament redemptive accomplishment par excellence: the exodus from Egypt. This one mighty act displayed the power and glory of God in a superlative degree. All other gods were found out to be impotent imposters; all of creation was shown to be in the almighty hand of God, ready to do his bidding, no matter how impossible the task; God’s mercy, elective love, covenant faithfulness, and just wrath against sin, poured out on a spotless substitutionary sacrifice, were seen more clearly than ever before. And this great display of who God is was also the most pivotal event in the history of God’s people.

Great events in history, in proportion as they are great, are also great displays of God’s nature.What then is the pinnacle of all history, and the ultimate display of who God is? The central moment of all history, the greatest display of God’s eternal glory, indeed the very reason that God made the world and worked out all of history to bring things just to that point – to the fullness of time, to the minutely and flawlessly prepared stage for the mightiest of all acts – that central moment was the eternal Son of God’s taking on human flesh, accomplishing a perfect obedience, and offering himself up as a substitutionary sacrifice to accomplish eternal redemption for those whom the Father had given him. And this pivotal moment of all history was also the unparalleled display of God’s nature. God, who had been revealing himself in various ways in past ages, revealed himself fully and perfectly when he sent his Son into the world (Hebrews 1:1-3; John 1:18). The greatest display of God’s nature consists in Christ’s accomplishing redemption. And the pinnacle of Christ’s redemptive work, in fact the moment for which he came into the world (John 12:27), occurred nearly two thousand years ago on Good Friday.

The cross is both the greatest event in all of history and the mightiest display of God’s nature. Let us pause on this Good Friday to reflect on some ways in which we can apprehend the nature of God by beholding the wonder of the cross."

- Nathan Pitchford