From the earliest pages of the Old Testament, a promise is made for the future about the one who will come to crush the head of evil and to bring about redemption for God's people.

God's promises are trustworthy, and they are true.

Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and I'm glad you're joining us for this Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

As we approach Christmas this week, you're hearing messages from Rsi Sprawl's series, Messiah is born.

Even though many people can recount aspects of the Christmas story, angels, a star, Bethlehem,

not many really understand the true significance of the coming of the Messiah.

And that's a message we need to proclaim clearly and boldly.

Here's Dr. Sprawl to trace the Old Testament promise of the one who would crush the serpent's

head all the way to the first advent of Christ.

It's the Christmas season.

And in the church we speak of the Christmas season. And in the church, we speak of the Christmas season as the period

of the church year that we call Advent. Now, the reason it's called the Advent season is because

Advent, coming from the Latin language, means a coming to. And so the coming of Christ

into the world, the very first time at Bethlehem in the incarnation, is called the Advent of Jesus.

Of course, the church also looks ahead to the future, to the return

of Jesus, which is often called his second Advent. But during the Christmas season, what we're

most concerned about, of course, is the initial Advent, his first coming into this world.

Now, in this session, I'd like to direct your attention to a passage in the New Testament

that is rarely, if ever, considered part of the Christmas message. And that is the first

chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. I want us to look for a moment at Paul's opening, greetings,

and salutations, which seems even further removed from anything

to do with Christmas. But as we look at this, I think it will appear quickly and clearly

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