Pastor Allen Victor delivered a message titled “The Messiah Before the Manger” from 1 Peter 1:17–20. He began with the familiar question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” After sharing humorous answers from philosophers, evolutionists, and children, he shifted to a deeper theological question: which came first—sin or the Savior? Most people said sin, pointing to Adam in the Garden. But Pastor Allen explained that Scripture declared the Savior came first in the heart and plan of God.

Reading 1 Peter 1:17–20, he emphasized that Christ was “foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you.” He explained that foreordained meant planned in advance. Just as parents prepared a nursery before a baby was born, God prepared redemption before time began. Before Adam sinned, God knew the fall would happen and planned to send His Son on a rescue mission. He pointed to Genesis 3:15, where God promised the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, and Isaiah 7:14, fulfilled in Matthew 1:23, declaring the virgin-born Immanuel— “God with us.” Pastor Allen reminded the church that the baby in the manger grew to shed His precious blood, crush the enemy, overcome sin, and conquer hell and death.

He then taught that long before the manger, God planned to save us by grace through faith. Quoting 2 Timothy 1:9 and Ephesians 2:8–9, he stressed that salvation was never earned by works but was always a gift of grace. He illustrated this with firefighters rushing into the World Trade Center on 9/11, who did not sort the worthy from the unworthy but simply rescued. In the same way, Jesus came to pull sinners from the fire. He showed that salvation had always been by grace through faith—Noah found grace (Genesis 6:8), Abraham believed God (Genesis 15:6), and the thief on the cross received the promise of Paradise (Luke 23:43).

Pastor Allen next explained that before the manger, God planned to adopt us as sons. Reading Ephesians 1:4–5, he described how believers were chosen and predestined to adoption. When Adam sinned, humanity became spiritually orphaned, inheriting a sin nature and death (Romans 5:12, 19). But through Christ, God granted believers a new identity (John 1:12–13), a new nature (2 Peter 1:4), unshakable security (Romans 8:39), and an eternal inheritance (Ephesians 1:3). Adoption meant full sonship, crying out “Abba, Father.”

Finally, he declared that before the manger, God planned to grant eternal life. Titus 1:2 revealed that eternal life was promised before time began. Jesus defined eternal life in John 17:3 as knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Pastor Allen reminded the congregation that eternity awaited every person. He shared the inscription from a tombstone in Shannon, Ireland, and the sobering reply beneath it, urging listeners to be certain which direction they were heading.

He concluded by reminding the church that long before Jesus was born in a manger, He was thinking about us. The Messiah was planned before the fall, before time, before the foundation of the world.

This message was presented by Pastor Allen Victor at Calvary Chapel West Jacksonville.

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