God’s Redemptive Plan

In the beginning God created the earth and filled it with so many good things to gift to the man He made in His image (Genesis 1). God formed this man from the dust and set Him in a beautiful garden where He was put in charge of naming the animals and got to spend every day walking in the garden with God (Genesis 2:7-9). He was made to have relationship and God saw He could use a partner so He made Him a woman formed from his own bone (Genesis 2:22).

This knowledge was too great for them to bear. Unfortunately, a crafty serpent came up to persuade and tempt them with this fruit. He told them they wouldn’t die from eating it but that God was afraid of the power they would have if they did. They eagerly bit into the fruit and immediately their eyes were open to what they had not seen before. A heavy burden was laid upon them and they hid from God. God searched for them, knowing what they had done and gravely disappointed that they had distanced themselves from Him. Because He loved them, God did not kill the man and woman but sent them out of this garden where they got to spend each day with Him. He cursed their labor and life was made difficult as they had allowed sin to come into the world because of their disobedient actions. Before God cursed the man and woman, He turned to the serpent, casting it into the ground and promising that the woman’s offspring would bruise his head as he bruised the offspring’s heel. God was angry that the serpent had caused this to happen and promised to make a way for the serpent to be punished and man to be allowed back into His Presence. (Genesis 3)

As time went on, God was forgotten by many among the earth. People moved farther through the land and began sinning more and more until there was only one righteous man left in the world. This man was named Noah (Genesis 5-8). He served the Lord and listened to what He said. God told Noah that He could not stand all the sin the rest of His created people were committing so He was going to send rain and flood them all. He asked Noah to trust Him and to build an ark so that he would be safe and they could continue their relationship (Genesis 6:13-22). Noah taught his children the kindness of the Lord when the flood was over and He had promised to never do something like it again (Genesis 8:21). People naturally sinned because of the consequences in the garden and God still loved them and wanted to be close to them. Down through the generations God was still remembered though He was grouped in with other gods that man had made up.

His grandson Jacob was told the same promise (Genesis 28:13-15) and God changed his name to Israel and said he would be the father of this nation that would come from their family (Genesis 35:10-11). The family still had many problems because sin didn’t let anyone slip from its grip. Jacob’s sons sold their brother into slavery (Genesis 37) but because God loved him and had a plan for him, this brother was used to save all of the ancient world, including the brothers that had betrayed him (Genesis 50:20). God was continuing to remind His people that their relationships with each other and with Him were so important and He would do everything to make those right. 

Now Jacob’s whole family was living in Egypt and became slaves (Exodus 1:8-11). There were so many of them and they no longer remembered the time of God speaking to their fathers. They knew the stories but couldn’t see God working in their lives. But God had a plan for them. He picked a man named Moses to live in royalty in Egypt when most of Israel’s descendants were being harmed and even killed (Exodus 2:1-10). Moses was taught the ways of the Pharaoh but still remembered where he came from. Years passed and Moses sinned (Exodus 2:11-15) but God still wanted to use him. God asked Moses to trust Him and work with Him to free His people from slavery (Exodus 3:10-12). Moses did what God asked and, though it took fighting and miracles, the people were free from slavery (Exodus 7-14)! Now God was going to make them their own nation and fulfill the promise He had made to Abraham. As they were trusting and following God through the wilderness between Egypt and their promised land God asked Moses to share with the people a Law that they could live by so that He could live with them.

As the people lived in the wilderness they had a hard time trusting God and His plan for them, and even though they continued to sin God still loved them and kept trying to get them to be close to Him. He knew that His way was best for them and that they would love it if they understood why He loved them. He helped them get the land He promised (Joshua 24:1-13) but soon they started to forget what He had done for them and they weren’t satisfied so they asked God to give them a king so they could be like the other nations around them. God was heartbroken. He wanted to be their king but He loved His people so much that He gave them a king (1 Samuel 8-10). This king's name was Saul but his pride got the best of him. God knew that they could be amazing if Saul worked with Him and loved Him but Saul didn’t listen to the Lord (1 Samuel 15:1-31). So God had to pick another man to become king that He knew would want a relationship with Him. He picked a young shepherd named David and set him up to live close to the king until it was his time to take the position (1 Samuel 16). God and David were very close and David trusted Him even when Saul was angry that He would take his place. After many years David did take Saul’s place and he was such a good king and so in love with the Lord that he wanted to build God a permanent home inside the city. God loved this idea but it wasn’t time for this to happen yet.  

After David died, his son became king and built God a home in the city that was amazing (1 Kings 6-8). Then after this king died, the nation of Israel started fighting and split into two nations. 10 sons of Jacob and their tribes lived as Israel and two of Jacob’s sons and their tribes lived as Judah (1 Kings 12:19-20). Because David came from Judah, God kept giving them a king from his lineage. With all the fighting and disagreements sin was able to take hold of the kingdoms again and take them away from God’s heart.

He didn’t only warn them when Moses was alive. He kept picking men to speak to the people of Israel and Judah and try to get them back to having a relationship with God. Reminding them of His heart for them to be in the garden once again (Isaiah 51:3). Pouring out His heart, showing them the betrayal He felt and the anger He had to let out (Hosea 2). But their sin was too great and they didn’t think they needed Him. This led to both Israel and Judah being sent to other nations, losing their promised land (2 Kings 21-23, Jeremiah 52:1-30). 

This wasn’t the end of Judah though because God had still made the promise with David that someone could be on the throne forever. So for seventy years the people of Judah lived far away from their home (Jeremiah 25:11-12) until God raised up an empire that let them go back and start to rebuild (Ezra 1). This was a time of excitement but also confusion because the people had been away from God so long.

Even though they were so excited to be back in their own land and that God was fighting for them, they started to forget God again. They had always needed someone to help them see God’s heart for them (Exodus 20:19, Nehemiah 13:29-31). God knew that they couldn’t get it on their own and His promises were so much greater than His people had realized. 

Many years passed but God was still fighting for His people. He wanted to be as close to them as when He had first made everything. The Jews had spent four hundred years without hearing from God. The sin they had been left in had been warped into a passion to follow the Law and punish anyone who didn’t. They became zealous for all the wrong reasons, missing God’s heart in His commandments and hoping for the political prosperity the prophets had spoken of (Isaiah 60:10-14).

Jesus flipped every expectation of the Jew’s coming Messiah on their head. He spoke to those the Law abiding citizens refused to (Luke 17:11-19) . He shared healing and hope with men and women that weren’t Jewish (Mark 5:1-20, John 4:1-42). He publicly debated the people who had spent their lives memorizing and living for the Law (Luke 12:1-3). God had promised a Branch of David that would reign on the throne forever (Jeremiah 23:5-6). This came with high hopes among Jews that they would become a powerful nation with an unstoppable king. What they didn’t expect was a man born under unconventional circumstances (Luke 1:26-38), who never went near the throne until His trial before execution (Matthew 13:55). He loved humbly and taught profoundly. Common people hung on His words, the poor, sick, and needy followed His every move (Luke 6:17-19) while the powerful and “lawful” plotted ways to accuse and remove Him (Mark 14:1). 

As Jesus celebrated with His friend’s one of the Jew’s most important holidays, remembering how God brought His people out of the land of Egypt through His mighty works and with the sacrifice of the Egyptian’s firstborns and the lambs that protected all Hebrews (Exodus 11-14), there were men preparing to arrest and crucify Jesus.

Jesus was sent to bleed and die on a cross for doing nothing wrong but being the son of God in a nation that had asked for Him but not expected or wanted what they got (Mark 15:37-39). He was taken to a grave and three days passed (Luke 23:53-56). Three days of deep sadness, unspoken confusion, and horrible tension. Yet, the third day rose and so did He. Death could not keep Him down (Luke 24:1-12). The plan of God had come to be through His ultimate control. Jesus spent some time with those He loved then ascended to Heaven to take His rightful place at the right hand of the Father (Acts 1:2-9). He sent His Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) and many began to believe as the friends He left behind shared all He had spoken of and done (Acts 2:14-41). Others that were determined to believe Jesus had not been their Messiah sought to harm these believers (Acts 4:15-22). A man named Saul was especially malicious in his quest to abolish and thwart any hope or belief of those still following Jesus (Acts 9:1-2). Christ followers saw that He was truly the one the prophets had spoken of and was not only a high priest, as Zechariah had seemed to point to (Zechariah 6:11-13), He was also the king Israel had been longing for since He had been promised to David and that God had been waiting to put on the eternal throne since the people had first asked for a king (Acts 13:22-23). 

Saul’s life was radically transformed when God spoke to him about what he had been doing and how Jesus was who He said He was. His name changed to Paul (Acts 13:9) and from that day forward he only spoke in faith and through deep conviction of who the Lord was (Acts 9:3-22). He loved those he had been viciously against and spoke in favor of all he had previously denied. Paul’s life after this was passionately set towards inviting those the Jews excluded into faith. Jesus wasn’t just for the Jews (Acts 15:1-21). Those following Christ started to see that the covenant promise God had made with Abraham so long before encompassed all families of the earth, not just those coming from the line of Israel (Genesis 12:3). This was exciting and needed to be shared. God’s relationship was meant for all creation. Paul moved from province to province, country to country, proclaiming the good news God had shown Him and being a part of the fulfillment of Jesus’ command to His disciples to bring the gospel to all people (Acts 1:8). He shared the hope that came along with what Jesus had done. God’s sacrifice was in motion from the beginning, Jesus was the plan all along (John 1:1-5). His death on the cross was not done because Jews or any human deserved it, it came because of God’s faithfulness to keep His promises (Deuteronomy 9:5, Malachi 3:6, Titus 3:5).

Though humans could be so far from the Lord in their sinful ways, what Jesus did gave them the easiest chance to return to Him which is what God had been pleading the Jews to do for years (Zechariah 1:3-4). Their repentance and acceptance led to hope and reconciliation with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). It also brought the community together (Acts 2:44). All believers were being built up and shown freedom (Galatians 5:1). Paul encouraged Christians to live their new life, leaving all their old ways behind. Their identity now completely covered in the image of Jesus (Romans 6:5-7). As they looked to Him they became more like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18). This was all God wanted from the beginning and here it was for anyone.

No longer did they need to sacrifice animals each day, Jesus had already taken their place (Hebrews 6:6). No longer did they have to mourn over their past (Ezra 3:12), Jesus had replaced it with a future filled with glory (Romans 8:18). As they looked to Jesus for hope, they were becoming more like Him (Colossians 3:10). As their faith increased so did their good and just actions. The words of the Lord spoken through His prophets years before were being fulfilled as believers found freedom to act in righteousness and justice because of Jesus’ example (Romans 15:5). Paul wrote to churches encouraging them to build one another up (1 Thessalonians 5:11), that they were examples and meant to be united (Romans 12:5). He offered words of encouragement to leaders and followers alike, reminding them that their hope was in Christ and that they were called to live free (Galatians5:1). Each person meant to hold up the church and offer their own gifts to glorify God (Romans 12:4-8). All in anticipation of Jesus’ return (1 Thessalonians 5:1-10). 

Jesus had left His disciples with the hope that He was sending a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to move them forward, to speak with confidence, and stir people’s hearts to hear, understand, and trust the truth of Christ (Acts 1:8). Holy Spirit had come and Paul’s life and thousands of others were transformed and brought into relationship with God through Him (Acts 2:41). But it wasn’t the end. Jesus had promised more. He promised to return and bring judgement (Mark 13:24-27). God had also spoken of this to Israel through His prophets and it wasn’t forgotten (Obadiah 1:15-17). Though Jesus had conquered death and died for people’s sins. The world still felt the weight of sin lingering (Romans 7:14-25).

Jesus’ death on the cross, His humanity and His deity have made Him a conqueror and victor over death and sin and one day He promises to return and save those with Him and judge those against Him (Revelation 19:11-21). He honors those that are for Him and fear His name (Malachi 3:16-18). Those who have died for Him and fought for truth (Revelation 7:14). He has already claimed victory for those after His heart (Revelation 17:14). Until that day comes we have the privilege and responsibility as Paul did (Philippians 3:17), as the priests were meant to (Malachi 2:7), and so many other people from then to now have had to share the hope that God has given (John 13:15), to offer people the relationship that He so desperately hopes for (Hosea 14:4-7). He uses His people because it’s all for His people. The circle of it is filled with hope (Romans 15:13). One day we will again walk in the garden with the Lord. And because He loves us and has already given us close relationship with Him when we ask, we can ask for His return. We can say “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).