GOD’S GREAT SALVATION        

Biblical Texts:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us inthe heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—(Ephesians 1:3-5) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.(Romans 8:28-29)

GOD’S PLAN

The Bible tells us that before the creation of the world and before any creation, God, in the purpose of His will, conceived a wonderful plan. He wanted to bring many sons to glory. It was God’s set purpose and nothing could prevent Him from fulfilling this great plan. Even today God is powerfully in action to execute that great plan. It concerns you and me. God is interested in you and has predestined no one to destruction, but wants everybody to be saved. Man is God’s glory and God wants to glorify Himself in man, He who has armies of angels to serve Him. He loves all people without any exception.

Adam was in perfect fellowship with God and knew Him. However, we can say that even Adam did not know God perfectly. God is infinitely great, greater than the highest heavens which He made and which cannot contain His majestic presence. Man was therefore called to walk with his God with an ever-increasing glory. If Adam did not sin, his happiness would have been rightly to discover daily, more and more, the greatness of God. His destiny would have been to always be in greater fellowship with God to live in His divine and wonderful intimacy. God is a perpetual source of life, power and glory. God’s purpose in creating man was to have a being who would understand Him, with whom He could have fellowship and reveal Himself. That God of love could no longer keep for Himself all the glory. In some way, God could no longer hold back for Himself and He created. Creation is that love of God that exploded and He revealed Himself. The angels were amazed. And in the centre of everything God created, was man whom God Had thought of before the beginning of time. God is the God of all men. In Psalm 8: 5 the psalmist says: “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?’’

God loves people, all of them, and cannot afford to forget even one of them.

THE FALL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

In the third chapter of Genesis we see something awful and disturbing taking place. Adam sinned against his God. His heart is filled with fear. His contact with God is interrupted; he ran away, hid himself and is finally punished and driven out of the garden. The whole of God’s plan, for Himself and for all humanity collapsed. God could no longer deal with men. Man had become a sinner, something odd had made its way in his inner self and his nature was completely changed.

The Bible has shown us through the above-mentioned verses that God had foreseen that fall and had a plan of redemption for man. God ran the risk. He created man with a free will. Adam was free to obey or disobey God. God wanted sons and daughters who would obey Him whole-heartedly. And to achieve that, He had to give to man complete freedom by presenting before him the consequences of his acts and warning him. That is what He did with Adam. He was expecting for sure that Adam would obey but foresaw his fall and had a redeeming plan to restore men.

BEING BORN AGAIN

The problem of sin is very serious and we can see by what has been said above that the solution can neither be found in the form of a religion or a given philosophy, nor in a purely intellectual knowledge of the Bible, but in a living experience with Christ. What does it mean to be born again? While talking to Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jewish ruling council, Jesus told him:

"I tell you the truth; no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

That man could not understand that language in spite of his great knowledge.

Jesus has come to bring to men more than forgiveness which is only one aspect of salvation. When a man has heard the gospel, has repented for his sins and accepted Jesus as his personal Savior, the Lord comes into his heart and not only forgives him for the sins committed but at the same time delivers him from the sinful nature, transforms him by giving him His life, His kind of life, divine and eternal life. That is what the gospel of John declares by saying:

‘’Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.’’(John 1:12-13) This is what it means to be saved, that is God Himself intervenes to forgive, purify and regenerate man, and the true Christian becomes a new being.

GOD’S JUSTICE

God can forgive completely because of the blood of Christ shed on the cross. In fact, God, being just, cannot leave unpunished the least sin. His justice is as great as and as infinite as His love. He is both love and justice. That’s why it is written that: ‘’The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness’’ (Rom 1:18) If Jesus was not offered in sacrifice on the cross, God would have been obliged, because of his justice, to punish each and every human being. That would mean for us the eternal punishment, hell. God could not just forgive men without their sins being punished. He could not remain without intervening to save men either. His love for man being so strong and His desire to execute his plan and bring to glory many sons was so great that God had to intervene. That’s why Christ suffered and now God can be and remain just and at the same time justify whoever believes in Jesus.

‘’God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus’’. (Rom 3:25-26)

To be a Christian, to be converted as we say, means more than being a member of a church, or to have his name registered on the attendance register of a church. It is more than receiving healing or other blessings. It rather means to be a new creature, forgiven and being born again. When God heals and blesses somebody in his grace and mercy, He is in fact calling him to salvation. If you have been healed or blessed you must without delay accept Jesus as the one who saves and forgives. The Christian is a justified man. This means that when somebody believes in Jesus and accepts him as his personal Saviour, he is considered to be just by God.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS

In the Epistle of Hebrews 12:4 we are told that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than that of Abel. Hebrew 11:4 says that by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. In fact we see God speaking to Cain in Genesis 4:10: “What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. ’’ Abel was just and God could not remain indifferent and not react when he was killed by his brother. The blood of Abel was crying vengeance and God intervened.

Up to the time when Christ died on the cross there was an odour of sin that was going up towards God. Remember the floodwaters, of Sodom and Gomorrah. Today again there is an unprecedented outburst of debauchery but God’s anger is delayed and meanwhile reconciliation with God is being preached to man. Why does God prolong his patience? It is because where sin increased, grace increased all the more. (Romans 5:20) The blood of Jesus speaks a better word than that of Abel because Christ is infinitely just and holy. He has been obedient, even to the point of death. Unlike Abel, his blood does not cry out for vengeance but grace, forgiveness and mercy to all mankind. On the cross he cried out: ‘’ Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’’.

How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him? We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away and neglect such a great Salvation. (Hebrew2: 1-3; 10:29)

THE LAST ADAM

“And so it is written: the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45) Adam, the first man, became the Head of the human race, the father of humanity. As mentioned above, his disobedience directed the human race into defeat. In his disobedience to God Adam submitted himself to Satan and, at the same time, submitted the entire human race to the authority of the devil.

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19) But in his loving grace God intervened. The eternal “Logos”, “the eternal word” of God became ‘flesh’. God became a man. (See the gospel of John chapter one). Jesus didn’t have a human father like each of us. He was conceived in the womb of a virgin name Mary by the miraculous work of the Holy-Spirit. (See Mathew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-36).

In the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 23, Jesus said these extraordinary words: “you are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” 1 Corinthians 15:47 tells us: “The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man was the Lord from heaven.”

Jesus, “the son of God”, “one with God” in an indescribable communion beyond human intelligence. Jesus, the son of God, equal in glory and power with God, being “one with God”, became a man He became the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). The Head of a new race, a new redeemed people. It’s a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are children of God in him and by him. (John 1:12-13). We remain, of course, subject to all human weaknesses, but by His presence and strength we can overcome everything and defeat the devil that has no power over us any more. Glory to God for his extraordinary gift.

CONCLUSION

All of us who have believed in Jesus we are now children of God. According to his eternal plan, God wants to act continuously through us by his Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of his Son. That is the glorious reality to which we should always think of. It is the will of the God of all grace. He himself will make us perfect if we pray and truly and sincerely desire a more intimate fellowship with Him.

Our only security is to dwell in Him; our strength and happiness is to know Him more each day. He wants, according His own words, to reveal Himself to us and to lead us with ever-increasing glory up to the day when, triumphing over death, we shall see Him face to face. Praise God for His Great Salvation!

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