Redemption by God’s Hand

God is love. God is righteous. He isn’t one or the other. He is both ALL the time; He is righteous love. When you know God, then you know this love and you begin to see it in ALL His ways; and certainly in His plan of salvation for mankind.

The spirit of rebellion in each of us leading to sin thus death first revealed itself in the Garden of Eden. At its appearance, God foretold His salvation. Genesis 3:15 A Seed (Christ) of the woman, would defeat such a spirit forever. God, the perfect Father and Creator, set out to develop His creation into a people who could abide with Him forever in perfect righteous love. He is love and for a true bond of love to exist, love is given and received in its purest truest form. Mark 12:30 He had the love; and His creation would to.

With the choice of following self in the Garden of Eden, mankind showed their weakness; their ability to go against God’s will of perfect love. They demonstrated that without being governed by the Spirit of God from within, they would go their own way forsaking God’s, thus severing the bond of perfect love. When Adam and Eve received as truth the lie based in fear that they were “missing out,” fear and lies were brought into this creation. Genesis 3:1-8 They chose to go against God’s instructions, which kept them in perfect love with God, one another and creation. Now they were no longer governed by pure love, but fear, and not by truth, but lies. Thus sin existed in them and in creation. Adam and Eve didn’t understand the consequences of going their own way for they only knew God’s perfection, until the moment they went astray in their hearts. This was the first time they were exposed to anything related to death and death itself.

Now all of God’s children are born in pain. Genesis 3:16, 3:20 Eve is the mother of all living. And because of sin, her children, us, are born in pain (sin). All have to come through death/sin then into true life. Hebrews 9:27 This journey teaches us the consequences of going our own way, (an understanding Adam and Eve originally didn’t possess) and our need to have the mind of Christ to truly discern between good and evil, right and wrong. Even Christ, as our forerunner, learned obedience (righteousness) through the things He suffered. Hebrews 5:7-8 God took their transgression and thus ours, and used it to teach mankind an very important lesson for life to exist eternally: only God’s will is good, thus we have to be a part of Him. He put creation on a path of salvation in which He would give us His spirit with the mind of Christ so we would always walk in righteous love with Him. 1 Corin 1:30

Challenge: To Really Believe in God

As we saw in the OT, people will not believe in God; that His ways are better, He forgives and He is love. When He laid it all out they wouldn’t follow Him. Isaiah 48:18, Deuteronomy 28 They wouldn’t receive His forgiveness and repent. When their sin manifested terrible consequences, they kept rebelling. When He spoke from heaven, did amazing miracles, and showed His power, they still strayed. Finally in Christ, He showed the depth of His love and forgiveness, people still would not believe so He would be Lord of their lives. (True belief is walking in God’s truths because you know and love Him; not simply acknowledging His existence, who He is or what He does.)

Consider your own life, how often do you look to your understanding instead of following God? No matter what we learn or know, following self is like a cancer we can’t rid ourselves of. We can’t believe God to wholly follow Him. Luke 16:30-31, Romans 7:24-25 (If we truly believed, we would follow wholeheartedly.) As Adam and Eve did, we’ve done the same. The difference in our relationship with God now verses the Old Testament, is that now Christ is preparing His vessels (our souls), which He purchased by His blood, to fill them with His righteous, so we can abide with God forever as eternal creations.

Victory of Christ

Christ did for us what we couldn’t; became our faith. Hebrews 12:2 By His spirit in us, we are able to believe and follow; to possess a spirit having the mind of Christ which is being poured out on all flesh. Ezekiel 39:29, Ezekiel 11:19-20, Hebrews 8:9-11, Acts 2:17 Christ had to die and resurrect to be the seed of life; a seed that once it died could be raised in many. John 12:23-25 He had to die so His spirit could be resurrected in many, because no one would truly believe God or follow Him unless they were a part of Him. 2 Peter 1:4 No one comes to Christ unless God calls Him. John 6:44 No one can come to the Father expect through Christ. John 14:6 It’s all God’s work by His spirit. Something dead can’t bring itself to life. Something unborn can’t birth itself. For us to believe, really believe, we need His spirit and this is what He is giving us in abundance.

Becoming a new creation who can abide with God forever is the purpose and victory of Christ. 1 Corin 15:55 Without God’s spirit living in us in such a fullness as Christ, there will always be sin and death. Ephesians 4:13, 1:10, 3:19 For us to be God’s creation who can abide with Him for eternity, we have to have the mind of Christ and this is exactly what He is giving us in these days, though some are rejecting that voice, wisdom, and good conscience to their own destruction.  1 Timothy 1:19-20

Our sin is harsh; it is death. When we see what it creates in the Old Testament; death, destruction, stoning … it is horrific. Thus, in His love God destroyed it in Christ. He destroyed the seed of death. He destroyed the self-will in all of us through Christ’s death and resurrection. Being birthed in pain, we learn the death nature of self-will. By God’s grace in Christ, the self-will dies and souls are married to Christ and transition into eternal life. Though dead, He resurrects to us to life and starts to mold us into eternal creations.

 Romans 7:24-25 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.