An old proverb says, “Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell
me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart
forever”. The Bible is factual, it is God’s truth, and it is presented as a
grand story. My last two articles presented the
beginning of that story. Part 1 showed God’s beautiful creation of this world
and its inhabitants and part 2 described the fall of humanity, the true account
of Adam and Eve turning their backs on God, and of its consequences.
The Bible continues this story. It describes God’s plan to
redeem (ie to buy back something that was originally yours) fallen humanity in
the most amazing way. It is a story of God’s continuing love but our continuing
rebellion.
Part 3 shows God choosing one man, sinful but trusting God,
and gradually growing a great nation from his descendants. God chose Abraham and
promised that the whole world would be blessed through one of his descendants.
As God began to form the nation of Israel , he gave
them laws. The famous Ten Commandments are God’s laws in summary form. These
laws, which form the basis of our legal code, were actually given to show God’s
people that they couldn’t ever fully keep them. They needed to depend on God,
in the manner that Adam and Eve rejected.
To teach them the seriousness of law breaking, God gave them
other laws regarding animal sacrifices, indicating that blood must be shed to
receive God’s forgiveness. But even animal sacrifices didn’t do that job,
because they had to be repeated over and over again.
So because of his great love, God provided the only
sacrifice that was good enough; his own perfect Son. Jesus came to earth as a baby,
grew and became a man, yet without once ever sinning. In God’s perfect plan,
Jesus was arrested, falsely convicted in a sham trial and executed on a Roman
cross, the cruellest form of punishment imaginable.
Why?
Because that was the only way God’s justice could be met and God could keep his
promise to redeem us. Probably the most quoted verse in the Bible states it
well:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life.
Notice this verse has a condition. God’s offer of redemption
is ONLY available to those who believe in Jesus. To believe in Jesus involves admitting
my own sinfulness, trusting Jesus to forgive me and make me right with God.
Then, I must allow God to direct my life, and when I fail, as I doubtless will,
again come to him for forgiveness. In short, to live in the manner God
originally intended for Adam and Eve.
The story doesn’t end there. After three days, God raised
Jesus from the dead, and after a few weeks, God took Jesus back to Heaven. And
God promised that all who follow Jesus will join Jesus in a new Heaven and a
new earth. This ultimate redemption is explained in the next article.
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