So far in this week’s series, God’s
Plan, we have discussed the following topics:
Original sin: Sin is the Blame;
the separation it causes: The Separation; punishment for disobedience: Eviction Notice and God’s judgment of sin: UninvitedGuests. To recap: God created Adam
and a perfect world; gave Adam dominion over it; gave him ONE law – don’t eat
fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; Adam disobeyed and as a
result sin entered the earth, it was passed down to us (as descendants of Adam
and Eve) and it completely altered God’s plan; God put them out of the Garden
of Eden; God passed judgment on them, the serpent and that judgment was passed
down to mankind as well.
So is that it? God created this beautiful world; Adam screws
it up by listening to his wife and then blames her, Eve listened to the serpent
and blames him and the serpent is like, “well, you shouldn’t have listened to
me. You think you got it bad, I gotta
crawl around on my stomach for the rest of my life.” But isn’t that typical of the devil? He tempts us of things and once we bite (pun
intended) he tells us how stupid we are for doing XYZ. To answer your question, no, that’s not
it. God had an alternate plan.
Victory Nugget: Learn to create an
alternate plan in the event the first one doesn’t work out (when it’s
applicable). If you’re believing God for
something, stand on his promises, don’t have a plan that you’re going to
implement if God’s plan doesn’t work out.
Really? That’s why God hasn’t
blessed some of us, because we “secretly” don’t believe he can do what he said
so we have our “just in case” plan on file.
You’re not fooling anybody but yourself.
God knows our thoughts and he’s like, “hey, check this out, I’m not
gonna have a seat. Holla’ when you
through.” And he sits back and waits for you to make a mess and when you’re
done wallowing in it and self pitty only to realize you should have waited, in
most cases he will be there to help you pick up the pieces, clean up the mess
and then push it forward.
What
is this plan Tania? I’m so glad you
asked: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.
Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
13 Yes,
people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin
because there was not yet any law to break. 14 Still, everyone died—from
the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an
explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a
representation of Christ, who was yet to come. 15 But there is a great
difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one
man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and
his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.
16 And
the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one
man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our
being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. Romans 5:12-16 (NLT)
We inherited sin from Adam and from
that time until the days of Moses and the people continued sinning. During that time period there was no law. It was not established until after they the
children of Israel (the Jews) crossed the Red Sea. When that law (Ten Commandments and other
Levitical commandments) was given, it was specifically for the Jews, not for
the rest of the Nations (gentiles – anyone not a Jews – that’s why they
consider(ed) us heathens. That was the
beginning of establishing order and God’s (3-phased alternate) plan, which
created as a temporary solution. Adam’s one act (sin) was similar to the one
act of Christ (dying for our sins) except that Christ’s selfless act ushered in
grace (God’s endless favor) and forgiveness of all sins ending the period of
The Law and implementing the period of grace.
Under the law animal sacrifices were
required to atone for man’s sins, however, God created a permanent solution,
which was to offer one ultimate sacrifice for all sin, eliminating the rituals
and statutes that were implemented from The Law. But who could be that sacrifice? Man was too corrupt, the animal sacrifices
were ineffective and were never meant to be a permanent fix.
Atone: make amends or reparation. Reparation: the
making of amends for a wrong one has done
Revelations 5:2-5 (NLT): But
no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and
read it. And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is
worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?” 3 But no one in
heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. Then I began to weep bitterly because no one
was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop
weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has
won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
It
couldn’t just be any man who could bring us back into fellowship with God, it
had to be someone without sin; someone already “right” (righteous) with God,
who knew no sin. Can you imagine the
earth so corrupt with sin that even with the Law, there was no one worthy or
capable of paying the debt of sin and so Jesus, stepped up and agreed to pay
the debt for us. For God made Christ, who never
sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God
through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT) The problem was the debt had
to be paid with his life, which he freely gave.
There is no greater
love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13 (NLT)
As
willing as Jesus was to be our sacrifice, God had to consent, For God loved the world so much
that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will
not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NLT)
I’m
out of time for now so we’ll pick it up tomorrow
In
His Humble Excellence
Tan
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