So, one of the things I am looking into doing is taking online courses at Davis College. If things work out, I may be able to take several classes per year on line and keep working toward my Bachelors degree...One of the things I had to do was fill out an application for the school (even though I was previously enrolled there). One of the questions on the application is, What is your understanding of Gods plan of salvation? I tried to keep it brief... Since the fall of Man in Genesis 3, God progressively revealed his plan to save and redeem people. In Genesis 12, God describes his choosing of one man, Abram, and promising to make a great nation of him, and promising that in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Later in Genesis 22, God promises that the offspring of blessing (the seed of woman promised back in Genesis 3) would come from Abraham and therefore would be Jewish. Paul picks up on this promise in Galatians 3:16 when he says, Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, And to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, And to your offspring, who is Christ. God then developed the nation of Israel into 12 tribes of which the tribe of Judah was chosen by God as the tribe through whom the promised seed would come in Genesis 49. God continued to develop his plan of salvation by choosing one family line from the tribe of Judah in 1 Chronicles 17, where he made a covenant with King David, promising that he would raise up one of Davids offspring and establish his throne and his kingdom forever. The Jewish prophets spoke many times about the coming of the promised seed, the one who would be their savior. They detailed how his coming would be preceded by a herald (Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3:1), how and where he would be born (Isaiah 7:13-14, Micah 5:2), how he would grow up (Isaiah 50:4-9), how he would live and die as a servant (Isaiah 42:1-6; 49:1-13; 52:13-53:12; Zechariah 11:1-17; 12:10) and his mission (Isaiah 61:1-3, the scripture Jesus quoted in Luke 4:18-21). The prophet Daniel receives a timeline leading up to the appearing of the promised seed, the messiah in Daniel 9:20-26. All of this is to say that Gods plan for salvation was quite well documented as being through one person, revealed as the God-man in Isaiah 7:14, and God became flesh and dwelt among us according to all that had been prophesied (John 1:14). When God became flesh, he did so in the person of Jesus, born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18-25) just as was promised. Jesus was a Jew of the lineage of David as revealed in Luke 4:23-32. Jesus then lived according to the Law of Moses, perfectly keeping the Mosaic Law. Just before he began his earthly ministry, he was preceded by a herald, John the Baptist (Luke 3:4-6) who announced his coming. Jesus then began to publicly proclaim himself to be the promised messiah and performed the messianic miracles the religious leaders of the day were expecting, such as casting out a mute demon and healing someone born blind. In Matthew 12, confronted with a need to make a decision concerning Jesus claims and miracles, the religious leaders rejected his messiahship on the basis of demon possession. This rejection eventually lead to the crucifixion where Jesus was beaten and killed as described in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Isaiah 53:10-12 says, Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. Gods plan was always to put his son, our savior, Jesus to death to make an offering for our guilt; our sin. But Jesus rose from the dead, as God promised, that he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. After Jesus died and rose, he ascended back into Heaven on Pentecost, and all the Jews who believed in him received the promised Holy Spirit as the seal of their salvation (Ephesians 1:11-14). Acts 2 details the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peters sermon to the Jews in Jerusalem, the adding of about 3,000 believers in Jesus as the promised messiah, and the birth of the Church. In Acts 7-8:3, God details the formal rejection of the sign Jesus promised to give to them in Matthew 12:38-39, the sign of Jonah, the sign of resurrection. They reject this by martyring Stephen and persecuting the church (then comprised of Jewish believers only). It is not until Acts 10 that Peter visits and declares the Gospel of Jesus as the Messiah to Gentiles and they believe and receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44-48). Paul sums up Gods plan to include the Gentiles in salvation in Romans 15:8-12: For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show Gods truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name. And again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him. And again Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope. So through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the messiah of promise, both Jews and Gentiles can be saved! Paul describes what the content of faith is in Romans 10:9-10, ...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. This was Gods plan of salvation from the beginning…
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 19:52:46 +0000
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