Someone Cares

The goodness of God has been given to people ever since we were created in the Garden. Through history the Lord has tenderly watched over His people. For example; The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Ex 3:7,8 After Abraham’s family moved down into Egypt, it was not long until all his grandchildren were born into slavery. Everyone today is born into another kind of slavery. Our slavery sometimes causes believers to feel that God is unconcerned about their life. We must never allow this idea to become real in us. The entire Old Testament is about God’s promise to send the Savior from heaven to become flesh and blood. He did this for us when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. God’s only Son will now spend eternity as the God-man because He is concerned about us.

All slaves have in their future is grinding labor and death. Having a savior rescue them is something they can only dream about. When a savior delivers people from slavery it is a two-part mission. The first part of the mission requires force that can break the chains of bondage. The second is complicated but the saving power must teach the former slaves how to live a righteous life in their new freedom. (Note: A life that is not righteous always leads back into slavery) The Almighty did not kill all the Egyptians but instead He caused them to give the chosen people their freedom. God also did not kill the Devil but instead has a plan to force him to allow believers their freedom. Freedom always costs something as shown in the following story; So the commander went over and asked Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes, I certainly am,” Paul replied. “I am, too,” the commander muttered, “and it cost me plenty!” Acts 22:27-28 (NLT) God loved us enough to give us freedom from sin and to send His Son from Heaven to pay the price.

In His justice, the Lord did not arbitrarily free humans from their sin against our Creator. God allowed his Son to come to earth and give up His life on a cruel cross as our sacrifice. Now we can even be free from the Law and be given power to serve God every day. The Bible tells us about this great gift; Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:22-23 (NLT) Jesus Christ paid the price by being our substitute. This enables the righteous and honorable God to manifest wrath against sin but to turn His wrath away from people who avail themselves of the Savior. Some people do not seem to realize they have a need for salvation. Others have corrupted themselves to the place where they have lost all desire to be righteous. We know that God’s wonderful plan allows any human to repent if they the desire to be reconciled with their Creator. God loves us so much that we only need simple obedient faith to avail ourselves of God’s “Substitute” for human sin.

Let’s look back at the atonement (to make amends) ceremony given to Moses for the people. ^…Then he is to cast lots for the two goats… Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice (shed its blood) it for a sin offering.  But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. Lev 16:7-10 The animal that was killed represented the breaking of our chains of sin. The other animal was given its freedom in order to represent our new ability to live a righteous life (a life free from sin). When we are baptized, the preacher lowers us into the water while saying we are to die with Christ but then raises us up saying we must live a new (righteous) life. This shows us the two-part mission of Jesus on this earth.

What Christ accomplished satisfies both the negative and the positive sides of God’s law. To fail the law requires a payment but to succeed in the law we must have divine help. The blood of our Savior makes the payment and the resurrection of our Savior gives us a new life free from sin. We can also see this in the communion service. The wine represents the death of Jesus and the bread represents our new righteous life. Let us pray that both parts of the mission of Jesus Christ will become our life.