GOD’S GREAT OBJECTIVES IN REDEMPTION!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY MARCH 10, 2024.

SUBJECT: GOD’S GREAT OBJECTIVES IN REDEMPTION!

Memory verse: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His Name.” (John 1 vs 12.)

READ: John 3 vs 3 - 8:

3:3: Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

3:4: Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

3:5: Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 

3:6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. 3:7: Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 

3:8: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

INTIMATION:

Restoring relationship, and fellowship with God are two great objectives in redemption. Redemption is rescuing us in Christ from the conquest of sin which has separated us from God from the days of Adam. Restoring our relationship is the first while restoring fellowship follows thereafter. The fellowship was lost after Adam and Eve committed the felony at the Garden of Eden and were driven out. God is working to the end that the relationship and fellowship are restored and man may legally become His child, a partaker of His very nature, so that he will be a genuine heir and joint-heir with Jesus (Romans 8 vs 17).

The sin problem must be settled on legal grounds so that God will have a perfect right to impart to man His own nature, thereby making the man an absolute “New Creation.” The sin nature in man must be driven out by the nature of God coming in. Man's spirit must be in perfect harmony with the Father. Man is made up of spirit, soul and body. The part of man that had to be recreated was the spirit of man. Man must become an actual child of God, as truly as was Jesus Christ in His earthly walk. This can only come by a re-birth of the spirit of man, a real new creation of which Jesus speaks in John 3 vs 3 - 8. 

Spiritual re-birth is all God’s work through the Holy Spirit. Jesus explained that we cannot control the work of the Holy Spirit. He works in ways we cannot predict or understand. Just as we cannot predict the wind that blows where it wishes, and we hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. As we don't control our physical birth, so we cannot control our spiritual birth. It is a gift from God through the Holy Spirit.

The second objective of redemption is to restore to man his lost fellowship. This can only come as righteousness is restored to him. Fellowship with God can never be possible if we have sin imputed to us. It was God’s design in the beginning to be in constant fellowship with us hence He visited Adam and Eve daily at the Garden of Eden. But when they sinned, they were separated from Him and lost that fellowship. 

To restore that fellowship, God sent His only begotten Son to the world to take away sin, because He is Holy, and cannot behold sin. We therefore, have to be cleansed, and made righteous to have fellowship with Him. Consequently, God gave us His own righteousness in Christ Jesus. The Scriptures in Job 33 vs 26 states that "....For He restores to man His righteousness."

The whole redemptive process has been to the end that He might have children, and that these children should live in the closest fellowship of love and freedom with Himself. Because He is a just God, sonship, then, must be on legal grounds. There must be no question as to man's legal standing in the family of God. There can be no fellowship unless man can stand in the presence of God the Father without the consciousness of guilt, of sin, or of inferiority. There can be no fellowship of the type that the Father craves unless man is utterly free from sin consciousness and free from the fear of Satan's dominion. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for all You wrought for us in redemption. I remain ever grateful for the awesome privilege of adopting me as Your son, heir, and joint heir with Jesus. Endue me with the spirit of complete obedience to You in all things, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!