Wednesday: Love Finds a Way
Daily Lesson for Wednesday 3rd of April 2024
Adam and Eve have sinned, and God has told them that they must leave their garden home. From now on, toil and suffering will be their lot. Will they have to suffer and finally die with no hope? Is death the end of everything?
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It was at this point that God gave them the promise recorded in Genesis 3:15. Looking directly at Satan, the serpent, He said: “ ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel’ ” (NKJV). They may not have fully understood at that moment exactly what this meant, but they knew they could hope again. In some way, through the “Seed of the woman,” their redemption would come.
The “Seed of the woman,” of course, is Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16). At the cross, Satan bruised His heel. But Jesus’ victory is our guarantee that one day the serpent’s head will be crushed. The door of suffering and death that Adam and Eve opened will one day be closed.
Read Hebrews 2:9, Galatians 3:13, and 2 Corinthians 5:21. What do these verses tell us about the immensity of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross?
Do you ever wonder if God really loves you? Look at the Cross—look at the crown of thorns, look at the nails in His hands and feet. With every drop of blood that Jesus shed on Calvary, God is saying, “I love you. I do not want to be in heaven without you. Yes, you’ve sinned; you sold yourself into the hand of the enemy; yes, in and of yourself you are unworthy of eternal life. But I’ve paid the ransom to get you back.” When you look at the Cross, you never have to wonder again if you’re loved.
The Bible speaks of a Jesus who came to this world and experienced heartache, disappointment, and pain in common with all humanity. It reveals a Christ who faced the same temptations we face—a Christ who triumphed over the principalities and powers of hell both in His life and through His death on the cross—all for each one of us, personally.
Think about it: Jesus, the One who created the cosmos (see John 1:3), stepped down from heaven and not only came into this fallen world but suffered in it in ways none of us ever will (see Isaiah 53:1-5). And He did it because He loved us—each of us. What a powerful reason to hope!
How did Christ answer Satan’s charges on the cross? In the light of the great controversy between good and evil, what did His death accomplish?
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I love steam trains. If I hear the whistle of the C3801 hauling a vintage excursion train up the main line, I will hop in the car and go and see if I can find it climbing one of the inclines. They are a beautiful sight (except for the environmentalists who only see them as soot machines) The sound of a steam engine as it chuffs its way up the slope, the wail of a double-chine steam whistle, it huge pistons pushing and pulling, the complexity of the Walschaert valve gear, all make for a great experience.
I know that a lot of these steam engines are about as old as I am and keeping them alive is a real problem. One thing I have noticed nowadays is that vintage steamtrain excursions usually have a diesel engine attached to the rear. It is there because the organisers know that old steam locomotives are cantakerous and unreliable (a bit like old men) and if you have a train with 300 people onboard, you simply cannot afford to have it break down in an inaccessible place. So, When they make up the train consist, apart from all the carriages they add one reliable diesel locomotive so that in the event of steam engine failure, they can still get home. It might be called "Plan B" but it is there right from the start of the trip plan. They do not leave the station without it.
The plan of salvation is like that diesel engine. It was there right from the beginning, before creation. It was there to ensure that the passengers of life will still get home. It was not a case of "Oh, look at that! They have sinned! What are we going to do now?"
When God created us, he already had the plan in place to ensure that we get back home.
Paul puts it this way:
Praise the Lord. He did that because He needed to, the plan of Salvation!
He had it place, ready for us.
Thank the Lord.
This lesson reminded me of these two songs: "The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; it goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell..." (Frederick M. Lehman, 1917); and "God's grace is greater than all our sin" (Julia H. Johnson, 1910). However, it is one thing to sing and talk about God's love and grace, but what about the cost?
Scripture tells us: "For you are bought with a great price ..." (1 Corinthians 6:20, Douay-Rheims Bible). Hence, in order to give the correct response to God's love and grace, it is imperitave that we contemplate what was involved in the full display of God's self-sacrificing Agape love. We must look at what God did to Christ behind the scenes to understand and appreciate the magnitude and enormity of the sacrifice that Christ made in order to save mankind.
The forgiveness of sins that God offers (Matthew 26:28) the human race was accomplished only at an incomprehensible cost that went far beyond Christ's physical sufferings on the cross. You see, Christ's physical suffering on the cross, awful as it was, played absolutely no part in man's atonement, because God was not in collusion with Satan. Because of God's foreknowledge and omniscience, when Satan hung Christ on the cross, He took the event of the crucifixion (which to the Jews meant that He was cursed by God (Isaiah 53:4, 10), and which is the equivalent of the second eternal death), and turned it into a glorious victory to save the human race by making Christ man's sin-bearer.
The curse of God did indeed rest upon Christ as He hung on the cross, because Scripture says that God "spared not His own Son but delivered Him up, to the full wages of sin for us all" (Romans 8:32; Galatians 3:13). While human agents were about to kill the innocent Son of God, behind the scenes, God was pouring out His judgment - His wrath against the sins of the world on the "Son of Man" - His innocent, sinless, incarnate Son. Behind the scenes, God was crushing Christ "for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5) "to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:1; 5:8-9).
Contemplate the range of intense, excruciating negative emotional and psychological emotions that Christ, the Rock of our salvation, experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is there that a powerful realization gripped Him as He anticipated what lay before Him. In the narrative provided in the Gospels, it is clear that the reality of the full horror of the curse and wrath of God was encompassing Christ in a new and more powerful manner. The depths of His suffering is revealed in the dramatic words/language used to describe His experience there. This is where He began to bear our sins in anticipation of the reality of "being made sin for us" (Mark 14:33-34, 36; Matthew 26:37-38, 42; Luke 22:44). It is here in the Garden that we are afforded a small glimpse of Christ experiencing the tremendous impact of His possession of our human nature - when all His sorrows, trials, and temptations came to a head to the point of tears, bloody sweat, and finally death itself.
We must remember that Jesus' suffering served a distinct purpose. He endured that sorrow, pain, fear, dread, and terror in our place, on our behalf for He was without sin. As the second Adam, Christ battled and conquered evil to save us from our own miserable failure to obey God; and to ultimately deliver us from all fear and eternal death and separation from God. No human mind can begin to fathom the anguish of our loving Saviour, nor can any human tongue adequately describe what took place in that Garden.
It is in Gethsemane that God has given us a glimpse into the enormity and heinousness of human sin. A person might feel oppressed by the weight of his/her own sin and guilt. But think about the weight of the whole world's sin and guilt that was borne by our sinless Saviour - think about it. The human race could not effect reconciliation with the just and Holy God, so Christ accomplished it for us. Christ became the ONE great universal sinner and was dealt with accordingly by God. Our sin and guilt which Christ experienced was no mere figment or social creation. He felt the weight of divine justice and the Holiness of God against sin and sinners.
Indeed, man's salvation was "bought with a great price"! We must never forget that the path of total victory over sin, Satan, eternal death and this evil world is stained with the matchless sacrifice and condscension of our precious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Jesus - the Mediator, who is the guarantor of the Better Covenant for all humanity was punished and afflicted for the sake of all humanity. He suffered the wrath of God for all humanity. This truth is too glorious to ignore or put under a bushel. God's free salvation gift deserves our positive respose and obedience to His commands.
This lesson study serves to remaind us that we are faced with the question that the apostle Paul has asked: "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation" (Hebrews 2:3 first part). MARANATHA!
Jesus' death is the most crucial fact of all time. Nothing is so critical. Nothing exceeds the cross. In it, God openly showed how much He loves His creatures, and despite their unbelief, He dies for them. This act belongs not exclusively to sinners who accept it but also to the rest of the Universe because it proves what a perfect and excellent Creator we have.
This lesson reminds me of what Christ has done to purchase my pardon,my escape route, and my eternal home when He returns. Then I will have my eternal address forever.
Simply and plainly put, our Heavenly Father had a plan for man. From the beginning of time, this plan was created, even before man was. He knew. And in His mercy, and grace, and love for man, a way, an escape, was positioned. What parent, knowing that their child will need help, does not plan ahead to pave the way, and cushion life's blows with all their might? We have an amazing parent! "Oh what love!"
Yes, God had plan A for Adam and Eve and for all humanity and that was for them to never eat of "The Forbidden Fruit." Then, when they did eat of that fruit, God set in motion "Plan B," that was in "Types and symbols" with animal sacrifices and 6 yearly feasts including the 7th day Sabbath once a week until His Son fulfilled all that the 6 yearly feasts symbolized at Calvary's Cross 2,000 plus or minus years ago. But because "The Spiritual Leaders" of Jesus' day failed to crown Him King at His Triumphal Entry on a Donkey, God had to then go on to Plan C where Three days later, after Calvary's cross and death for paying for all of humanity's wages of sin there, and He took back his life, He went to be at His Father's Right Hand to intercede for all who believe and live to bless others with His Holy Spirit and all "Spiritual and material Gifts" to live and work for Him in all Holiness, Righteousness, Mercy, and Blessing to others, until He (Jesus) returns in all Power and Majesty, and Honor and Glory that He should have been given at His Triumphal Entry in Israel 2,000 plus or minus years ago, but will then take His place in this Earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, forever, and forever and ever as He had planned to do 2,000 plus or minus year ago from Israel at His Triumphal Entry then.
Thank you Pete. However I believe the weekly Sabbath was part of plan A.
Genesis makes clear that the seventh-day weekly Sabbath ("sabbath" means rest) was instituted at the end of creation week. It was then He "blessed" and "sanctified" (set aside for holy purpose) it. (Gen. 2:1)
"Plan A" included continual fellowship with our Creator God, and that plan was never abandoned. When Adam and Eve chose their own way, God instituted a way for them to remember His salvation plan in their new situation.
Why would the infinitely wise, omniscient, omnipotent, God need a “back-up plan”? (Isa 46:9,10)
Perhaps it is because we define "infinitely wise", "omniscient", "omnipotent", and "back-up plan" ourselves. I am not being facetious, but we are sometimes guilty of making God in our image. That probably means that I don't know the answer to your question either.
Praise God, love found a way. I wish to comment on the fact that it wasn't God who was giving them the punishment for Adam and Eve disobedience. God was letting them know what are the consequences of their disobedience and choice.
I must say as well, that I believe Adam and Eve understood the promise made by God.Remember, that their minds were fully functional having just come from the hand of the Creator where sin had not made a full inroad as yet,they were perfectly made with fully functioning minds.
This lesson gave me the thrills of Gods love and His forgiveness of our sins . Many times the question is being asked by others and even we ourselves does God loves us? Then our response would be will be yes God loves and it becomes more like a cliche. I am so happy for this statement "When you look at the cross you don't have to wonder"
Look at the cross and all you'll see is Love, indeed God is love,amen.
Oh, what a sacrifice! Oh how Christ yearns for us to long for Him. This lesson is definitely drawing me nearer to the cross!
Thank you Jesus 🙏🏽❤️!