{"id":494,"date":"2007-10-11T23:46:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-11T23:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heavenslight.org\/?p=494"},"modified":"2007-10-11T23:46:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-11T23:46:00","slug":"the-plan-of-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/2007\/10\/11\/the-plan-of-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plan of Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center\"  align=center><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 20pt\"><span>The Plan of  Redemption<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center\"  align=center><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 20pt\"><span><\/span><\/span><\/b><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"COLOR: black\">1 Peter 1:20<\/span><\/b><span  style=\"COLOR: black\"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =  \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\" \/><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center\"  align=center><span style=\"COLOR: black\">For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world,  <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center\"  align=center><span  style=\"COLOR: black\">but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.  NASB<\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><b  style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 14pt\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><b  style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 14pt\">The Plan of Redemption<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">When we consider the narrative of the Old and New  Testaments, it is important to see the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =  \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" \/><st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:City  w:st=\"on\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase\">Providence<\/span><\/b><\/st1:City><\/st1:place>  of Almighty God in the outworking of His eternal plans in human history. All of  the events of history are the outworking of plans which God has made from all  eternity. In fact, <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:City  w:st=\"on\">Providence<\/st1:City><\/st1:place> is assumed and implied constantly by  biblical writers, as we shall see. <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\">Hebrews 1:2-3<\/span><\/b><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"> &#8211;  2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all  things, <b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">through whom also He made the  world<\/span><\/b>. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact  representation of His nature, and <b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">upholds all things by the word  of His power<\/span><\/b>. NASB<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in\"><b><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt\">Colossians  1:16-17<\/span><\/b><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt\"> &#8211;  16 For by Him all things were created, <b  style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">both in the heavens and on  earth<\/span><\/b>, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers  or authorities&#8211; <b><span style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">all  things have been created by Him and for Him.<\/span><\/b> 17 And He is before all  things, and <b><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow; mso-bidi-font-style: italic\">in  Him all things hold together<\/span><\/b>. NAS<\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\">Acts 17:28<\/span><\/b><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"> &#8211; 28  <b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">for in Him we live and move  and exist<\/span><\/b>, NASB<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt\">Job 34:14-15<\/span><\/b><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt\"> &#8211; 14 &#8220;If He should  determine to do so<b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">, If He should gather to  Himself His spirit and His breath, 15 All flesh would perish together, And man  would return to dust<\/span><\/b>. NASB<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">Therefore, when we think about God&#8217;s activity of  <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:City w:st=\"on\">Providence<\/st1:City><\/st1:place> in  His world, we should think of it as <b  style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><u>God working out the plans that He has  made<\/u><\/b> for His creation from all eternity. Not only does God control  Nature, but because of this is &#8220;in every action directing&#8221; the events of  History. The <span style=\"BACKGROUND: aqua; mso-highlight: aqua\">Scripture  plainly declares<\/span> that God is the primary cause behind everything that  happens. <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\">Lamentations 3:37-38<\/span><\/b><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"> &#8211; 37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, <b  style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">Unless the Lord has commanded  it?<\/span><\/b> 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and  ill go forth? <\/span><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 8pt\">NASB<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\">Isaiah 45:7<\/span><\/b><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"> &#8211; 7  The One forming light and creating darkness, <b  style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">Causing well-being and  creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these<\/span><\/b>.  NASB<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">Now the fact that events are seen to be under the  Providence of God is plainly evident in Scripture. God is Providentially working  His will in all things to accomplish His own purposes for the display of His own  Glory, Name and Power! <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in\"><b><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\">Ephesians 1:9-11 &#8211;  <\/span><\/b><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold\">9 He made  known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He  purposed in Him 10 with a <b><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">view to an administration  suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in  Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth<\/span><\/b>. In Him 11  also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined <b><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">according to His purpose who  works all things after the counsel of His will<\/span><\/b>,  NASB<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">Consider then, that in the course of history, God&#8217;s  purpose to redeem fallen mankind from their sin by sending His Son Jesus Christ  into the world to give His life as a sacrifice and be raised from the dead, is  primary among all the things which God has purposed to do. God is summing up all  things in Christ! In fact this is plainly revealed in Scripture as the unified  message of <b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"TEXT-TRANSFORM: uppercase\">redemptive history<\/span><\/b>.  <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"540\" src=\"cid:430534423@11102007-1EFD\" width=\"540\" v:shapes=\"_x0000_i1025\" \/><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">This Plan of Redemption opens up a whole new  understanding for us then concerning God&#8217;s activity in directing the events of  History. We see then and therefore that Jesus Christ and His atoning work at the  Cross become the very focal point of history, and thus the key event in the  history of the world. Another way of stating this is that all things before the  cross look forward to the Cross and all things after the Cross look back at the  Cross. The Cross of Jesus Christ is everything! More than this, the God-Man  Christ Jesus, the One hanging on the Cross is the eternal Lord of history, come  to earth to display the awesome beauty of His divine character to us in an  unfathomable way as to cause the whole creation to stand in awe, rejoicing with  Holy fear, at the marvelous thing that He has done!<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\">Revelation 5:11-14<\/span><\/b><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"> &#8211; 11 And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels  around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of  them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud  voice, <b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">&#8220;Worthy is the Lamb that was  slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and  blessing.&#8221; 13 And <u>every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and  under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them<\/u>, I heard saying, &#8220;To  Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and  dominion forever and ever.&#8221;<\/span><\/b> 14 And the four living creatures kept  saying, &#8220;Amen.&#8221; And the elders fell down and worshiped.  NASB<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">So when we think about Jesus Christ the Savior, we must  understand that He is not just some Galilean peasant in history who did some  good things and had some wise teachings, but rather He is God very God, embodied  as a man, accomplishing the primary work of the eternal plans of God which were  made before the creation of the world. <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in\"><b style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black\">1 Peter 1:18-20<\/span><\/b><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black\"> &#8211; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed  with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life  inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb  unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20 For <b  style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal\"><span  style=\"BACKGROUND: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow\">He was foreknown before the  foundation of the world,<\/span><\/b> but has appeared in these last times for the  sake of you NASB<\/span><span  style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Plan of Redemption 1 Peter 1:20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. NASB &nbsp; The Plan of Redemption When we consider the narrative of the Old and New Testaments, it is important to see the Providence of Almighty &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/2007\/10\/11\/the-plan-of-redemption\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Plan of Redemption<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenslight.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}