History repeats itself, or so it’s been stated. Over time the world has seen empires rise and fall, wars begin and end, people unify and divide. Comparable circumstances replicate on the world stage past and present. Different people encounter the same situations. And because we’re all sinners, we tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. Humans struggle with sin. When will we ever learn?
The history recorded in God’s holy Word, the Bible, contains rehashed scenarios of sin and salvation throughout the centuries. People repeat sins. God repeats His message. Our Heavenly Father provides instructions for living life the way He intended and we repeatedly disobey His commands. His laws are for our good, and still we allow doubt and pride to prevent us from making good choices. Why do we continually choose disobedience?
Eve and Adam violated God’s command. God pronounced judgement while also planning deliverance from sin. Yet sin spread as people populated the earth. Satan worked to destroy God’s children. God worked out His salvation plan through them. He chose to spread His blessings to the nations through His servant Abraham. While He knew His children would continually doubt His goodness, God made a covenant with Abraham to demonstrate His faithfulness. This covenant meant commitment between mankind and Himself. Breaking the pact meant death to the traitor. Eventually someone would break the vow and someone would pay the price.
It happened repeatedly—God’s covenant broken by humanity. Rules and regulations were broken. The covenant was broken. The Ten Commandments were broken. Prophet after prophet delivered God’s warning about the consequences of sin and disobedience. People ignored it. But God loved His people too much to allow the tempter’s power to overcome them. Satan desired to destroy them. God desired to save them.
Finally the time was right for the consequences of the broken covenant to be fulfilled. Someone would have to die. It should have been mankind, instead it was God through Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Life, eternal life. God repeatedly instructed His people about choosing life. Repeatedly they disobeyed and chose death, breaking the covenant. God’s love caused Him to offer His life as a sacrifice for the sins of His people.
Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God sacrificed Himself for the sinful world. What should have happened to humans happened to God instead. The God of the universal loved humanity so much that He willingly died for the whole world. He suffered the consequences of our disobedience. He carried the sins of the world to the cross. He died a traitor’s death for the broken covenant.
Satan thought it was over. He thought He had beaten God. But on the third day, Jesus arose from the dead in victory. Neither sin nor death could hold Him—He is God. His resurrection offers us new life.
It’s the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The God of grace offers us forgiveness for our sinful disobedience. Jesus died in our place so that we could live with Him abundantly on earth and eternally in heaven. What an awesome Savior God.
I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (The Message)
But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew, to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons. Galatians 4:4-5 (TLB)
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