Redeeming Love

Happy Valentines Day! As a sweet treat I hope you enjoy these thoughts about Redeeming Love

There are several innate qualities that are evident which all humans share. These are the remnants of our original design. God patterned us after His own character, so that we could have relationship with Him. We have the ability to love, show kindness; be patient, endure through many circumstances. We have the power to heal and the power to destroy; the ability to reason and make decisions. Because of the sinful nature we inherited our original design was perverted.

Recapturing our intended purpose is God’s choice He chose to restore us. When sin entering our genetics, we became unable to relate to God and operate in His Holy nature. This sin nature resulted in being self centered creatures. From the moment sin entered humanity it spread to all creation and nothing behaves as its original design.

The Lord chose to redeem us and restore us to the right relationship with the Father. His mission was to restore His creation to it original design, therefore correcting our wrong choice. Knowing we could never achieve the relationship with Him that He desired.

The word redemption has the meaning that something was lost or stolen; something that needs to be repurchased or ransomed.

You may have never understood that you were stolen from God, sold into slavery and are unable to return home, your rightful place. You may have never understood that you were made for God’s pleasure and that your life has meaning. You may have never understood that your ransom has been paid, yet you continue to live in slavery. This is the good news of Jesus Christ!

For the last two thousand years, the name of Jesus has been sent to the entire world. I am sure you have heard something about him. Some think of Jesus as a good man, a prophet, good moral teacher, but very few believe He is the redeemer. The one sent to repurchase things that were stolen from God and cast into slavery.

The ransom price required was something more precious than anything on earth. More than all the gold, diamonds, rubies and precious gems the earth held. More than all the water, air, land and seed producing plants that ever existed. The price was more than we can comprehend. The ransom price was the perfect life of Jesus, God’s own son.

You’re probably thinking, “We’ve all heard that before – For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life John 3:16-- But nothing has changed! People still die, there are still wars and destruction- Tell me something new”

Am I right? You may not have said those exact words, but you thought them in your heart.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Jesus was just a good man, moral teacher. He was just another human being, just like the rest of us. We’ve heard the same good teaching from many others like Mohammad, Buddha. If we just live a good moral life, we’ll find happiness and eternal bliss”

Again, Am I close? You made not have said those exact words, but you may have thought them in your heart.

This brings us back to our original design. We have the ability to reason and make a choice. The choice we make has eternal consequences. We can choose to believe God when he declares that “All have sinned; all fall short of His glorious standard” (Romans 3:23 NLT)

The consequences of sin is death, (Romans 6:23) meaning eternal separation from God. True death is not just this body we live in dying, but the soul we possess, lives forever! That is the life; the true life that dwells inside this fleshly housing. We can choose to ignore the warning.

Many people believe in religion, attempting to live to their own standards of goodness, but religion is death. God has given us freedom from religion by trusting in Jesus, whose perfect life paid the complete ransom. He took our sin and destroyed its power over us so that we could make a choice, we have been set free, but we have to accept our freedom.

“So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free!” (John 8:36 NLT)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NLT).

“To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12 NLT)

This is the choice of every human being, what will you do with the name of Jesus?