Gods' Will for Mankind (from A-D)
(I) The Curse and the Promise
In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. Then He created everything else and last he created man. Then, Adam and Eve sinned and brought the wrath of God upon all of mankind, the end . If you are a Christian you know this is not the end. However, if you are not a Christian you know this story but refuse to believe in it. As Christian we believe that God had made a plan for His people. What is not told is that this plan includes a curse, a cross, and salvation. In this series I will walk you through different aspects of what it takes to be a Christian from the start of your spiritual growth.
It will take 39 books to get to the revelation of God's plan were we can see the blessing and the curse of the cross. First, lets look at the original plan of God in the Garden of Eden. This plan was for mankind to have reign over all of Gods' creation, to have an eternal soul and to magnify their God for all that was provided. Then in Gen. chapter 3 we see how mankind fell and from that point forward a downward spiral straight to Hell. Adam and Eve's choice cursed all of mankind.
The first part of Gods' plan is called salvation, the redemption of sin. We fast forward past Noah, past Abraham, to Moses where this will be the start of Gods' plan to give mankind a new choice from the curse, a temporary cure, a mere band-aid for a gaping wound unable to be properly healed killing mankind as we drown in our own choices. This point is where salvation was given to mankind in the form of sacrifices for our sins. God Himself knew this was not perfect for no animal could ever be made a payment because true sacrifice requires that one is pure and willing to pay the price of sin. Animals are not able to do so therefore God said “and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him” Lev 1:4 b. The word 'accepted' is where we see that this was not intended to be the permanent solution to this issue.
Now we will fast forward to the gospel books 40-43. This series is going to come from the Gospel of John. First we need to ask 2 questions: 1. Was salvation a new idea? 2. Is salvation offered to everyone? For the 1st question we need to go to the Gospel of John.
Salvation was not a new concept to the Jews as we see in John chapter 3 with Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus and we know that he should have been aware of this concept of salvation from Jesus statement to Nicodemus in John 3:10. “Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” So we can clearly see how the leaders of Gods' people were aware or suppose to be aware of this concept.
The 2nd question's answer is found in John 3:16. Here we can clearly see that salvation is given to all of mankind, no one was forgotten.
John 3:16:
(16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The key words here is “world” and “ whosoever”, these words imply that every one who wishes to receive salvation is able to do so, however the condition is the believing in Christ. So what does this mean to you? Everything! So what is salvation? How does it work, and what is the curse? Sit back and learn, because there is nothing more important than what I am about to teach you today.
We will start with what I believe to be the most descriptive story in the Bible that paints the perfect image of what salvation really is and how it works. It is found in John Chapter 8. First we must understand that all has sinned and fallen short of Gods' glory. James 2:10-11
(10) “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
(11) For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.”
Through these words we see all sins are equal in the eyes of our God. So true salvation is required. John 8 starts off with Christ teaching when He is interrupted by a group of people who claims to be servants of God and they have with them a woman.
John 8:3
(3) “And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst.”
Now we know this is a trap and we know that Christ knew this was a trap but Christ is an opportunist. He was going to turn something very bad into something extremely exciting, a celebration was going to happen. This is where salvation is painted in a beautiful colorful portrait of Gods' love.
The first thing that we see in salvation is how it is a one to one deal. There may be thousands around you but Christ is working on each individual one to one.
John 8:10-11
(10) “When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
(11) She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
So in verse 10 we see only Christ and the woman. This is the one to one, then He speaks to her and notice that He calls her woman not Adulteress, not a sinner, but WOMAN. This is the first part of salvation you are made a new person. The person you use to be is no longer in existence, that person died. At this point salvation is complete believe it or not it is that easy, done, finish, complete ,pure perfection......... but we as emotional beings need more so the rest of salvation is for us. Our God loves us so much that He is willing to go the extra mile for our sakes and we do not even realize it.
The second part is forgiveness. Christ asked the woman, who was left to condemn her and the answer was none. Christ then tells her she is forgiven. This is for our benefit, we need to hear this .
Then is the third part and final freedom from death. Here we see a physical death, when in fact it is the spiritual death. Still we are able to see this woman was no longer condemned to die. Those who wanted to stone her was gone and they were not waiting around the corner to get her. She was truly free.
Now here is the most important part of this story because I still will have to talk about the curse but not yet. If you read the whole story about the adulteress you will notice that I left out one part. This is where we can see scripture being verified in the same book.
John 3:17
(17) “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
John 8:7
(7) “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
Here we can see Christ making a very powerful statement. He that is without sin may cast the first stone , but only one in that group had the right to cast the first stone and choose not to. Instead he decided to do art work, probably drawing the image of salvation instead. Christ did not come to condemn the world this time around.
Now we come to the cross and here we see our curse and Gods' promise. In order to understand the curse we need to understand how we receive the curse. Our answer is found in Deuteronomy 21:22-23 which reads;
(22) “And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
(23) His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
And again we see this in Galatians 3:13 that says;
(13) Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”
We see that being hung on a tree is a curse and this curse effects all of the generations. How this happened was simple, it is all about who Christ really is. Christ is the first Adam, because he is the first and just like Adam and Eve cursed all of mankind during their fall. Christ made Himself a curse by being hung on a tree, this means that he willingly became the curse for our sake, thus causing all who do not believe to remain cursed. The difference between Adam and Eve and Christ is that Christ had not sinned where Adam and Eve had. Through Christ not sinning God is able to make a new promise to all of mankind, that we do not need to be cursed any more. The band-aid is no longer a band-aid but a permanent patch for the wound. This is where we can see John 3:16, it is at the cross where we have a choice. Do we deny Christ and remain cursed or do we accept Christ and become blessed? By coming before Christ and asking for forgiveness we receive the promise given to Christ from his father, eternal life. This we see when Christ was risen from his death and made himself a witness for the whole world to see. Do not take your salvation lightly because it took the blood of an innocent man for you to have this gift.
