Teachinghearts |
¡Buenas Nuevas! El Plan de Salvación
(Ley, Gracia y Fé)
"Explore la Palabra. Cambie el Mundo"
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Estadísticas:
Tiempo: 40 minutos
Impresión: 8 paginas |
Si por un solo hombre el pecado y la muerte pueden entrar en el mundo,
entonces por la obediencia de un solo hombre la vida puede ser restaurada. Esta
es la base y la justificación para el plan de salvación.
Después de la
caída en el Jardín del Edén, Dios prometió un libertador el cual" heriría a la
serpiente en la cabeza y esta le heriría en el calcañar". Cuatro mil años
después, Cristo fue crucificado y nos devolvió el derecho a vivir con Dios. Pero
mientras Adán nos hizo heredar su sentencia de muerte, Cristo solo puede
devolvernos la vida por medio de una libre elección de parte nuestra. Debemos
pedir para recibir. Esto es un regalo, no un derecho innato.
"Porque de tal manera amó Dios al mundo que ha dado a su hijo unigénito, para que todo aquél
que en Él cree, no se pierda, más tenga vida eterna." (Juan 3: 16)
La Salvación solo por la Fé
- La Salvación solo es a traves de la Fé. Cree que Dios te ha perdonado con
el sacrificio único de Cristo, y que Él te cambiará a traves de la obra del
Espíritu Santo.
- La Biblia solamente como la regla de vida. Si pareciera haber alguna
contradicción, este es el orden de prioridad para guía.
- Lo que Dios mismo escribió en el pasado
- Lo que Dios hizo en el pasado
- Las palabras de Jesús
- Las palabras de los antiguos y respetados profetas.
- Las palabras de los doce apóstoles
- Cualquier otro mensaje no debe contradecir las palabras escritas de
Dios
- No hay un representante humano de Dios en la tierra.
- Orar a Dios por el perdón de los pecados. No hay necesidad de castigarte a
ti mismo. Ya estás perdonado.
- Nada de lo que hagas ganará la salvación. Tú comienzas a hacer el bien y
amar el bien a causa del éxito del espíritu santo en tu
vida.
| La falla de las Obras |
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| Incapaz | Insuficiente |
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| Alcanzar el cielo a traves de nuestro propio esfuerzo nos guiará a la
falla. La medida es muy alta para que la alcancemos. El precio que pagar
es muy alto. Los inválidos no pueden saltar sobre una valla que es de 1500
millas de altura. Los pobres no pueden comprar una ciudad de oro.
Sin has made you a poor, disabled slave.
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Ley, Obra, Fé y Gracia
Todo el que intenta explicar esto se mete en problemas.
Así que permítame
decirle para empezar... no hay nada que usted pueda hacer para entrar al cielo,
excepto confiar en Dios. Lo que usted eventualmente hace es su "obra", y las
características cambiadas que usted exhibe…sus frutos son toda obra del Espíritu
Santo quien lo está cambiando. De esta manera, si usted se está convirtiendo en
la persona que Dios quiere que sea, usted, eventualmente hará buenas cosas- no
es su naturaleza hacer esto. Usted no puede de otra manera. Nada es más ajeno a
su naturaleza.
Ahora, aquí es donde el problema comienza. Otros seres
humanos tratarán de hacer juicios previos enfocándose en sus obras y sus frutos,
pero ellos no tienen derecho a hacer esto porque usted es aún una "obra en
progreso" igual que ellos. En algunos aspectos ellos tienen razón. Ellos
deberían esperar que los que parecen haber sido cristianos fieles por veinte
años no roben bancos, vendan drogas, consuman drogas o cometan adulterio. Sin
embargo, nosotros seríamos más comprensivos con un adicto a las drogas recién
converso.
Pero como ellos se enfocan en esta evidencia externa de la obra del
Espíritu Santo, a veces es difícil separar el concepto de las obras de la
justificación solo por la fé. Esperamos ver buen comportamiento y queremos ver
buen comportamiento. Somos humanos, No podemos examinar sus motivos, así que
examinamos su comportamiento.
El Cristianismo es la única religión que
enseña justicia a traves de un don o acto de Dios- no de nuestro esfuerzo. Es
verdad que muchas ramas del cristianismo enseñan que nosotros debemos hacer algo
para ganar nuestra salvación, para evitar o disminuir el castigo. Así que, antes
de que contestemos eso, veamos como estos conceptos están relacionados.
| La Función de un Espejo |
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| Estás Sucio | No Puedo Limpiarte |
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| El espejo te muestra que tu rostro está sucio. Pero tú no puedes
limpiar tu cara frotándola sobre el espejo. Necesitas algo más.
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La Ley
La ley funciona
como un maestro o un libro guía, nos dice cuales son las reglas para que podamos
saber que hicimos algo mal. Pero ella no tiene poder para hacernos limpios
nuevamente. Si usamos la analogía de un espejo y un rostro sucio entonces la ley
es el espejo, nos permite ver nuestros rostros sucios pero no puede limpiarnos.
La única cosa que la ley puede decir es que necesitamos lavarnos el rostro. La
ley solo puede condenarnos, no puede salvarnos.
Es Dios quien puede hacernos limpios si vamos a Él.
¿Es lógico para Dios decir que somos
limpios aboliendo la ley? Si rompemos el espejo, ¿nos volvemos limpios de
repente? Por supuesto que no! La ley tiene un propósito. Si hiciéramos lo que
quisiéramos, eventualmente el resultado de esto sería caos y dolor. Aún si no
tuviéramos una ley para definir y condenar caos y dolor, experimentaríamos sus
efectos. De esta manera, no es la presencia o ausencia de una ley lo que creó el
mal. La ley es un sistema sabio que define al mal. Pero es todo lo que la ley
puede hacer. No crea al mal al definirlo.
Gracia
There is an ugly rumor which claims that grace takes us out of the jurisdiction of the law so that we do not have to obey the law.
May It Never Be!
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
(Romans 6: 14-15)
This same twisted logic claims that when Christ came to fulfill the law, He kept the law for us so that we do not have to keep it.
However, Christ says that He came to establish the law which shall abide forever.
The Eternal Nature Of The Law.
Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
(Matthew 5: 17-18)
Jesus did not save us from the wages of sin so that we can continue to sin.
Neither did Christ demonstrate the eternal nature of the law so that we can abandon it with scorn for eternity.
Christ came to demonstrate the fact that under certain conditions, the descendants of Adam and Eve can keep the law and become good citizens of a larger society of the perfect, law-abiding citizens of the universe.
Grace is simply a stay of the death penalty so that God can demonstrate His claims and institute His process of rehabilitation called the Plan of Salvation.
Gracia es la bondad de Dios para con nosotros. Él fue agraviado pero tiene la voluntad de
extendernos perdón y reconciliación. Él hizo el sacrificio necesario por
nosotros para que encontráramos nuestro camino de regreso a la vida. La ley no
tiene poder de limpiar al pecador y tampoco tiene el poder de salvar una vida inocente. Cristo murió y Él no era un pecador.
Ahora la ley es el dilema.
El problema no es solo pecar simplemente- luego la muerte
eterna, porque bajo la ley un inocente murió, Jesucristo. Así que la ley es
inadecuada para determinar todas las fases de justicia. ¿Qué hacer? Confiar en
el Juicio de uno cuya ley fue violada, y tolerar por la decisión de uno que
vivió entre pecadores y fue injustamente asesinado. Su decisión fue la de
limpiar la pizarra y empezar de nuevo. Él nos limpiaría escribiendo la ley en
nuestros corazones, haciéndola parte de nosotros así como es parte de Él.
El perdón se convirtió en compañero de la ley estéril. ¿Por qué?
Porque el
dador de la ley no es solamente tolerante de la ley, Él es también amoroso y compasivo.
Power To Sustain. Grace is God's supernatural power to help us keep our faith and to not be discouraged or to give up under severe trials.
Grace helps us to understand that God is in control so that we have the determination to continue with confidence that God will overcome.
Grace is as a result of the blessings.
If Satan acted to bring us under the curse of the law, then God can also act to bring us under the blessings of the law.
He began the process by coming to live among us so that He could break the yoke of sin.
God With Us!
Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you.
I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
(Leviticus 23: 11-13)
- Blessings.
Grace is not a license to sin for ever. Grace is a blessing under which God suspends the curse until He can make a case to defend us in the universal court.
- Reconciliation With The Law. We are either slaves of the law (slaves of righteousness) or slaves of sin. There is no other choice and there is no middle ground.
So Grace cannot ignore or denegrade the claims and purpose of the law.
- Rehabilitation.
Grace suspends the penalty in the law of curses to give us the time to gain the power and strength to conform to the law.
- Forgiveness.
Grace also guarantees that when we have been changed to love the law, then our past sins will be forgiven and forgotten.
It even guarantees that if justice demands a penalty, that God will pay the price Himself.
| Todos Son Iguales |
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| Judío, gentil. Hombre, mujer. Negro, blanco, Discapacitado, saludable.
Sacerdote, pecador, santo. Belleza, bestia. Genéticamente diseñado,
natural. Rico, pobre. Rey, esclavo. |
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Often, the results of our sins bring their own punishment to us but many times the sinner never seems to pay for the far reaching result of their sins
Many religious systems teach that we must suffer the penalties, but God does not.
If God can demonstrate that we are and will be righteous forever, then what is the purpose of punishing us for past sins? Why would we care any more?
Salvation is not about punishment, but about rehabilitation.
God is waiting to welcome us, not punish us or smother us in our guilt.
God is waiting for us to respond to the love, not to the fear.
Love Brought Grace.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
(1 John 4: 18)
There is nothing to fear except the possibility that we will reject Him.
Todos Son Iguales
Si la salvación puede ser comprada entonces los ricos y adinerados tendrían una ventaja.
La Gracia nivela el campo de juego. Todas las
personas son iguales porque Dios ha sustituido primero la justicia de Cristo por
nuestros pecados. Entonces Él envía su Santo Espíritu para hacerse amigo de
nosotros. Esta es la esencia del evangelio.
Pues todos sois hijos de
Dios por la fe en Cristo Jesús; Ya no hay judío ni griego; no hay esclavo ni
libre; no hay varón ni mujer; porque todos vosotros sois uno en Cristo Jesús.
(Gálatas 3: 26, 28)
Que Dios estaba en Cristo reconciliando consigo al
mundo, no tomándoles en cuenta a los hombres sus pecados, y nos encargó a
nosotros la palabra de reconciliación. Así que, somos embajadores en nombre de
Cristo, como si Dios rogase por medio de nosotros; os rogamos en nombre de
Cristo: Reconciliaos con Dios. (2 Corintios 5: 19-20).
Te suplico que te reconcilies con Dios.
Fe
La Fe es en parte nuestra respuesta. Nosotros aceptamos el perdón que Dios nos ha dado y le
permitimos elaborar su plan de salvación en nosotros. Para hacer esto debemos
rendir cualquier creencia de que cualquier cosa que podamos hacer pagará los
crímenes que hemos cometido. Nunca habrá ninguna causa para jactarnos porque por
nosotros mismos podemos hacer nada para alcanzar el bien.
Fe y Lógica.
Una vez respondí una pregunta y señalé el razonamiento ilógico de la persona mostrándole
las contradicciones de la Biblia. A esto el respondió, "No podemos ir por
pruebas, debemos ir por fe". Más adelante dijo "si tiene sentido entonces así es
como sabemos que esto no es de Dios"
La fe no invalida la lógica. Es Dios el que dijo.
Venid luego, y estemos a cuenta. (Isaías 1: 18)
La fe simplemente dice que creas en Dios. Esto significa que esperamos hasta que la
razón nos dé una respuesta. A veces nuestro mundo moderno contradice a Dios.
Años más tarde descubrimos que la ciencia estaba equivocada. Esto significa que
siempre hay una explicación razonable. Nosotros simplemente no teníamos todos
los hechos cuando hicimos nuestra conclusión final. De esta manera la fe dice
que cuando tenemos desconexiones tan grandes en nuestra visión del mundo, que
elijamos creer en Dios y esperar por la explicación.
No sabemos como Cristo
puede sustituir Su muerte por la nuestra, solo creemos que eso funcionará.
De la misma manera, si nuestras creencias contradicen la Biblia, no podemos
elegir una posición y apelar a la fe cuando la prueba lógica contradice esto.
Los conceptos de la Biblia están en armonía. Si hay una contradicción, nosotros
elegimos la posición que armonice todos los argumentos.
Mientras escribía
estas lecciones y Dios me enseñaba, yo me quedé impresionado en cuan meticuloso,
armonioso y científico es Dios. La Biblia es tan coherente y cohesiva como una
gran sinfonía, y tan concreta como una ecuación matemática. Yo sirvo a un Dios
de leyes, de razón, de orden de lógica y tan meticuloso que simplemente quedé impresionado.
Blind Faith?
Everybody accepts the belief that faith is blind based on this text.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11: 1)
Some even believe that the more irrational and confusing the challenge, is the more evidence that God is involved!
Faith is neither blind, nor irrational nor without evidence.
No one who is asked to have trust in God, does so without any personal or testimonial evidence about the character of God.
When we are asked to exercise faith in unseen things that we hope for, we trust in the unknown future because of the past faithfulness of God that we know from experience or the cloud of witnesses who testify about His character, His power and His love.
He is honest, truthful, truthworthy and rational.
So if God is the basis or guarantor of our faith, there can never be anything blind, irrational, unreasonable or intangible about our expectations.
When scientists exercise the same trust in future expected results which are based on past established knowledge, it is called a theory.
We would never advance in science without making these quantum leaps in "science faith".
We will also advance in all knowledge and in the relationship with God when we genuinely trust Him.
- Noah's Rain. Noah acted on God's request to build a boat to escape the rain that He had never seen, not because they had never seen rain but because the God whom he trusted had proved Himself honest and trustworthy for the past 500 years of his life and the 1600 years since his forefathers spoke about Him.
- Abraham Chooses God. He is the father of the faithful, rejecting the absurdity of idolatry among his people.
In his case faith came because of rational thinking. How can something be god if I carve it out of wood, then use the rest for fire or a tool which I can use to dig up a sewer?
He reasoned that the true God could not be found among the practices of his father and he reached back to the time of his ancestors like Noah and followed that God.
Therefore, he followed God without knowing where he was going.
But it was not a blind stumbling in the darkness from place to place.
He had already chosen this God as the most rational of all beliefs. When his trust was based on Someone so trustworthy, who cares where He will lead me? Who cares if He tells me where I am going? Who cares if He explains every decision with me or submits His plans to me for my approval?
- Abraham and the Resurrection. After he knew for certain that Isaac was the promised child, Abraham did not disobey when God asked him to kill Isaac.
Reasoning from his past experience and the power of God, he found the solution in something he had never seen before.
On his own, he came to the conclusion that God must be able to resurrect the dead, because this is the only way that God could keep His promise.
Through faith, he made a quantum leap in thinking and found that resurrection is not an irrational belief.
- Jesus' Sacrifice. As He was dying and unexpectedly felt abandoned, Jesus trusted that the God Whom He knew was loving, just and fair. Although He did not understand why He was left so utterly alone, He decided to submit to His fate not substituting this temporary setback with the mountain of evidence about God
in His personal experience, God's testimony and the testimony of all the forefathers before Him.
A Rational Faith
So our faith is not about trying to figure out the impossible, or to believe that something impossible is possible.
Faith is trusting what God says even when our wealth of knowledge and understanding is exhausted.
Faith allows us to take the quantum leap between what we believed was possible to what God says He is capable of doing.
So, through faith, we technically do not believe in the impossible and the irrational, we merely broaden our scope of understanding about what is possible when God supports us because we humbly recognize that we know nothing.
- God Has Power. Our powerlessness and inability to understand how God will accomplish a request is not the same as an irrational belief in the impossible. God is the rational constant.
However, we do not simply explain every impossibility by giving God as an answer.
God knows the answer, but the answer is more likey due to the cause of physical forces that we do not understand than miracles that we believe break physical laws.
In fact, miracles probably never break physical laws. But God can affect physical forces in time periods that we cannot control and with power that we can never hope to harness.
If He changes the physical structure of the universe, He still does it by using laws that exist above the laws we do understand.
I have known Him as a God of law and order Who is predictable because He does not break laws.
Since He is predictable and He can make laws, He is trustworthy.
- God Sees. Our faith is never blind, because God can see and He can execute and deliver our hopes.
- Bible (Written Testimony).
Our faith is not without evidence because the Bible testifies about God.
The Bible states that although evil exists, the universe is friendly. The forces of Good are more powerful than the forces of evil and will one day destroy them.
Based on this we have to believe that the forces of Good must have given us some unbiased, objective, uncorrupted record of itself.
Even if the evidence appears imperfect, the preponderance of evidence and the quality of evidence must lead us to a rational conclusion about God.
» Nature (Scientific Testimony). God appeals to science for evidence about Him.
God says that even if we do not have access to the testimony of eyewitnesses, we have access to nature.
In it we can find rational testimony about Him.
Because evidence cannot contradict each other, the biblical evidence cannot contradict the natural evidence.
So this dichotomy that we have between Bible and science is irrational.
One testimony does not contradict the other. Faith is not the opposite of reason.
Given the war between the two camps, how do we reconcile the testimonies?
- Unbiased Science. We do not negate the science by declaring that Satan rigged the evidence or scientists are lying.
Neither do we hang on to "irrational faith" to the point where we believe that if it does not make sense then God is involved.
God is not the author of confusion!
If it does not make sense it is because we are not in possession of all the facts or some of our conclusions are erroneous.
Our faith tells us that the two records do not contradict each other.
Reality tells us that since the scientific evidence is controlled by the declared enemies of God we must be better at science and better at evidence gathering and better at reasoning.
Therefore, it is rational to say that you will wait for the evidence that reconciles both branches of evidence which supports your faith.
Then your faith allows you to stand firm as an object of ridicule for an extended period of time until new evidence justifies your position.
- Rational Bible. We do not reconcile the testimonies by declaring that the Bible is a record of myths and fables or allegories to teach a lesson.
We must believe that the Bible is truthful and rational.
Because I believe that the Bible is truthful and rational and that God was awesome I prayed to God in faith.
I said that God had two problems to solve in this generation.
- Truthful. He must prove that the bible stories are not myths. He can easily do this by reproducing all the miracles of the Bible through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This event is prophesied.
- Scientific. Based purely on faith, I said that it would be awesome if He could show that the Bible has significant and superior knowledge of science.
In December 2008, He began to give me the scientific evidence about the Periodic Table, DNA and particle physics and much more.
- Periodic Table. The bible has an accurate outline of the periodic table of chemistry written by Moses in 1500 BC. Yet modern scientists have only discovered a crude version of this model 1869 and fully understood it by 1914.
- Particle Physics. The bible has a better model of the relationships between the basic particles that construct the universe than the current "Standard Model".
- Rainbow. The bible has a visual and mathematical model of the science behind the rainbow.
- DNA. The Bible demonstrates in detail steps the concept of semiconservative DNA replication.
- Genes. It has a structure of DNA including the structures we call epigenes.
- Interpretation of the Evidence. We can reconcile the conflict by examining our prejudices.
Because scientists believe that the Bible is irrational, it summarily dismisses everything that the Bible says.
However, when we appear to have a contradiction, we admit that we do not know. We simply submit to faith in God and the truthfulness of the Bible until we have enough evidence to understand and correctly interpret the scientific record.
Sometimes we even have to admit that what we believed about the Bible was based on tradition, but not on the testimony of the Bible.
The church once believed that the earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around it. We even condemned people to death for teaching anything contradictory.
When the truth is that we knew nothing about how God constructed the universe, nor that things revolved around each other. The Bible never addressed these things as far as we could tell.
Yet science and faith became enemies of each other because the faithful were afraid of what all this knowledge meant and scientists were hoping that this means that they could cut themselves free from faith.
Neither approach was scientific, nor rational, nor logical.
- Prophecy. How can we trust that the Bible is the true written testimony and not the other religious writings?
God uses a rational argument when He says that His ability to prophesy is the proof that distinguishes Him from all other false gods.
- Eyewitness Testimony. When we begin to trust the Bible as His word, we begin to listen to 6000 years of written testimony of eyewitnesses and use them to strengthen our reasons to trust God.
Obras Versus Frutos
Este es el punto que causa toda la controversia. Por una parte es justo decir que
si Dios está en el proceso de escribir Su ley en nuestros corazones y
cambiarnos entonces nosotros deberíamos demostrar esto mediante nuestras obras.
Esto es técnicamente verdad. Mientras el Espíritu Santo trabaja para traernos de
regreso a Dios nosotros pronto comenzamos a exhibir los "frutos del espíritu"-
amor, paciencia, generosidad, amabilidad, mansedumbre, perdón, piedad, esperanza
y pureza. Esto cambia nuestro sistema de valores – nuestros deseos internos. Y
de esta sólida base de buenas intenciones y valores, hacemos buenas obras.
Amamos a nuestros enemigos. Damos de comer a los hambrientos. Obedecemos la ley.
| Fe | Obras |
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| Fruto | Hambre |
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Estos son llamados "frutos" en vez de "obras" a partir de que los exhibimos
porque hemos sido salvados y estamos siendo cambiados por Dios. No para ser salvados por Dios.
Las buenas obras basadas en un objetivo externo para ganar el favor
de Dios se marchitarán y desvanecerán si no hay incentivos para hacer eso. Sin
embargo, las buenas obras basadas en una excelente moral interna siempre
llevarán frutos bajo cualquier condición.
Un cristiano llevará frutos
automáticamente, porque esto viene de una vida transformada. Un cristiano no
puede decir que Dios le prestaría más atención o le daría más crédito porque él
o ella son buenos. Después de todo, ¿debería un manzano ser recompensado por dar
manzanas en vez de limones? ¿Debería una madre ser recompensada por alimentar a
su hijo en vez de dejarlo morir de hambre?
"Mira, Dios ve cuan maravilloso
soy, yo abracé a mi hijo hoy. Eso merece algunos puntos para llegar al cielo".
¡Ridículo! Debería ser normal para un cristiano hacer buenas obras, no
anormal.
"La fe sin obras es muerta". La ausencia de bondad en tu vida
muestra que no estás siendo guiado por el Espíritu de Dios. Por esto es que la
Biblia llama a la ley un espejo. Porque te muestra tu progreso. La presencia de
bondad es una causa de celebración del poder de Dios para transformar, no como
puntos para estar del lado bueno de Dios.
The Scope of the Plan of Salvation
In this debate about the plan and what Jesus accomplished, you will often hear critics complain that some people teach that the works of Jesus were not completed on the cross.
When I hear such criticisms I see the argument as a matter of semantics. What does the plan of salvation mean and what does it accomplish?
| Plan Made | The Execution of the Plan of Salvation on the Day of the Lord |
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| Eden | Sinai |
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Justification |
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Sanctification |
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Sons of God |
Christ Comes |
Millennium |
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New Earth |
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| Separated | God Reconciled | Humans Reconciled (Day of Atonement) | Heaven Reconciled | Earth Reconciled |
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| Law | Grace | Faith | Creation Being Freed From Corruption |
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- Eden ("Plan Made"). After sin, features of the plan were given to the world. We knew that an innocent must be sacrificed when the sacrificial system was introduced.
Christ was offered up from the beginning!
Christ, The Lamb of God. The Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.
(Revelation 13: 8)
Eve also knew that her child would defeat Satan.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.
(Genesis 3: 15)
- Covenant at Sinai ("Plan Ratified"). The details of the plan were written down and formally given to the earth in the form of the ceremonial laws.
- Crucifixion of the Lamb of God ("Spiritual Reconciliation"). Salvation was accomplished at the cross. There is nothing else that God needs to do to reconcile Himself to us.
Some people define only this event as being the Plan of Salvation.
» A Definition of the Plan of Salvation.
We define the Plan of Salvation as all the efforts God does to remove all traces of sin from the universe.
In this Great Plan, God reconciles the whole world to Himself. This includes man, the planet, all creation, the seen and unseen worlds.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the pivotal event that launched the execution of this plan.
But the plan is not complete. As long as you wake up every morning and there is sickness and death and sin, we must recognize that the Plan is still being unfolded.
» Jesus Paid it All.
On the cross Jesus won back dominion of the earth from Satan, exchanged His life for us, provided the blood which paid the ransom for sin, suffered the curses and wrath of God for us and submitted to the wrath of Satan.
In Gethsemane He provided the blood by which we can come to Him when we sin and the rights of intercession to mediate our requests for forgiveness.
Jesus did everything that He could in Gethsemane and on the cross, the rest of the Plan depends on our response.
» Justification ("Past Forgiven").
In this process Christ reconciles us to God by forgiving all our sins.
- Holy Spirit ("Mental Reconciliation").
However, even though God has opened the door of reconciliation, the fact remains that we choose to remain unreconciled. How does the Plan try to address this problem?
After Christ, God sent the Holy Spirit to be the constant companion who would woo us back to God.
Although we need to respond, God is still proactive in urging us to respond to what He has made available.
Obedient Mind and Heart.
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord,
I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God and they will be My people.
(Jeremiah 31: 33 and Hebrews 10: 16)
The Holy Spirit transforms our thinking and then our behavior.
New Mind.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
(Romans 12: 2)
» Sanctification ("Present Change").
The Spirit changes us daily, to conform to the will of God.
- Jesus Our High Priest.
Since the crucifixion humans are still in the business of sinning.
So the crucifixion and the presence of the Holy Spirit has not stopped us from sinning.
If the Plan was completed at the cross and there is nothing else to be done, then why are we sinning and why is Jesus now working as our High Priest in heaven?
We have an indestructible High Priest who is executing the Plan of Salvation on our behalf in heaven. He gives us pardon when we sin and He is working as our advocate or defense in the judgment.
who has become such [a high priest] not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.
The former priests on the one hand existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing.
But Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
(Hebrews 7: 16, 23-25)
- Judgment. At some point, the Plan of Salvation must eradicate all traces of sin everywhere and bring total restoration to the creation.
The judgment ensures that God is just and fair as God finally reveals His legal case for removing sin and sinners.
- Second Coming and Millennium ("Physical Reconciliation of the Sons of God").
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope.
That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
(Romans 8: 19-22)
Paul says that the reconciliation of the rest of creation is still in the future. It will be done when the sons of God are revealed.
That happens after the Second Coming when our bodies are redeemed at the rapture and resurrection.
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
(Romans 8: 23)
So Christ accomplished our spiritual redemption at the cross, because of this our entire body will be redeemed.
But the other phases of redemption are stretched out over a long period of time because mental redemption can only occur when we choose to accept God's gift and repent.
Physical redemption with new bodies will only occur when God changes the sinful bodies of those whose minds have been transformed. This is when the sons of God will be revealed.
Then we are reconciled to all the unfallen beings in the heavens.
» Glorification ("Future Restoration"). God completely restores us physically to the time before sin and He will restore Eden and place us there when the new earth is created.
- Hell Fire and New Earth ("Physical Reconciliation of the Planet").
During the millennium the earth is at rest but it is not reconciled. It is still broken and in a state of destruction and defilement with the bodies of the wicked dead.
The Plan of Salvation will be complete when death and hell and sin are destroyed and a new earth is recreated. It will be populated by people who have no desire to sin.
Only at this stage can be say that everything has been totally reconciled and the Plan of Salvation is complete.
In summary, the broken law was the event that triggered the Plan that was in place before creation.
The grace of God, provided for this plan instead of the usual penalty of sin.
Our faith accepts this gracious offer of pardon and reconciliation from God.
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