Redeemed!

Today, I was with our middle schoolers at church and we studied God as our Redeemer. I’m the first to acknowledge that I needed to be redeemed. Just like everyone else, I’ve sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23-24). When I think of all the ways I’ve messed up throughout my life, I thank God for always having a plan for my life…..even before the creation of the world (1 Pet 1:18-21). He knew me before I knew myself. Even though He knew we’d sin before He created us, He still created us. 

He loved us before He made us, knowing we’d need redemption and that His son would be the necessary sacrifice to save us. God’s love for us is amazing. In fact, the Bible is His story of our redemption. He started from our beginning and walks through the story of our existence ending with our restoration back to Him. There are plenty of lessons along the way, but the one that keeps coming up again and again is the story redemption and restoration. 

Just as God’s plan was to provide a new way of life for the Israelites when he delivered them from the hands of Egypt (Exo 3:7-10), He does the same thing for us. Before we accepted Jesus, we were living in darkness. Now that we have a relationship with Him, we are living in His marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9). We have moved from darkness into light so that we might have life and it more abundantly (John 10:10), not when we get to heaven, but right now. We are already living in eternity, just on this side. 

We are visitors passing through this world (1 Chr 29:15). We are not here to stay but we can have a life that is full of God’s blessings for us. Yes, there will be trials and tribulations, but God has a plan for us and it will be fulfilled no matter what (Psa 138:8). When Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood, He paid our debt and redeemed the price of our sin for all time (Rom 6:23). What an amazing gift! This is why it’s so important for us not to sin – the cost is too high. Don’t you agree?