God’s Plan of Salvation

(Hebrews 2:1-4 – God’s Plan of Salvation)

What is God’s plan of salvation and how does it work? In many places in the Bible, it speaks of this great salvation in terms of a mystery. But it is not mysterious. This is what the scripture says today:

1 Therefore we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For if the message declared by angels was valid and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will. (Hebrews 2:1-4)

God’s plan of salvation is open to anyone who seeks it. He has opened up this mystery to His people so that they can understand what He is doing. The key to understanding God’s plan of salvation starts with understanding what God achieved in Christ Jesus. That is the starting point, but it is not the end.

The beginnings of God’s plan of salvation

In the beginning, God created the earth and everything in it, including people. Adam and Eve were created perfect, but with a free will. They chose to reject the word of God and listen to the devil instead, and that was where humanity’s troubles began.

But right from the beginning, God always offered a way for people to be saved and accepted. There was always a way for people to come to God and receive salvation.

Enoch, seven generations after Adam and Eve was so righteous that Enoch did not die. He was simply taken out of this world by God.

Noah was found to be a man of righteousness. So, God saved him and his family when God destroyed the world by a flood. And in the example of Noah, we see clues to God’s plan of salvation that would be later revealed.

18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:18-21)

God’s plan of salvation with Moses

We saw again an example of God’s plan of salvation in the way He rescued the Israelites from Egypt. Again we see a parallel to baptism as the people passed through the Red Sea.

1 I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same supernatural food 4 and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4)

God’s plan of salvation can be seen clearly in this example.

The people left Egypt as slaves and were still enslaved and in fear of recapture by the Egyptian armies until they reached the Red Sea. But as they passed through the waters of the Red Sea, with the water standing up like a wall on both sides, they were set free from the Egyptians. The Egyptian army tried to follow, but the waters flowed over them and drowned them all. In the death of the Egyptians, the Israelites were set free. By going through the waters, they were set free from the slavery they had suffered under all of their lives. They were given salvation by the death and removal of their Egyptian slave-masters.

God’s plan of salvation in Jesus Christ

When Christ appeared and He died for us, God’s plan of salvation came to fruit.

Jesus died for our sins. In His death we have freedom from sin and all of our sins are taken away. God promised to remove all of our sins under the New Covenant. He also took away the law so that we could not be condemned by it.

We receive this freedom from sin and from the law through being baptised into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has given us the death and resurrection of Jesus so that we can die to sin now by taking His death as our own.

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:1-4)

We are buried with Christ in His death when we are baptised. And the scripture tells us that when we are baptised into the death of Jesus Christ, we put on Christ.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-28)

In Christ we are all one. When we put on Christ, we put on His death and His resurrection.

This is a faith teaching because we must believe and have an immovable faith that God has done this. We must believe that God has set us free from sin and from the law in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We must now believe that we are dead to this world, but alive to God in Jesus Christ through faith, as the scripture says:

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For he who has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. 9 For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:5-11)

Look at that last verse. “You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

What do we have to believe?

For God’s plan of salvation to work in us we must have faith. But what is it that we believe? And what does faith give us?

The scripture tells us about the faith of Abraham. In his example we see another aspect of God’s plan of salvation.

The scripture says of Abraham that, ”Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:3)But what did Abraham believe?

Abraham was told by God that he would become the father of many nations. He was told that he would have descendants as many as the night stars and the grains of sand by the sea. He was also told that these children would be born through his wife, Sarah.

At the time when God told Abraham these things, he was about ninety years old and Sarah was about eighty years old. Furthermore, Sarah was barren as she had some condition preventing her from falling pregnant. In addition, Sarah was decades past the time of menopause.

So, for all intents and purposes, it was impossible that Sarah should be able to bear a child.

But when Abraham was told that these things would take place. He chose to believe God rather than consider the problems that stood in the way. And because he believed God, God reckoned him to be righteous. God gave Abraham the free gift of righteousness on the basis of His faith. Abraham was fully convinced, without a shadow of a doubt that God could and would do as He had promised. About ten years later when Abraham was nearly one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety, they had a child.

The key to God’s plan of salvation

The key to all of this is faith. God’s plan of salvation rests upon faith, specifically faith in what God achieved in Jesus Christ.

You will note that Abraham was given something impossible to believe in. How could a woman with Sarah’s problems, her advanced age, post-menopausal, and barren possible conceive a child? Impossible!

But not for God. In the same way, we have been asked to believe something impossible. We have to believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead. It is the resurrection that leads to receiving the free gift of righteousness by faith. From a human perspective it is impossible to raise the dead, but we must believe God did it.

The scripture says it like this:

22 That is why his faith [Abraham] was “reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:22-25)

We are reckoned righteous when we believe in the impossible thing that God has done by raising Christ from the dead.

We see in the last verse of this section that Jesus died for our sins. That is, He died to take our sins away and He also set us free from the law through His death (see Romans 7:1). But there is nothing impossible or remarkable about dying. Anyone and everyone can and will die. So, believing in His death is not believing in an impossibility.

But to believe in His resurrection…that is an impossibility for man. Only God can raise a dead man and put his life back into him. And that is exactly what God did in Jesus Christ.

This is why the last verse of this scripture tells us that Jesus died for our trespasses, but he was ”raised for our justification.” To be justified is to be made righteous, for that is the meaning of the word “justification.” And it is when we believe this impossible thing that God has done that He declares us righteous and without sin.

No longer a sinner

Yes, to be righteous is to be without sin because you cannot be a sinner and be righteous. They are completely opposed.

Those who receive the free gift of righteousness by faith have been declared righteous by God. And He has taken away our sins, never to condemn us again. As the covenant says:

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:15-18)

God no longer remembers our sins or our misdeeds. They are gone…forever. And God has declared us righteous by faith. We are no longer under the power of sin as it has been removed.

This is one of the hardest things that Christians need to understand. They are told all the time by well meaning ministers in the churches that they must keep the ten commandments and the laws of God, and that they are still sinners.

But that is not what God’s plan of salvation says. His plan says we are NOT sinners and we are NOT under the law. Instead we are righteous by faith before Him when we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God does not condemn us, so why do we condemn ourselves? Are we greater than God?

God’s plan of salvation was always to take away our sins by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it was His plan to do this by faith, as John 3:16 says:

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)

This is God’s plan of salvation for the world. That He would send His Son to die for our sins and to give eternal life and salvation to every person who has faith. It is that simple.

You might also like:

Doing The Will Of The Father
Salvation
Jesus Came To Save Not To Condemn
Promise Of Salvation
None Are Righteous
What Is Sin
Righteousness Of God
Free Gift From God
Gods Promise To Everyone
Faith Like Abraham
Essence Of The New Covenant
Hope Of Salvation
No Condemnation When God Justifies
Faith Is The Key
Righteousness By Faith
Simplicity Of Righteousness By Faith
Salvation Is Near
Now Is The Day Of Salvation
Why Christ Died
Righteous By Faith
What Is The Hope Of Righteousness And How Do I Receive It