New Hope Revival Ministries

3668 Lee Road 379
Smiths Station, Alabama 36877
United States of America

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God's Plan of Redemption

Steven Shelley

Steven Shelley

New Hope Revival Ministries

12 min read

Man’s Separation from God

God, in His sovereignty, had His plan of redemption under control from the foundation of the world. He knew what was about to unfold. He was looking for a people who would serve Him, not because they were forced to, but because they love Him. Their love for Him would so consume them, they would choose to give Him their lives.

Are you aware that every book of the Bible speaks of redemption? From Genesis to the Book of Revelation, redemption is weaving its way like a scarlet thread through every page, every chapter, every book of the Bible, and God is unfolding in type and shadow His plan of salvation, expressing His love towards fallen humanity.

It all began in Eden. The Book of Genesis holds the key to God’s great plan of redemption. Genesis is a book of symbols. Literal things and actual events happened, but great symbolic Truth is revealed in the Book of the Beginnings.

There were two trees in the Garden of Eden; the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

“The Book of Genesis holds the key to God’s great plan of redemption.”

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

God had fortified them behind His Word. Although the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was literal, that tree represented much more than just bark and limbs, it represented man’s ability to reason over the Word of God. God’s Word cannot be interpreted with man’s knowledge and wisdom, it can only be revealed to us by the Father above.

Lucifer, that condemned creature of disobedience, slips in and strategically plots their destruction. He knows Adam and Eve were given a choice. He is full of deceit and corruption, religious and very pious. He begins to quote Scripture, but he leaves a gap so he could spray his poisonous doctrine. He adds just one little word to what God had said by asking a question, “Hath God really said, you shall not eat from every tree of the garden?”

When Eve quotes to him what God had said, he contradicts the Word and tells her, “You shall not surely die. In the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil.”

Eve listened to Satan’s lie, gave unto Adam, and he took also. In an act of rebellion, they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and it plunged the human race into death and damnation, sickness and sorrow, creating a chasm that could not be crossed, a gulf that only God could span. All our suffering down through the ages was because of what happened in the Garden.

They were driven out from the Garden of Eden, and God placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

The Tree of Life represented Jesus Christ, and Jesus holds the key to eternal life. If eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil brought death and separation from God, then partaking of the Tree of Life would bring life eternal.

The plan of redemption was beginning to unfold. No longer were they in the position to just grab a hold of the fruit of the Tree of Life. They were barred, so they would not live eternally in their sinful condition. A way of forgiveness was to be made and God’s plan of redemption was to unfold.

God watches Adam and Eve. They’re His children. He is a Father. He looks at them, and all that great space came down to one word: L-o-v-e. He loved them so, He couldn’t let them go. So He called to them, and promised to become their Savior. (Gen. 3:15)

The Price of Redemption

Gethsemane laid before Him. The greatest test, that final, all-sufficient test must come in which the burdens, the past, present and future sins of the entire world would be laid upon shoulders. No one else in heaven or earth could have stood it.

We picture Him, a great Hero, squaring His shoulders, marching to Calvary saying, “I will suffer, I will die for lost humanity.” No, it wasn’t that way. He was enough man so He could have failed, but every day He brought His flesh under subjection to the Father’s will. In His human body He was tempted in like manner we are tempted, yet without sin. He lived as a man, He understood the vices of the flesh, the pulls of carnality and the cravings of the fleshly body, but He sinned not.

His greatest struggle was between the Spirit and the flesh. His flesh was saying, “No, let this cup pass from Me,” but the God in Him drove Him to the cross. Every fiber of His being strained under the burden of conflict. “Must I yield or must I run?” The pressure upon Him was so great, if He would ever have left us alone, it would have been in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus fell on His face and struggled. He suffered so hard until water and blood of His body separated, the capillaries of His skin burst, His sweat became drops of blood. In Gethsemane’s loneliness He screamed, “Oh Father, if it be possible, let the cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done.”

There was nothing consoling, nothing peaceful about Gethsemane. All the demons of torment stood there to tempt Him, to try to add to His agony, yet He overcame. There came the greatest victory proving His Messiahship, when He said to the Father, “Not My will, but Thine be done. Oh God, I am willing to drink the cup.

He was willing to bridge the gulf between God and fallen humanity, willing to lay down His body, willing to make a bridge and say, “Step over Me, children. Step over Me.” Man had no way to get back to God, and Jesus was willing to lay Himself down, with His hands raised to heaven and His feet on earth, and span the mighty gulf between the cliff. “Children, step over Me! Step over Me.”

Roman crucifixion was so cruel. Jesus took our place at Calvary, dying. His life’s blood ebbing out of His system, and the reason why blood and water flowed when they pierced His side was because His heart was bursting in two under the physical and emotional strain, and the pressure of carrying the sin of the whole world. Our sin.

The fluid of His heart was running loose through His body, so that when they pierced Him in the side, pure water, pure fluid mixed in with the blood ran out from His heart. His very Life’s blood was draining, ebbing out until the ground was soggy. He did it for us. Only one drop of His precious blood would have been sufficient to save every sinner on the face of the world.

And why was that blood so special? The blood that redeemed mankind was specially, specifically created by God to purchase our sins. And He died on the cross crying, “It is Finished!” And the way was made.

Ye Must be Born Again

Every individual is confronted with the same decision. “Will I believe God’s way, or man’s way?” Man’s struggle down through the ages for knowledge of good and evil has caused people to be swept into the seductive lies of Satan by believing man’s ideas that do not line up with God’s Absolute, His holy written Word. Satan is just as cunning today as he was in Eden. He is plotting away to kill and destroy. He doesn’t care if you join church or put your name on a church roll. He knows that doesn’t save you.

I am here for one purpose, and that is to raise up the blood-stained banner of Jesus Christ and tell you there is no salvation in any church membership, weekly masses. There is only one way of escape from hell. There is only one way of salvation, and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for you. Accepting anyone else’s forgiveness plans other than the one already laid out by God Himself, you are going the wrong direction.

God’s Word gives us a straight answer in John 3:1-7. “Ye must be born again!”

“Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night and asked,

  1. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

  2. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

  3. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

  4. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

  5. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

  6. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

  7. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

9.Nicodemus answered and said, unto him, How can these things be?(John 3:3-7)

What is the new birth? There are three elements that constitute a birth. As it is with a natural birth, so is it with the spiritual birth. It comes in three steps, - water, blood and spirit.

The new birth is a nature change, it is a change of heart. The new birth does not come about by theology or intellectual conception, membership of a church will not do it, but the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and unrighteousness.

When God gives you His Life and you are born of His Spirit, He gives you a part of Himself. You become a new creation. When you experience the new birth, your life reflects what you have become on the inside. You will know it by the kind of life it makes you live, by the love and faith in your heart to Him. Your life proves it as you walk in love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, patience. Others will see the reflection of Jesus Christ in you, as you take on Jesus by a spiritual baptism.

When the real, genuine love of God comes into a human being by the new birth, he becomes a son or daughter of God, and his affections are on things above. Be not deceived. If Jesus Christ doesn’t live in you by the new birth that changes your whole nature, your attitude, everything into the very nature of Jesus Christ, you are lost. Satan doesn’t care how good you are. If goodness could have saved mankind, Jesus would not have had to die.

If God begins to deal with your heart and draws you by His Spirit, you will be driven to obey the Scriptures. Repent! Repent! God’s Word bids you to repent.

What is repentance? Is it like turning over a new leaf? No, you’ve got the same leaf on the other side. Is it like making a New Year’s resolution? No. Those are made in a hurry and broken just as quickly. Is it like making a three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn? No, many people have done that and were right where they started. They kept living as they did before.

God is calling us to repent of our sins and turn around and go in the other direction. Repentance is: Making right the wrongs we have done. When God truly touches your heart, you are interested in falling on your face, crying out to the living God, so you can be justified by faith. Brother, sister, it is a birth!

By faith we are justified. Let me break down the word “justification” for you. The word justified means, “Just as though you have never done it, as though you have never sinned.” Only God can give you such forgiveness, that your sins are not only covered, but they are remitted, as though you never owed the sin debt. Jesus Christ not only covered our sins, He took our sins away and He erased our slate clean. He said, “You are perfected by My blood as though you have never sinned.”

You don’t have to make an altar at the front of a church, you can make an altar in your heart right now, wherever you may be. Right now, you can call on the Name of the Lord and ask the Lord for forgiveness and be saved.

When you have repented of your sins, you are to follow the commandments of the Bible and be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, (Acts 2:38) and allow God to sanctify you.

Sanctification is the next step in the work of grace. When God has come into your heart by sanctification, the world holds no attraction for you. You are going to be so in love with Jesus, you are not going to have room for the things of the world. You’ve got to fall in love with Truth. (Without Holiness, no man shall see God.)

Flesh and blood and carnality can never inherit the Kingdom of heaven, but when that which is eternal, the Spirit of God, comes and lives in our soul, we will live forever. What a revelation! God is revealing His mysterious plan of salvation and bringing it down to our level in such simplicity, so the poor, the common can understand.

Step number three is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without the Holy Ghost, you are only potentially saved. In a natural birth, you’re not born when the water breaks. You’re not born when the blood comes. You are born when the life comes forth. There comes an issue of water, an issue of blood, an issue of life.” .

Justification alone doesn’t give you enough of that life. Just receiving sanctification by the washing of the Water of the Word doesn’t give you enough of that Life. But when you receive His Life, The Zoe Life of God, the Holy Ghost into your life, then you’re a new creature. You are no longer just potentially saved. You have received the new birth.

My precious friend, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? (Acts 19)