The Beautiful Plan of Redemption

These are some verses that I've been meditating on a lot lately. I've arranged them to help me think through telling the story of redemption to others.

God created us in His image and was in perfect relationship with us (Genesis 1-2).

We were deceived and turned our backs on God (Genesis 3).

Since then, no one has been righteous. Not even one. All of us fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10, 23). We deserve to be eternally separated from God for all eternity (Romans 6:23).

Since all of us have turned from God and are unable to save ourselves, God planned a rescue operation that was only His doing (Jonah 2).

Jesus was the plan (John 3:16).

He went to the cross to give us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

We receive Jesus' righteousness as a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9) after we hear the gospel proclaimed to us (Ephesians 1:13) and the Holy Spirit convicts us (John 16:8) of the bad things we've done and the good things we've worshiped apart from God (Romans 1:25).

Some religious people reject God's rescue plan through Jesus and so they create other things to do to appear righteous before God (Romans 10:3). These people will not spend eternity with God (Matthew 7). These people experience worldly grief (a guilt that spurs them to make themselves holy by doing good things), not godly grief (a guilt that spurs us to call out and plead with Jesus to give us His holiness) (2 Corinthians 7:10).

For those who do not cling to their own righteousness, but plead for mercy, the Holy Spirit is sent to dwell in their hearts and renew them them day by day so that they can become the people that God intended them to be (Titus 3:4-6). The Holy Spirit produces in these people the same kind of loving affection for God the Father that Jesus had (Galatians 4:6).

These people become confrontational messengers and go on to spread the news (Acts 2:38) that Jesus is our only hope to get back into right relationship with the Father again (John 14:6).

One day Jesus will come back to completely put an end to Satan, sin, and death (Revelation 12:10).

When that happens, just like the beginning of the story, we will live in perfect relationship with God and dwell with Him forever (Revelation 21:3).