A PLANNED RESCUE
Carey Madding
Today's Scripture: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16, ESV
Theme: God’s holiness and His love resulted in the perfect sacrifice—Jesus—so that you could be with Him eternally.
SAVED FROM THE FIRE
A dear friend of mine lost her house and her belongings to a fire many years ago. Several of her Life Group friends came to help rescue what they could. They researched the best way to save the soggy pictures and how to restore other precious articles. Not much was saved, but some very valuable (sentimentally) objects were rescued.
OBVIOUS CHOICES
It makes me think: If a flash flood or fire was breaking out and I was at my house, what would I grab, even at the risk of my life? When the airline stewards tell me in the safety lecture, “If this happens, leave all your belongings,” I always think, “Surely I can grab my itty-bitty purse!” What precious things come to your mind?
Although we think about pictures, purses, and passports, we would never grab them before our family, friends, or even pets in the house with us. Our priority would be saving lives, not possessions. We know how precious those lives are, which makes the sacrifice God made – offering up His only Son – that much more impossible for us to comprehend.
GOD PLANNED OUR SALVATION
Yet unlike those surprised by a fire, God was not caught unaware. He was making a way to escape the disaster of eternal death, even the fires of hell, from the very first sin. He had a plan to save us all, by giving up the most important offering. We first hear hints that Jesus will come and defeat the enemy in Genesis 3, when God speaks to the serpent (Satan) and warns him that one day, he will be defeated. When Abel appropriately brought an offering of lambs from his flock, he foreshadowed the perfect offering of the Son of God, for “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22b, ESV).
THE SCARLET THREAD
When the ram was slain in Abraham’s son Isaac’s place, we see the substitutionary sacrifice, and the faith it required. The harlot Rahab, as instructed by the spies, hung a scarlet cord from her window and she was saved. The temple curtains and the High Priest’s ephod were shot through with threads of scarlet, reminding us of the blood of lambs and bull offerings. The Passover Feast is one huge remembrance of the salvation from slavery in Egypt and the curse of the Death Angel, where the blood of a lamb on the doorpost was the required act of faith.
God has loved us eternally, and His rescue plan has been “in the works” since Adam and Eve first brought sin into the world. His plan is for my benefit and my salvation—and yours. But oh Lord, at what a cost!
Make It Personal: What precious things do you possess? Would you sacrifice them on someone else’s behalf? Maybe for an immediate family member, right? But for evil people, no. Never. Take time to consider and be grateful to God.
Pray: Father, I am selfish. I think of myself first, then my family, friends, and my stuff. I cannot comprehend so great a love. My mind cannot imagine such a horrific sacrifice. Thank you for the blood shed for me, the broken body, the separation by sin of the Father and the Son. Thank You so much that now Jesus is King, and I belong to Him. Help me always remember what it cost to pay my debt. In Your Name I pray. Amen.
Read: Genesis 3:14-15, 22:6-14; Exodus 12:5-14; John 1:29
Weekly Memory Verse: ‘Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6, ESV