Gods Plan for Salvation The Beauty of salvation, oh what beauty the world has seen as revealed in the cross of Christ. From ashes to royalty, from sickness to health, from hell to heavens beauty, oh! What wonders are seen in the cross, no eye hath fully seen, no heart can fully comprehend what happened on Calvary’s tree. The story of Salvation began before the foundation of the world, even as declared in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world”. God had a plan to reach man at his lowest state and bring him back into fellowship with him, knowing Adam would sin and lead to man’s separation from him. Psalm 8 KJV: O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens? 2 Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels (Elohiym i.e. God), and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! The above paragraph can be paraphrased as saying “knowing man, in all your splendour and awesomeness, why art thou bothered with him in all his frailties, and why would you want anything to do with him out of all your creatures? Despite the fall of man, God was not done with him yet and that is what the beauty of salvations story is all about. When Adam sinned, the Bible declares God clothed Adams nakedness which was a sign of his broken fellowship and shame. Genesis 3:21 (KJV) 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. God could have ended his fellowship on man and probably created another creature to take pre-eminence and replace Adam in the hierarchy of fellowship with him. God rather began the process of redemption with his friend Adam so that we may once again be called the friends of God. The writer of the book of Luke calls us friends of God Luke 1:3 (KJV) 3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus (Friend of God). God began to show man the natural law of atonement and the only way to access forgiveness. God showed man the way to hold back judgment until the final and perfect price could be paid that is to say the blood of Christ his son. Hebrews 9:22 (BBE) 22 And by the law almost all things are made clean with blood, and without blood there is no forgiveness. Firstly God showed them that sins could be covered when atonement was made through the blood of animals. Then he show’s them that yes sins could be covered for by the blood of animals but it only held back the judgement for one year as it was required to be done each year by the high priest. Hebrews 10:2-4 (BBE) 2 For if this had been possible, would there not have been an end of those offerings, because the worshippers would have been made completely clean and would have been no longer conscious of sins? 3 But year by year there is a memory of sins in those offerings. 4 Because it is not possible for the blood of oxen and goats to take away sins. It was God who initiated the walk back to fellowship and he came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to ensure eternal fellowship was restored with him throughout the ages for mankind. The fullness of his grace was seen in the person of Christ the only one who is worthy to take up the sins of the world. God had a perfect substitute for man as man’s action in the Garden of Eden still required a judgement that was yet to be fulfilled. It had been held back throughout the ages but was surely meant to take place. That judgement was revealed on Calvary’s tree, where he took upon him that punishment that should bring us peace. For upon Calvary’s tree was he wounded for our transgressions, there he was bruised for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us into peace with God was upon him and by his stripes we have been made whole and complete with God once again. John 1:14 (BBE) 14 And so the Word became flesh and took a place among us for a time; and we saw his glory--such glory as is given to an only son by his father--saw it to be true and full of grace. Leviticus 16:20-22 (KJV) 20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. Christ was that perfect sacrifice which once offered had not to be offered every year, having satisfied God’s requirement eternally.