I want to conclude our brief look at God’s great plan of redemption with the climax and fulfillment of that plan which began before the foundation of the world. The goal and purpose of all that went before was to lead man to the life of Jesus Christ where reconciliation would be made possible.

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes." (Rom. 10:4.) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Eph. 1:3-4.) "All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Rev. 13:8.)

"And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled." (Acts 3:17-18; note also verses 19-26.)

Since redemption is so singularly focused upon Jesus Christ, there are some things that we should know and remember about Him and the nature of that salvation in Christ.

We will not be able to fully understand and embrace the significance of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ until we acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth is God among men. One of his names, Immanuel, means God with us. (Matt. 1:23.) God paid the ransom price; God took upon Himself our guilt and sin; Jesus is the "Word made flesh and dwelt among among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." (John 1:14.)

When Isaac, the young lad, plaintively asked his father, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." (Gen. 22:7-8.) The ram caught in the thicket was the immediate provision of God, but Jesus was the ultimate lamb that would be offered as a sacrifice for mankind.

I recently watched a Talk Show where a minister was being quizzed and ridiculed. (Phil Donahue with Jerry Falwell.) Surprisingly, the live audience was very supportive of the minister. The Talk Show host was trying to make the Christian minister’s belief in the exclusive sacrifice of Jesus Christ look unacceptable and bigoted. He turned to the camera and to the audience saying, Look, you just cannot believe that salvation is only for those who believe in Jesus Christ. What about all the Jews and Muslims in the world. The minister replied, The only thing that I know is that Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father but by me." (John 14:6.) That statement would be unacceptable if Jesus were just another man or prophet on the level with Muhammed, Hira Krishna, Moses, Joseph Smith, or others. But Jesus is God coming to earth to pay the redemptive price for lost man.

Why shouldn’t we believe that? What is there is in logic, philosophy, history, etc. that makes such a belief wrong? Nothing at all. It does not matter how many people believe or disbelieve something. That does not nullify the truth that salvation is found only in Jesus Christ. The main point of the argument was that we cannot say that Jesus is the only Savior because there are so many other world religions and followers. The argument then is, The majority makes something right. But we know that that is not true. In addition, If we put Jesus on the same level with other religious leaders and prophets of history, that does not mean that salvation is possible for all those religions. It means that none of them has a Savior. Why? Because sinful leaders cannot save other sinners. Muhammed was a sinner; so was Hira Krishna, Moses, and all others. Jesus Christ was not a sinner! He was God in the flesh. That truth makes all the difference in the world.

If the gift, the means of our redemption, were anything other than God Himself, then the gift would not be sufficient for our salvation. If our hope for eternal life is going to be based upon something, it needs to be sufficient to bring to pass eternal life for us.

The Hebrew writer said, "For the Law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins." (Heb. 10:1-4.)

This statement says simply and powerfully that the sacrifices of the Old Testament were not sufficient. They were temporary and served as a shadow of good things to come in the new covenant. One test for the sufficiency of the sacrifice for man’s sins is the effect of that sacrifice or sacrifices upon the worshipper. If he still has a conscience that condemns him, then something is wrong with the sacrifice or the worshipper’s understanding of the sacrifice. If the sacrifice has to be repeated year by year, then the continual offering of the sacrifice declares the insufficiency of the sacrifice. The Hebrew writer said that Jesus was once offered. This stood in bold contrast with the daily, weekly and yearly offerings under the Jewish covenant.

"For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Heb. 9:26-28.)

Just as we have made a comparison to Jewish sacrifices to the all sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we can also do so with other things that worshippers tend to rely upon. I was shocked to hear these words from a person who is a member of a rather conservative religious body that believes in Jesus Christ. She was also a member of the Eastern Star organization, a group for women of Masons. I asked why she felt the need for something other than her membership in a church that honors Jesus Christ. She replied, "I feel more confident about my salvation by belonging to both the Eastern Star and my church." But if we need something else other than the body of Christ, then Jesus Christ alone is not sufficient. The Bible declares that He is the only sacrifice for sin that we will ever need.

Like an arrow pointing through the centuries of time, Jesus of Nazareth is clearly identified as the right sacrifice. From "the seed of woman" to "the root of Jesse" to "the root out of a dry ground" to "the one born of a virgin," Jesus is clearly the one sent from God to be the Savior. (Gen. 3:15, Isa. 11:10, Isa. 53:2, Isa. 7:14.) The majority of sermons presented by the apostles and preachers of the first century were messages designed to establish that the promised Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth. (Acts) Over 300 prophecies point to this One as the right sacrifice for sin. This is an important point that modern audiences and believers take for granted. What a terrible mistake to be trusting in the wrong sacrifice for reconciliation to God!

"This is the stone which was set at nought by your builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12.) "For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 3:11.)

From these building analogies, it is evident that time was required to lay the proper foundation before the building, the church, could be constructed. The Bible speaks of the right time or the fullness of time.

"Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. But he is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Gal. 4:1-6.)

Time, much time, was needed to prepare man to receive the Christ. Man needed to understand sin. "For by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Rom. 3:20.) The law brought man to Christ by pointing out man’s need for a Redeemer and by exalting the holiness of God. During this time, the foundation was being laid for man to accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. A physical lineage was being established so that there could be no doubt as to the identity of the Savior; a spiritual necessity was being laid so that man would be ready to lay down his burden at the foot of the cross. Jesus is the right sacrifice for sin.

"But I fear, lest my any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him. ("You put up with that quite easily," says the NIV.) (2 Cor. 11:4.)

In the conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, God defeated the old Devil, the red dragon or Satan. Nothing and no one could stop the plan of God to bring the Redeemer to earth. Jesus died for our sins and was raised according to Scripture. But the final danger in man missing out on the blessings in Christ Jesus is the one named by Paul. (2 Cor. 11:4, Rom. 9:30-32, Gal. 1:6-8.)

Who is the other Jesus that the Corinthians and Galatians might be seduced, like Adam and Eve were, to turn to? What is the other gospel which is really not another? What is the other spirit to which Paul referred? There was not another person named by Paul that the Corinthians had accepted other than Jesus of Nazareth. Here is the final danger that believers face.

The final danger is to partially rely upon Jesus while trusting in yourself. Paul wrote that this frustrates the grace of God and makes the death of Jesus vain. (Gal. 2:21.) Those at Corinth and Galatia were being tempted to turn away from the all-sufficient Christ to a weaker Christ who needed his work supplemented by ours. The Judaizers taught that the Gentiles needed to keep the Law of Moses and be circumcised. (Acts 15:1-5.)

"This only would I learn of you, Received you the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain." (Gal. 3:2-4.)