God’s Desire & Our Design
This past Sunday in our “Step In” series, we ‘stepped in’ to an enormous topic: redemption. Redemption is a kind of umbrella word for everything that God in Christ and through the Spirit has done, is doing, and will do for us – to restore us to the life God always meant for us to live (ie, life with God…eternal life). See what I mean? It’s an enormous topic. We ‘stepped in’ to it, but really, it’s like we just barely dipped our toes into the ocean that is redemption.
Where to even start?
In the discipleship workbook (Discipleship Essentials) we’re using in our Step Groups, this week’s chapter on Redemption starts by asking how Christ reconciled the broken relationship between God and humanity. The answer the book gives is right of 1 Timothy 2. Look at what Paul writes there:
… God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For
there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
6 who gave himself a ransom for all
—this was attested at the right time. 7 For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
On Sunday, we talked about how ‘redemption’ is primarily a metaphor from the world of slavery. If one were to purchase a person out of slavery – or, ‘redeem’ them out of slavery – the payment made was called the “ransom”. You can see the connections Paul is making – Jesus himself was the ransom paid to redeem humanity from slavery (to Sin and Death). Thus, Jesus is the mediator – the ‘go-between’ between God and humankind, who gave himself up for us – to reconcile us to God, and to redeem us for Him. In the words of Sunday’s message,
Jesus brings “God to people, and people to God”.
But what is fascinating about this ‘redemption moment’ in Paul’s letter to Timothy, is why he’s saying all of this. It’s not just to drop a bit of theological knowledge of Timothy.
It’s to explain what we are designed for, what we’re here for, what our mission is.
Did you catch what Paul said in verse 4? He says that God our Savior “desires that everyone be saved”. That’s what God wants, what he desires, from the deep, passionate core God’s very being – he doesn’t want any to perish. God wants everyone to be saved, and to know the truth (about who God is? Yes! About the boundless reach of God’s love? Yes! But more than that: God wants everyone to know the true God personally, in a way that saves!).
He wants all to be saved because ultimately, God created all, loves all, and sent Jesus for all. [Whether God gets what God wants is another question – because it seems like we have the (insane) ability to say “no!” to God (to our own destruction – an impossible possibility!). But that’s another blog for another time!]
The point I want you to see is how big – boundless, expansive, limitless – infinite – God’s love, grace, reach, and saving will is.
Is your understanding of God’s loving grace as big as that?
Is it as big as Paul’s? Because there’s more. In verse 7, Paul says that it was “for this”, that he was appointed a herald (a messenger/announcer/hype-man) and an apostle, a teacher to those who don’t know it – and so who don’t know God. It’s “for this” that Paul was given this commission and mission to the world.
Let’s put it all together: God wants everyone to know him and be saved, and so God chose Paul “for this” – to make that come about.
But God didn’t just choose Paul: he chose you and I too. He chose us, the Church: the Church – worldwide throughout history – and us, this church – Central Baptist – on the corner of 3rd and E Highland.
And all of this gets back to what I said on Sunday: we are saved, redeemed, forgiven, reconciled, justified, graced, given life – because of God’s great love, yes and Amen! – and we are given all of that “for this”: so that we can see others saved, redeemed, forgiven, reconciled, justified, graced, given new life.
It’s what God wants.
In other words, we are given all of that, so that through us, God can get what he desires.
We, the church, are God’s plan A for getting what God wants (as crazy as that might sound!). So let’s get to it. Let’s be about that plan and share God’s loving grace with those around us today, and everyday.