The Song Beneath the Stories Part Four: Redemption

Our Fall Learning Cohort is a six-week exploration of the overarching theme of all of Scripture: The Gospel of Jesus Christ!

We’re offering the cohort in two ways:

  1. In-Person, Sundays at 9am

  2. Online via Facebook Live, Wednesdays at 7pm. These will be taught live, but will remain available for streaming afterward.

We’ll be posting the hand-outs for the sessions here on the blog. This week’s is The Song Beneath the Stories Part Four: Redemption.

For a downloadable PDF version, click here!

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 The effects of sin are wide-reaching. Because of sin we have a guilty record, a corrupt heart, broken communities, and a chaotic world. But sin will not have the final word. This leads us to the third movement of the Biblical symphony: Redemption.

Into our world shattered by the Fall, God promises to provide a Redeemer to destroy sin and restore relationship with humanity. As he says throughout Scripture: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”  

This promise grows throughout the Old Testament like an acorn into an oak tree. God’s promises to Abraham, Moses, and David are all stages of growth pointing forward to the fullness of the promise: God with us in Jesus Christ. (Matthew 1.23)

In Jesus, the eternal Son of God “became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” (John 1.14) which means that Jesus is fully God and fully human. Jesus is more than a religious leader giving us advice about how to live good lives. He arrives announcing the coming of the kingdom of God and in his life, death, and resurrection he achieves victory that he announces to us: Good News that through him God has brought forgiveness, transformation, and hope to our world. 

And that means that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus changes everything for us. Scripture uses many images to describe what Jesus accomplished: a sacrifice of atonement, victory over death and Satan, light coming into darkness, satisfying God’s justice against sin, and life and love invading a world of death and violence. 

But that’s not the end of the story. Jesus not only announces Good News, he applies it to our lives. We’ll talk about that next week with the fourth and final Act of the biblical story: Restoration. 

Questions for Reflection

  1. What’s the difference between Jesus and other religious leaders throughout history?

  2. Just like sin impacts every part of our life, the redemption of Jesus touches every part of who we are. What does the redemption of Jesus mean for our friendships? Our work? Our families?

Tim Inman