If you ask the average Christian “What did Christ do for you?” you will likely get a response that reflects the sentiment that He saved me from my sins. Yes, that is true, in part. Ron Popeil was known for his attention-grabbing line toward the end of his infomercials “But wait…there’s more!” And there is more to Jesus’ sacrifice.
We are all fallen beings, Adam’s sin is known as the fall. At that point the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience happened. We became a fallen human race. As sinful beings, we needed help. From a human view, you could say that God switched from a failed Plan A to a backup Plan B. But I don’t think that was it at all.
Our God is an omniscient God – a God who knows all. The events in the Garden of Eden came as no surprise to God. There was no Plan B. To redeem fallen mankind, God’s plan all along was to send Jesus to earth to redeem us. Redeem has several descriptive meanings. One is “to buy back.” Another definition is “to free from captivity by payment of a ransom” A third definition is “to free from the consequences of sin.” In other words, we belonged to God. When we sinned, a separation from God occurred. In order to restore us, God redeemed us, buying back what was already His. Redeemer is one of my favorite names for God.
The story of Hosea is a picture of redemption. God told Hosea to marry Gomer, a prostitute who was unfaithful to him and left him. We are told he bought her back for 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley, a significant price. This is what God has done for us. We were His and we sinned. God bought us back (redeemed us) by sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins. As wonderful as it is to be redeemed and saved for our sins, that is not everything that Jesus did for us.
The purpose of redemption in Christ is to raise mankind above the level of the Adamic Covenant, God’s arrangement in which He planned to save man from the just consequences of sin. This was accomplished when Christ died on the cross. In the mid-to-late twentieth century, there was a late-late night series of informationals on television.
Not only did Jesus’ sacrifice restore us to Adamic Grace, it raised us above the level of Adam. In I Corinthians 15:45-49 we read:
The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
The first Adam was a natural man. We bear his physical image. Adam was made in the image of God. This is not a physical image as God is Spirit, Our likeness to God includes mentally, morally, and socially likenesses. Mentally, we are created as beings who can reason and choose. reflecting God’s intellect and freedom. Morally, we reflect God’s holiness. Socially, humanity was created for fellowship. This reflects God’s triune nature and His love.
All of this unmistakably points to humanity reflecting God. Indeed, through the blood of Jesus, “we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:17). Jesus accomplished this for us. Lyrics from Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up,”express what God has done for us:
“You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be.”
Wonderfully Plagued 