The Biblical Story of God, Man, Sin, and Redemption – Part 5: Jesus (the Messiah) Comes
August 29, 2025
by Dennis Christian
(As drawn from the pages of Holy Scripture)
Table of Contents
Part 1 – Overview
Before Creation
God’s decision to create man
God’s purpose required man to be made in His image
The foreseen sin of man an obstacle to God’s purpose for creating him
God’s predetermined solution (the Cross) to the obstacle
Part 2 – Creation
Creation’s beginning:
Creation completes with the addition of man
Possible interpretations
Part 3 – After creation – the first humans
God’s purposes for creation were ready to be fulfilled:
The commandment, which exposed mankind’s vulnerability to sin, Adam and Eve (the Fall):
Paul’s exposition on the Law from Romans 7:
Sin’s impact on creation, mankind:
Paul’s exposition on the Fall from Romans 5 and 8
Part 4 – God’s predetermined plan to rescue sinful man begins, unfolding over time
God’s love for Adam and Eve (mankind) despite their sin
God wants to walk with man, but few will
Enoch, a descendant of Adam’s son Seth, was one of the few.
God’s grief over mankind’s rampant sin
Noah and the Flood
God selects a family, which will become a nation, through whom the Messiah will come:
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: God’s chosen people Israel
Joseph a type of the Future Messiah
Israel grows to the size of a nation
Moses and the Exodus, Moses and the Law
Joshua leads the Hebrews into the promised land (Canaan)
The Battle of Jericho
Canaan is divided among the twelve tribes of Israel
Israel ruled by Judges
Saul becomes the first king of Israel
David, slayer of Goliath then becoming a mighty king
Solomon and the peak of Israel’s earthly strength, wealth, and glory
Israel’s failures, but God’s faithfulness
Part 5 – Jesus (the Messiah) comes:
The ministry of Jesus
The Cross – His primary purpose for coming
What the cross did for mankind
How the cross did it
God’s purpose for creating mankind and His purpose for mankind restored for believers
God’s fulfillment of promises to both Jew and gentile – united now as one people, the principal role of His chosen people fulfilled
Part 6 – Jesus’ future 2nd coming and the end times
Uncertainties of the end time events
The rapture and great tribulation
The Day of the Lord
Judgment
The end state(s) of mankind and all creation
Part 5
Jesus (the Messiah) comes: God’s plan before creation was that at the right time in history He God would come to earth as a man – a Being that would be both God and man. The Being would be God so He could pay the penalty for all the sins of all mankind, and He would be a man because the penalty of sin is death, and God the Father is an eternal Being and cannot die. The way God made this happen was for the Spirit of God to overshadow and young woman (Mary) and cause her to conceive the Being that was both God and man – Jesus. We all are familiar with the Christmas story as given in the book of Luke. That first Christmas morn when Jesus was born was the most profound, greatest day to that point in the long history and story of God and man. God had come to earth!!!
Only two other days are more important – the day Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins and the day He rose from the grave to prove He was God indeed and conqueror of sin and death.
We know little of Jesus life after birth until He began His earthly ministry at the age of 30. There is one account; it was when His family went to the Passover in Jerusalem when He was about 12 years old. He had secretly stayed behind in Jerusalem when His family returned to their home in Nazareth. When he was discovered missing, the parents went back to Jerusalem and after looking for some time, they found him in the Temple conversing with the scribes and priests. When asked why he didn’t say where he would be, Jesus replied, “Didn’t you know that I would be about my father’s business?” Even at that age, Jesus knew He was the Son of God.
The ministry of Jesus
In the three years of His ministry, Jesus enlisted 12 disciples to be his close companions and helpers, He preached that the people repent of their sins and that the kingdom of God was at hand. He presented the good news of the gospel – that He would suffer and die for the sins of all people, and that people could be forgiven of their sins by repenting of them and believing in Him and what He would do for them by dying on the cross to pay for their sins. To prove He was of God, He performed many miracles including healing many and various diseases, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feeding thousands with 3 loaves and 5 fish, raising the dead, casting out demons, commanding nature, even walking on water.
The Cross – His primary purpose for coming
Jesus stated openly that He was God come to earth with statements such as, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” and “I am the I AM.” The I AM was how God had identified Himself to Moses in the burning bush. The Jewish leaders didn’t believe He was of God, accused him of blasphemy, had Him arrested, and pressured the Roman command to crucify Him. As Jesus predicted, He rose from the grave on the third day, ascended back to heaven, and promised He would return one day to judge mankind.
What the cross did for mankind
As mentioned in Part 1 God’s predetermined solution (the Cross) to the obstacle, the cross or Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross was God’s loving solution to solve man’s sin problem so we could have the mutual loving relationship with God that He desired with each of us. Jesus took on Himself the punishment due all of us for our sins and offered forgiveness to all as a gift. Our part was to acknowledge our sin in an attitude of repentance and believe in what Jesus did for us – believe to the extent of trusting in it or relying on it for forgiveness and making us right with God. John 3:16 affirms that whoever believes shall not perish for their sins but have everlasting life in heaven with God.
How the cross did it
One could argue that God is sovereign, and if He wanted to suffer and die as Christ in our place, that was His prerogative. But God had a principle He used to do it. Jesus shared that principle during His ministry. It is this, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.” John 15:13 God applied this principle to the ultimate when He demonstrated His great love for us and laid down His life as God the Son to save mankind form our sins. Paul later pointed out that when Jesus died in our place, all our sins were assigned to Him, and Jesus’ perfect righteousness was assigned to each of us who believe.
God’s purpose for creating mankind and His purpose for mankind restored for believers
After the cross and after one believes, when God looks at a believer, He sees him as righteous and can have the mutual, loving relationship and fellowship He desired. God wants all to believe so He can have this relationship, but He does not force it. Jesus commissioned believers to tell the rest of mankind – each generation – about the loving gospel of God and His Christ. To kick start this for the Gentile world, Jesus stopped God-zealous Saul of Tarsus in his tracks in a heavenly intervention turning Saul into the Apostle Paul – the greatest missionary of all time. Through Paul’s ministry the gospel spread through Asia Minor and Europe like wild fire, and Christianity became the largest belief system on earth.
God’s fulfillment of promises to both Jew and gentile – united now as one people, the principal role of His chosen people fulfilled
As Paul pointed out, once Christ came through the Jewish people, there was now neither Jew nor Greek, Jew nor Gentile, king or slave, man or woman. The identity as a believer in Christ made all as brothers and sisters on equal footing in the Kingdom of God – the church of God. God had produced the Messiah through a people He had chosen, and their primary purpose was fulfilled. Their future role in God’s plan is subject to Biblical interpretation. Some interpret scripture to say that the church has replaced the Jews as the chosen people – the children of the promise. Others interpret scripture to say that the Jewish people still have a special role in God’s plan for the future.
Nest: Jesus’ 2nd coming and the end times
