God’s Plan of Redemption & Salvation

This free Bible lesson, God’s Plan of Redemption, will teach preschool and elementary students about God’s plan of salvation through Jesus.

FOCUS BIBLE PASSAGE: Genesis 12:1-3; Leviticus 17:11; 1 Peter 1:19

This lesson comes from the Seeds of Truth Elementary Bible Curriculum that is free to anyone looking for ideas to "plant seeds" into the hearts of children as they are learning about Jesus. Find more details HERE.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Seeds of Truth podcast, where seeds of biblical truth are planted into the hearts and minds of listeners so they can grow into a relationship with Jesus. I'm your host, Miss Dana. Thank you for joining me today. Let's get started. Hello, friends, and welcome back. Today we are going to be talking about God's plan of redemption. That's a big word. We're going to get to that in just a second. But before we do, I want you to think about a question. Have you ever received a bill that shows how much money you owe for something that you bought? You probably haven't. You may have seen a bill that shows how much money that maybe your parents owe for something that they bought. So in life, we have to pay for things that we want and need. Food costs money, clothes cost money, vacations, and homes cost money. But did you know that sin costs something too? Remember, sin is anything that we think, say, or do that goes against what God wants us to do. Sin is doing things our way instead of God's way. Sin separates us from God. God is perfect and he cannot be in the presence of sin. Sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. So I want you to visualize a piece of paper, a bill that has a list of sins on it. So lying costs$100. Stealing costs$100. Cheating costs$100. A lot is owed for those sins. But then I want you to picture that same bill, and all of the dollar amounts have been marked through. They've been next out. Which bill would you rather have to pay? Would you want to pay the ones that you still owe money on, or would you want to pay the ones that are zero dollars? Now, sins don't really cost money, do they? No, sins don't cost money, but sins do cost something. Do you know what the cost of sin is? Sin costs life. Romans 6.23 tells us when you sin, the pay you get is death. Because of our sin, we owe our life. Because of our sin, we deserve death. We should have to pay for our sins. But did you know that God made a way for us to not have to pay for our sins? God has a plan to save us from the sins that we owe. And that is what our lesson from the Bible is about today. So do you know what the word redemption means? Redemption is a release or a rescue. It's being bought back or saved from something bad. It's trading bad for good, and it's a payment. So sin entered the world through the first people, Adam and Eve, when they chose to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit. Sin separates us from God. So God made a plan to redeem humanity and save us from sin. So as part of the curse for Satan deceiving or tricking Eve into disobedience and sin was that God said to Satan in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15: here's what he said: I will make you and the woman hate each other. Your children and her children will be enemies. Her son will crush your head and you will bite his heel. God was making a promise that there will be a battle between good and evil, but good will win in the end. God was talking about Jesus when he told Eve that her son would crush the head of Satan. Jesus wasn't actually Eve's son, but Jesus was born many years later into the same family line as Adam and Eve. A man named Abram, who was later called Abraham, was born into the same family line as Adam and Eve many years before Jesus came to the earth as a man. In Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, we find out what God said to Abram. He said, Go from your country, your people, and your father's family. Go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. You will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you. I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. All nations on earth will be blessed because of you. Abraham's family was chosen and blessed by God. They became known as the Israelites. They are also known as the Jewish people. Jesus was born into this chosen family as God had promised. We are living on the earth after Jesus came and died on the cross and rose back to life. Before Jesus came to live on the earth, people did not have the option to be saved by believing in Jesus because he had not died on the cross for their sins yet. But the people still sinned. So God had to make a way for them to be forgiven for their sins. Remember, the Bible is divided into two big sections. The Old Testament teaches us about the time before Jesus came to earth, and the New Testament teaches us about the time of Jesus' life on earth and after he died, rose back to life and went back to heaven. So during the time of the Old Testament, the people made sacrifices to God. To sacrifice means to give up something that is very valuable, to show love. A sacrifice is like an offering of something that we really love and that we feel is very valuable. The people who lived before Jesus came to the earth gave offerings and sacrifices to God by giving him their most valuable possessions. A lot of the valuable possessions that the people had were animals like lambs, goats, and bulls, and some people even sacrificed birds. Remember that the price for sin is death. The book of Leviticus teaches us in chapter 17, verse 11, the life of each creature is in its blood. So I have given you the blood of animals to pay for your sin on the altar. Blood is life. That is why blood pays for your sin. See, Jesus paid the price of our sins when he died on the cross and rose back to life. Our sins have been paid for by Jesus, but the people who lived before Jesus died on the cross had to pay for their sin in a different way. Since the price for sin is death, the people during the times of the Old Testament offered sacrifices of their animals to God to pay for their sins. So the death of the animal paid the price for the sin of the people. This is sometimes difficult for us to understand, but the people who lived at that time knew that it had to be done. It was part of their culture, and God had commanded them to do so. God made this act of sacrifice into a system that the people used to give thanks to God, to show him that they love him and to receive forgiveness for their sins. In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, God told Moses to tell the people if someone brings an offering from the herd, they must offer a male animal. So when God said that the animal must not have any flaws, he meant that the animal has to be perfect. It can't have any imperfections. So an animal without any flaws is one that is healthy, uninjured, and has nothing wrong with it. It is spotless. So when the person would sacrifice the spotless animal, that animal would die in the place of the person because the price of sin is death. So the animal would die instead of the person. Jesus is the spotless lamb who died to pay for our sins. How is Jesus spotless? What does that mean? Jesus lived and was tempted, and he never sinned. He was the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins. Because Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, the system of animal sacrifices was not needed any longer. The book of 1 Peter in the New Testament tells us you were bought with the priceless blood of Jesus. He is a perfect lamb. He doesn't have any flaws at all. Animal sacrifices that we read about in the Old Testament were done to cover the sins of the people temporarily. They didn't last forever. But Jesus' sacrifice removed sin from all who believe in him forever. We know that because of our sin, we owe our life. And because of our sin, we deserve death and separation from God. We should have to pay for our sins because when we sin, the pay we get is death. But that verse doesn't stop there, does it, in Romans 6.23? God made a way for us to not have to pay for our sins. The rest of the verse in Romans 6.23 says, But God gives you the gift of eternal life. That's because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done. Sin separates us from God, but God made a plan to rescue us from our sin and separation. He came as a man, Jesus, to the earth to live a perfect life, to die on the cross and to raise back to life. Jesus' sacrifice paid the penalty for the sin of all humanity. When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, it created separation between God and humans. But God had a plan to defeat sin. God always loves us and he never stops caring for us. Even when we sin and disobey him, God is faithful to forgive us when we say we are sorry and we ask him for forgiveness. When we believe in Jesus, we are no longer separated from God. The first people brought sin into the world. Sin brought pain and death into the world. But Jesus took care of the sin in the world when he died on the cross and rose from the dead. When we choose to believe in Jesus and turn away from sin, he saves us. Then when we die on this earth, we get to live forever with Jesus in heaven. Jesus takes away our sin and gives us eternal life. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for making a plan to save us by sending your son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins because you love us so much. We thank you that he rose from the dead and that he is now back in heaven. Help us to continue to learn more about you and grow as we learn. Please help us to make good choices and forgive us when we sin against you. We love you and we pray all of these things in Jesus' sweet name. Amen. I hope that this lesson has made you start thinking a lot about Jesus. And I just hope that you will make a decision to love and follow and trust him. Until next time, God bless. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Seeds of Truth podcast. For more free Bible resources, visit Seeds of Truth Ministries.com.