Atonement and the Divine
Initiative
SABBATH AFTERNOON Read for This Week's Study:
| Rom. 3:19–22; 5:6–8; 5:20, 21; Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:26, 27; 2 Tim. 1:8, 9; Titus 1:2. |
Memory Text:
| “And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Ephesians 1:9, 10, NIV). |
Key Thought:
| To show that the Godhead anticipated the Fall, and that a plan was crafted to solve the problem of sin long before it arose. Human beings were given moral freedom, something not found in any of the other creatures that God had created here on earth. Once God endowed them with this freedom, it was theirs, and He could not take it away from them without radically altering their very nature and being. They could use this freedom either to respond positively by rendering to Him, in love and gratitude, faithful obedience, or they could use that freedom and reject the gift of life and disobey the Lord. (After all, if humans didn’t have the option to disobey, they really wouldn’t be free.) God—foreseeing that horrible possibility of disobedience—acted accordingly. Thus, the plan of salvation was conceived in the divine mind long before humans were created and before evil and sin actually appeared, a plan that centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. |
*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 25
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