“Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”
If you are unable to fully comprehend how this could all be, do not despair. Simply believe in this great provision that God the father has made for you and me, and all will be revealed in time. There is both justice and mercy evident in this plan of salvation: justice, in that God has offered pardon to the believer not because he is good and feels like it, but because the perfect sacrifice or atonement for each of us has been made by Jesus Christ incarnate; and mercy, in that God has allowed for such a substitute sacrifice to be acceptable to him, and not just that, but has prepared the substitute sacrifice himself. This is not just a writing off of our sins; it is a plan that allows for the perfect sacrifice to take the place of our life so that we might find our eternal place with him. This is a “long-range plan” as our translation of these verses offers today.
