A Plan Of Deliverance

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
–Colossians 1:13-14

On November 27, 2003, six hundred US soldiers who were stationed in Iraq assembled for Thanksgiving dinner. Little did they know of the elaborate preparations that had gone into that meal. Hours earlier, President George W. Bush had left his house in an unmarked car and boarded Air Force One for a secret trip to Iraq. He would be the first president to ever visit that war-torn country. As Air Force One approached Baghdad, the captain turned off all the interior lights, and the plane landed under cover of darkness. In the mess hall, an administrator went up to the podium to read the president’s Thanksgiving proclamation, a task for the most senior official present. He asked, “Is there anybody back there more senior than us?” On cue, the president stepped out from behind the stage and the crowd went wild. They could not believe the president was there with them. Later, the media asked President Bush why he went to all that trouble. He said, “I thought it was important to send that message that we care for them.”

In the first round of the eternal battle between God and Satan, Satan enacted a plan to deceive mankind. But then in round two, which I call “Deliverance,” God instigated His plan to save us, when Jesus Christ left the security of heaven and came to this war-torn planet.

Jesus’s visit to earth differed from President Bush’s visit to Iraq in two important ways. First of all, the president’s visit was planned so that he might escape death, but Jesus’s visit to earth was planned so that He might experience death. Jesus’s death was not some accident; it was a part of God’s plan in order to rescue us from the domain of Satan. That leads to the second difference: the president came to reassure the troops; Jesus came to rescue the troops. Colossians 1:13-14 says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.” The reason Jesus came to experience death was so that we could be redeemed. In Greek, the word for “redemption” referred to the marketplace where slaves were bought and sold. If you paid the right price, you could take the slave out of the market, and he or she would become your slave. This was not so you could set the slave free to do whatever he or she wanted to do; you were simply transferring ownership. When Jesus came to earth, He paid the ultimate price for our redemption. We were redeemed out of the slave market of sin and death not so we could live however we want to live, but so we could serve Jesus instead of serving Satan. That is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know . . . that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price.” The reason Jesus came was not simply to reassure us; He came to rescue us.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “War Of The Worlds” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2010.

“Bush Makes Surprise Visit To Troops In Baghdad,” Fox News, November 28, 2003, https://www.foxnews.com/story/bush-makes-surprise-visit-to-troops-in-baghdad.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.