Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of LifeSample

No story is more humbling, more beautiful, and more hope-instilling than the biblical story of redemption.

If someone were to ask you what the Bible is about, what would you say? How would you describe the content of God’s word? What would you tell people to convince them that the Bible is the most important book ever written? The Bible is more than a history book, a theology book, a book of practical everyday wisdom, or a book of hope for troubled times. The Bible is essentially a grand origin-to-destiny narrative. It’s God’s story, accompanied by his explanatory and applicatory notes. One big theme holds together all the different parts of the Bible and all its different genres of literature. That theme is the theme of redemption. The Bible is the story of God’s unleashing his power in order to provide the one thing that everyone needs: redemption. We need to be redeemed not just from the trials of life or our inadequacies or our weaknesses. No, we need to be redeemed from our sin. The main target of God’s redeeming grace and power is not something outside of us, but something dark and destructive that lives inside of us.

The biblical story is marked by moments when God unleashes his redeeming power so that his plan marches on until sin is finally and completely defeated and peace and righteousness reign on earth forever and ever.

The liberation of Israel from Egypt is one of those redemptive moments. The children of Israel cannot be exterminated in Egypt because the Messiah must come out of Egypt to provide final redemption for the chosen children of God (see Hos. 11:1). God demonstrates his lordship over every aspect of creation by unleashing his power in ten mind-blowing plagues. He is a covenant-keeping King, and he will do whatever is necessary, in his incalculable might, to deliver his children. This demonstration of his almighty power makes it clear that he will not abandon his promises. His will will be done (Ex. 12:33–42).

You have to stand as a witness to this incredible physical display of the enormity of the power and rule of the Lord and ask, “Who is a God like our God? Who loves his children like our God? Who is faithful like our God?” As you stand in awe of this picture of the power of God’s redeeming mercy, it is vital to remember that in this moment God is not just moving to redeem Israel from its slavery in Egypt, but he is also moving to redeem us from our slavery to sin. If there had been no redemption from Egypt and no delivery to the promised land, there would have been no Messiah born in Bethlehem to live a perfectly righteous life, die a substitutionary death, and rise victorious over sin and death. All the redemptive moments in the Old Testament are not just for the people at the time, but they are for us too. In each moment God is fulfilling the promise he made in Genesis 3 that he would send a Redeemer to crush the head of the serpent, defeating sin and death. The story of the plagues is your story. The redeeming grace is not just for them but for you right here, right now.

For further study and encouragement: Titus 3:3–7