Redemption Promised

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. John 12:32.

The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God’s favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient. For six thousand years, Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God’s original purpose in its creation is accomplished. “The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 342.

The true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. In the beginning, God created man in His own likeness. He endowed him with noble qualities. His mind was well balanced, and all the powers of his being were harmonious. But the fall and its effects have perverted these gifts…. To bring him back to the perfection in which he was first created, is the great object of life—the object that underlies every other. It is the work of parents and teachers, in the education of the youth, to co-operate with the divine purpose; and in so doing they are “laborers together with God.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 595.

The theme of redemption will bear the most concentrated study, and its depths will never be fully explored. Do not fear that you will exhaust the wonderful theme. Go to the fountain for yourself, that you may be filled with refreshment. Drink deep at the well of salvation, that Jesus may be in you a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.—Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 528.