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Many people, even many of us as Christians, look at the Old Testament as history or as who God was & it having very little to do with Jesus & the New Testament. In reality the New Testament is a continuation of the Old Testament. The same God with the same traits with the same standards & with the same will.

 

There is a pattern of salvation in both Old & New Testament.

 

We see the pattern throughout both testaments. We see it very clearly in the Old Testament book of Jonah.

 

Jonah 1:1-2

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.”

 

#1 Step: Humanity rebelled against God

 

Romans 6:23 says that we all have rebelled or sinned against God & have come short of God’s standard. That means that we cannot point out other’s sin without also recognizing our own sin.  

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about recognizing we all have sinned & rebelled against God’s authority.

 

Jonah hated the Ninevites & he did not want God to show grace to them & forgive them. He believed that if he went & shared God’s word with them God would be gracious & forgive them. So, Jonah got on a ship & headed in the exact opposite direction of Nineveh.

 

God sent a huge storm to the boat that Jonah was on & they eventually threw Jonah overboard.

 

Jonah 1:17 says that God appointed a great fish to swallowed up Jonah & Jonah was in the fish three day & three nights.

 

While Jonah was in the fish God spoke to Jonah & the fish vomited Jonah up on the shore & God again told Jonah to go to Nineveh & Jonah obeyed God this time.

 

#2: God made a miraculous way for righteousness to be restored

 

We are not born righteous but are born with a natural bent toward sin. God also provided a supernatural way for people to be saved & for them to be made righteous. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells that the Father made Jesus, who had never sinned, guilty of our sin so that we could become the righteousness of Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing that only through Jesus can we be saved & made righteous.

 

#3: God gave grace to the people who believed & obeyed

 

The king hears the words of God from Jonah & repents & commands all the people of Nineveh to repent.

 

Jonah 3:12 says, “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it.”

 

God did not change His mind, God followed through with His promise based in His grace. Jonah knew that if the Ninevites heard God’s word & repented of their evil, God would forgive them & Jonah wanted the Ninevites to be destroyed.

 

God is a gracious God & a faithful God. He wants people to repent & place their faith in Him & be saved.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about repenting of our sins & putting our faith in Jesus that we will be saved.

 

We see this same pattern of salvation in the New Testament.

 

Humanity had rebelled against God & God did a miracle when Jesus, God in the flesh, came, but people rejected Him also. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Anyone who places their faith in Jesus as Savior will experience forgiveness of sin & eternal life.

 

God does not change His desire; it is for people to know Him personally & to receive salvation. Jesus has chosen those who have experienced salvation to be His instruments to take that message to all people.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe