SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/5/2016 11:25 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2 Intro to John 14:28-31
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 14:28-31
Message of the verses: “28 “You heard that I said to you, ’I go
away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because
I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 “Now I have told you
before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. 30 "I will
not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has
nothing in Me; 31 but so that the world
may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get
up, let us go from here.”
We are
talking about the death of Christ and not only what it meant to Him, which is
the real emphasis of this section, but also what it means to us as believers in
Jesus Christ.
We, as
believers are justified through the death of Jesus Christ which is a legal term
meaning “to declare righteous.” We have
to be declared righteous through His death for that is the only way we will
become righteous, for we cannot do it on our own, and God will not allow anyone
into His heaven unless they are righteous.
His death
also redeems believers from slavery to sin and this can be seen in some of my
memory verses that I am trying to memorize, but it is also seen in Ephesians
1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” Hebrews 9:12 tells us “and not through the
blood of goats and calves, but
through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained
eternal redemption.” Romans 6:11
tells us “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in
Christ Jesus.” Being dead to sin the sin
nature that we all have through our relationship with Adam is taken away when
we are born again into the family of God.
Now I know that there are some that say we still have a sin nature, and
I know that we still have a tendency to sin, and the Bible does call it our
flesh. I have studied this and have come
to the conclusion that I know that I still have something in me that causes me
to desire to sin, but I also realize that when Christ died for me that He has
taken away what I had in Adam as one of his descendants and now when I sin I
hate it, but before the new birth I sinned because I was born a sinner. Paul speaks of this in the 7th
chapter of the book of Romans.
John
MacArthur writes “Christ was able to ransom the elect because His death
propitiated (appeased, satisfied) God’s holy wrath against sin. Paul wrote in Romans 3:25 that ‘God displayed
[Jesus] publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.’ Christ was able ‘to make propitiation for the
sins of the people’ (Heb. 2:17) because ‘He himself is the propitiation for our
sins’ (John 2:2; cf. 4:10).”
Now we live
on planet earth which was created by God and God owns it and so He has the
right to determine what the payment of sin is to be and He says in Hebrews 9:22
“without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” of sin, and therefore
it was essential for Christ to die in order to obtain that forgiveness for all
believers. Jesus said the following in
Matthew 26:28 “for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for
many for forgiveness of sins.” God
sacrificed His beloved Son so that we can have redemption, so we can be
forgiven. Paul writes in Colossians
2:13-14 “13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, He made you
alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14
having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us,
which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Leon Morris
who we have quoted before as he is quoted in the commentaries of John MacArthur
gives us a list, which we will close this SD with, that shows us what Christ
death means for believers.
1. “We
are redeemed, Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:19.
2. We
are made nigh to God, Ephesians 2:13.
3. We
are reconciled to God, Colossians 1:20-21; Romans 5:10.
4. Jew
and Gentile are now made one, Ephesians 2:16.
5. We
are cleansed, Hebrews 9:14; 1 John 1:7.
6. We
are justified, Romans 5:9.
7. We
are sanctified, Hebrews 10:10; 13:12.
8. We
are perfected forever, Hebrews 10:14.
9. We
have been purchased unto God, Revelation 5:9.
10. The
bond that was against us has been nailed to the cross, Colossians 2:14.
11. We
have boldness to enter into the holy place, Hebrews 10:19.
12. We
are loosed from our sins, Revelation 1:5.
13. We
may overcome by the blood of the Lamb, Revelation 12:11.
14. By
His cross peace with God has been secured, Colossians 1:20.
15. His
blood establishes a new covenant, 1 Corinthians 11:25.
16. His
death was to redeem us from all iniquity, Titus 2:14.”
(The
Cross in the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965], 425-26)
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Where would I be without the death of Christ
on the cross? God did not have to send
His Son to die for me, but because of His love, grace, and mercy He chose to do
this and for that I am thankful.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To be thankful for what
Christ has done for me, and to live a life through the power of the Holy Spirit
that is pleasing to Him who died for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Mary” (Luke 10:39).
Today’s Bible question:
“In communion, what is symbolized by the bread?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/5/2016 11:58 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment