May 25 – Paid For Us, Once For All

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  -Romans 6:22-23  (ESV)

Most of the time we understand what consequences we face for doing what we do.  We may not understand so well that we do what we do because we live in bondage to a nature that is sinful.  We are born into this world in that condition.  But God, who always planned to make a way for us to be redeemed, made this plan with His Son, Jesus.  Our verse gives us a law. There is only one payment for our sin of rebellion and our rejection of God.  The payment due by us is death.  It is through our Lord Jesus, who lived a perfect life, something none of us could manage, took our place in the payment-line.  By His death on the cross He collected and received the wages for our sin.  The wages that were due from each of us were laid upon the back of  perfect Jesus upon the criminal’s cross.  He suffered for us what we should have suffered.  By faith we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  By faith, we receive the free gift of God which is eternal life.  When God gives us eternal life, it is for eternity. 

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May 20 - Friends Now

“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”  - John 15:15 (NASB)

Do you consider yourself a Friend of Jesus?  He considers you His friend if you have believed in Him as the Son of God who came into this world.  He came to pay the penalty of sin that each person who believes in Him was born with.  Jesus tells his disciples that their relationship with Him was changing.  We all might properly be considered bond servants or slaves who obey our Lord out of love. But we are more than that, we are His friends.  Jesus has shared his plans with us in the Bible just as he had shared with His disciples. One of those plans was to send the Holy Spirit who now lives in each of us.  This is a promise that God shared with us as well.  Barclay* writes, “The friends of the king were those who had the closest and the most intimate connection with him and who had the right to come to him at any time.”  God has given us that right.  We can come before Him as a friend of Jesus, as our advocate.  What Jesus has made known to us from His Father has been revealed in the Bible.  

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* Barclay, William. The Gospel of John. 2 vols. The Daily Study Bible series. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1963.

March 22

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32 (NIV)

The reason for the death of Jesus on the cross is expressed in more than one way in the Bible. We know that Jesus was talking about the kind of death He was going to die. So why was Jesus to die on the cross? In order to draw people to Himself. We are all slaves to sin. Satan was drawing us away from God. Jesus came to free us from this slavery. As we accept His death for us we are set free. We can then experience being drawn toward God. Hasn’t Jesus drawn you to Himself? Aren’t you one of His today? Don’t you feel Him drawing you to Himself as you think of all He has done for you?