The scripture for today, February 24, is 1st Peter 2:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
Many people do not understand what Jesus dying on the cross has to do with us going to heaven. Here it is. God is perfect, so cannot dwell with imperfection. God is complete love and goodness, so cannot dwell with hatred and bad.
Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. So, all through the Old Testament era, whenever we sinned, God allowed us to kill/sacrifice a perfect animal in our place. This, however, was a temporary fix.
Eventually, God sent his own Son to come to earth and live in a human body and be tempted in every way that we are (see Hebrews 4:15). Jesus resisted all temptations and lived his entire life sinless. He was perfect. Then as the perfect Lamb of God (John 1:29), Jesus was the final sacrifice. He died in our place. He took the punishment for our sins. On the cross, he temporarily died spiritually (forsaken by God) and physically (blood was shed).
Then God basically told the world, “I will consider you perfect too; all you have to do is believe in and follow my Son.” It is explained further in Romans 6:3-4. Just as Jesus died bearing our sins, we die to our sinful nature ~ the part of us that sins and doesn’t care. Then just as Jesus was buried in his tomb, we are buried in the watery tomb of baptism. And finally, just as Jesus rose up out of his tomb the Savior, we rise up out of our watery tomb the saved ~ born again to a new life.
Indeed, by Jesus’ wounds we can be healed. We fall at his feet and say, “I am a sinner and so unworthy. Thank you.”
#Crucifixion, #Death, #WagesOfSin, #Sin, #Satan, #SavedFromHell, #Punishment, #Wounds, #Healing #Hell
“No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
The scripture for today, February 22, is Ephesians 2:22 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.”
“The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
“[God] having canceled the written code with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”
“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun.”
“Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”