The scripture for today, June 21 (6/21), is Romans 6:21ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?  Those things result in death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sometimes we do things we are ashamed of, and decide God would be too ashamed of us to accept us as his child.  But God can get rid of the shame, for he can forgive so completely that it is as though we never did those things.

Some people bristle from the phrase “slaves to God” or even slavery at all.  But we’re all slaves to something ~ a big car, high position, beauty, a hobby, chasing after the opposite gender, reading, eating, music, sports, etc.   

From the beginning of time, sin has always resulted in death.  Death means “separation” , and in the case of sin, it means separation from God.  God allowed us in Old Testament times to kill a perfect animal in our place, but we had to keep doing it throughout life. Then Jesus came as our perfect Lamb of God, and allowed himself to be killed in our place.  

The wages were paid through Jesus; so by believing this is true and following Jesus, we are no longer in debt.

 

The scripture for today, June 3 (6/3), is Romans 6:3f  as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life….because anyone who has died has been freed  from sin.”

Oh!  Baptism does all that?  Some people say no, but God says yes.  Indeed, in baptism we obtain a “new life” ~ are born again.  And in baptism we are “freed from sin” ~ forgiven.  Look at it this way:

Just as Jesus died carrying our sins on himself, we die to our sinful nature ~ the part of us that sins and doesn’t care.  Then just as Jesus was buried in his grave, we are buried in our watery grave.  And just as Jesus came up out of his grave the Savior, we come up our of our watery grave the saved ~ with a “new life”, having been “freed from sin.”

Everything works together beautifully ~ hearing, believing, confessing, dying to sin, being baptized.  What an honor and privilege we have been given to imitate what he did for us!  And for those reasons!

The scripture for today, May 21 (5/21), is 2nd Corinthians 5:21 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:  “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

“God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

A lot of people do not understand what Jesus’ death has to do with going to heaven.  The key is in Romans 3:23 that says “The wages of sin is death.”  When Adam and Eve sinned, immediately their souls died, and the bodies gradually died.  It’s been happening to everyone since then.  But, during Old Testament times, God allowed people to make a perfect animal take their penalty, shed its blood and die in their place when they sinned.  

This was only a temporary fix, however.  Hebrews says the blood of animals cannot truly take away (take the substitute punishment for) sins; they are remembered again every year.(Hebrews 10:3-4).

Finally, John the Baptist announced Jesus was “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29).  In order to forever stop all the sacrificial substitute dying, God prepared his own perfect Lamb ~ Jesus, who never sinned.  For 33 years, God’s Word took human form in Jesus and became one of us.  Then he had to shed his blood and die in our place.  In so doing, he took the sin penalty forever.

Jesus did two things impossible for us to do:  Live a perfect life without sin, and come back to life after he died ~ both physically and spiritually.  Why?  So we could do another thing that is impossible for us to do on our own: Enter heaven, the home of the perfect.

God invites us to his heaven if we will just follow Jesus.  We don’t even have to be perfect ~ just forgiven.  Jesus was perfect for us. What amazing love.