Good morning!
This blog is based on the scriptural references that come from the fifth video called Do You Know What God Has Done for You? in a series of six by John Piper called the Good News of Christianity.
This blog doesn’t focus on necessarily the content of this video or the series (although I recommend – links provided above), but rather on my thoughts on some of the scripture shared in this fifth video. This video and the four previous have impacted my understanding of my relationship with Christ – from the standpoint of understanding the depth of what has been done for us.
I am sharing this today because of how rich and frequent the assurances and promises are provided by God of what He has done on our behalf. None of this is possible through our own self-reliance. And this just scratches the surface of His love for us, shown through His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Read these verses below – what do you hear God sharing with you? After each set of verses I give a thought or two…
Here Paul is sharing how rich the gift he received acknowledging that this is a gift he did not deserve. Paul considered himself the worst when it came to being a sinner. He is clear though that God’s grace, through love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the reason we have salvation – Jesus came to save sinners – and I am one of those sinners He came to save…wow!
Again, we get God’s confirmation of the reason Christ was sent – to save the world through Him. But not only that we hear the depth of His love – He so loved the world, He gave his only Son. Amen. And the love continues – if we believe – we do not die, we live. In eternity. With Him – all of Him – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Jesus Christ came not to be King in our worldly conception of that idea. He came to serve us. And that service was special almost beyond belief (I say almost, because I believe)…He gave His life for many, He paid for me, He paid for my sins, He loves me so much, He is saying I am worth it – I am priceless. And, that is not all. As He is seated at the right hand of the Father, He continues to serve us, to serve me – as an intercessor on our, on my behalf!
Here we get an understanding of what Jesus did for us, why He did it and what / how He did it… why – for our sins (which only He could atone for); what / how – He died, a terrible death on the cross, isolated from the Father, nailing our sins to the cross, only to be raised on the third day to the right hand of the Father finishing the work that makes our salvation possible. Would we sacrifice ourselves for one person, let alone many, so that they could live? How deep is our live for others?
In this prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, God through the prophet Isaiah, clearly shares the pain of what Jesus will take on our behalf – if you doubt God’s love just consider this passage which also includes the promise of our healing through Jesus Christ.
With a reference to Isaiah regarding our healing we see both the depth of His love for us and the promise of healing.
Over and over we see, hear and read about what Christ did for us, the depth of the love. If that doesn’t cause you pause, to think about the path God is painstakingly creating for our way home to Him then maybe we need to read scripture some more, spend time with faithful friends, spend time in prayer and quiet reflection. If it does give you pause and joy sing in praise to God, for He has truly blessed you!
Such rich truths – His great love for us, makes us alive in Christ (when we come to know Him), despite our sinful pasts, showing God’s mercy and grace, giving us salvation, so we can join Him and Christ in heaven…
More truth and promises – we are set free from sin, we get the benefits in this of holiness and eternal life – not by ourselves – that would be of little value J - but to live in the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit…
This one is interesting – Christ’s perfection, required to provide the saving sacrifice, takes on our sin which allows us to become the righteousness of God. Me interpreting here – but I think our salvation through Christ, glorifies God (which is how I read become the righteousness of God) – our surrender, our accepting of the gift of salvation – glorifies God.
We are no longer condemned but are made right before God through Jesus Christ. We are free – not in the way the world understands free – but free from the dark, to live in the light.
Did you get a sense for your answers to these questions?
These references just underlines the significance of the what Christ did for us (there are so many more) – His life, death and resurrection made us right with God and alive again, through the Holy Spirit when we knelt down and accepted Him as our savior.
Love, sacrifice,
longing for us to come home.
To Him.
Forever.
Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us as we go into this weekend is that in our quiet times of reflection each of us might find God’s truth in the presence of His love in our life, gaining a complete understanding that through the Your sacrifice, Jesus Christ, God is showing His deep desire for each one of us to come home to Him! Amen!
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Patrick
This blog is based on the scriptural references that come from the fifth video called Do You Know What God Has Done for You? in a series of six by John Piper called the Good News of Christianity.
This blog doesn’t focus on necessarily the content of this video or the series (although I recommend – links provided above), but rather on my thoughts on some of the scripture shared in this fifth video. This video and the four previous have impacted my understanding of my relationship with Christ – from the standpoint of understanding the depth of what has been done for us.
I am sharing this today because of how rich and frequent the assurances and promises are provided by God of what He has done on our behalf. None of this is possible through our own self-reliance. And this just scratches the surface of His love for us, shown through His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
- Do you ever ponder, in moments of reflection, the depth of God’s love?
- Do you ever think about what it really meant for Christ to take the walk to the Cross?
- Is it possible to understand how much God wants us to come home to Him?
Read these verses below – what do you hear God sharing with you? After each set of verses I give a thought or two…
- 1 Timothy 1:14-15 “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”
Here Paul is sharing how rich the gift he received acknowledging that this is a gift he did not deserve. Paul considered himself the worst when it came to being a sinner. He is clear though that God’s grace, through love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the reason we have salvation – Jesus came to save sinners – and I am one of those sinners He came to save…wow!
- John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Again, we get God’s confirmation of the reason Christ was sent – to save the world through Him. But not only that we hear the depth of His love – He so loved the world, He gave his only Son. Amen. And the love continues – if we believe – we do not die, we live. In eternity. With Him – all of Him – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
- Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus Christ came not to be King in our worldly conception of that idea. He came to serve us. And that service was special almost beyond belief (I say almost, because I believe)…He gave His life for many, He paid for me, He paid for my sins, He loves me so much, He is saying I am worth it – I am priceless. And, that is not all. As He is seated at the right hand of the Father, He continues to serve us, to serve me – as an intercessor on our, on my behalf!
- 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”
Here we get an understanding of what Jesus did for us, why He did it and what / how He did it… why – for our sins (which only He could atone for); what / how – He died, a terrible death on the cross, isolated from the Father, nailing our sins to the cross, only to be raised on the third day to the right hand of the Father finishing the work that makes our salvation possible. Would we sacrifice ourselves for one person, let alone many, so that they could live? How deep is our live for others?
- Isaiah 53:5-6 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
In this prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, God through the prophet Isaiah, clearly shares the pain of what Jesus will take on our behalf – if you doubt God’s love just consider this passage which also includes the promise of our healing through Jesus Christ.
- 1 Peter 2:24 ““He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.””
With a reference to Isaiah regarding our healing we see both the depth of His love for us and the promise of healing.
- Galatians 3:13-14 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
Over and over we see, hear and read about what Christ did for us, the depth of the love. If that doesn’t cause you pause, to think about the path God is painstakingly creating for our way home to Him then maybe we need to read scripture some more, spend time with faithful friends, spend time in prayer and quiet reflection. If it does give you pause and joy sing in praise to God, for He has truly blessed you!
- Ephesians 2:4-7 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
Such rich truths – His great love for us, makes us alive in Christ (when we come to know Him), despite our sinful pasts, showing God’s mercy and grace, giving us salvation, so we can join Him and Christ in heaven…
- Romans 6:22-23 “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of 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.”
More truth and promises – we are set free from sin, we get the benefits in this of holiness and eternal life – not by ourselves – that would be of little value J - but to live in the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit…
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This one is interesting – Christ’s perfection, required to provide the saving sacrifice, takes on our sin which allows us to become the righteousness of God. Me interpreting here – but I think our salvation through Christ, glorifies God (which is how I read become the righteousness of God) – our surrender, our accepting of the gift of salvation – glorifies God.
- Romans 8:1-2 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
We are no longer condemned but are made right before God through Jesus Christ. We are free – not in the way the world understands free – but free from the dark, to live in the light.
- 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”
Did you get a sense for your answers to these questions?
- Do you ever ponder in moments of reflection the depth of God’s love?
- Do you ever think about what it really meant for Christ to take the walk to the Cross?
- Is it possible to understand how much God wants us to come home to Him?
These references just underlines the significance of the what Christ did for us (there are so many more) – His life, death and resurrection made us right with God and alive again, through the Holy Spirit when we knelt down and accepted Him as our savior.
Love, sacrifice,
longing for us to come home.
To Him.
Forever.
Lord Jesus, my prayer for each of us as we go into this weekend is that in our quiet times of reflection each of us might find God’s truth in the presence of His love in our life, gaining a complete understanding that through the Your sacrifice, Jesus Christ, God is showing His deep desire for each one of us to come home to Him! Amen!
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Patrick
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