The Command to Love (Part 3)

1 Corinthians 13:4 - Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (NIV)

Love is not boastful, braggadocios, nor proud! Have you ever met someone that just went on and on and on about what they have done, where they have been, who they have met, who they are about to have dinner with, the designer they wear, the car they drive, how much their shoes are, and the list goes on? Yes? I am sure we all have met at least one person like this. Usually the person is bragging, boasting and trying to impress; love does not do this. From the text above, we see that love does not boast and it is not proud. One thing common to boasting and pride is that they like to talk about themselves and are really not interested in anything or anyone else; it has to be about them, what they have done, what they have, and what they are going to do or get. The love of God is truly interested in others and is not focused on self. 

Obadiah 1:3 - The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee...

Pride deceives the prideful and tries to deceive others as well. One of the primary reasons people lie is because of pride. Why? Because, usually, they are ashamed of the truth, so they make things up to look better. Lie long enough about something and you will start to believe it i.e. the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. One thing about humility is that it lives in reality and it is not deceived nor does it try deceiving anyone. Lying is of the devil; his very language is lie. 

John 8:44 - You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

So when God’s children lie, they switch over to the realm of darkness; there is no darkness in God (love) at all. This is sometimes why the enemy has a hold on the children of God; they are identifying with the devil rather than with God. The devil is the father of liars or deceivers; there are no white lies, lies are lies. However, he that walks in love walks in God; the father of those that walk in love is God – there is no lie or deception in God.

It can be described like this, let's say God is pure water, when we walk in love, we become pure water and completely miscible with him, so when one looks at us, they see God because pure water mixed with pure water is pure water. When we do not walk in love, we are like spent engine oil that cannot mix with water; if you try to mix water and oil, you get two different layers which can be easily separated. In the state of the spent oil, not only can we be easily scooped up, the enemy can easily plague us because we are not operating in our dominion when we walk in his realm.

James 4:6 - But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.  

The very thought of God resisting me in anyway is unbearable, so for me learning more about what pride is became very important to me; that way, I can avoid pride, be humble and enjoy the grace of God. In reading the scriptures, and listening to some messages on humility, I have come to learn some of the characteristics of pride. As discussed earlier in this series on love, pride does not honor people enough to listen to what others have to say; pride interrupts people and is not a listener (see The command of love Part 2). Pride exaggerates things to look good or better than they really are. Pride knows exactly how everyone should treat or address it; proud people would often think to themselves, don’t they know who I am? They should talk to me like this, give me this, and exempt me from this or that… Pride thinks it needs to be treated differently or preferentially than anyone else because pride is puffed up.  

Proverbs 13:10 - Only by pride comes strife: but with the well advised is wisdom.

Where there is strife, there is pride! This scripture reveals that the source of strife is pride. So when someone is always in strife with almost everyone, the person needs to check him or herself for pride. In marriages, a home filled with strife has one or both spouses walking in pride; when both members of a marriage walk in love towards each other, strife is forced out of that home.  Pride also finds it hard to admit it does not know something. How many times have many of us got lost going somewhere because we refuse to ask for directions? How many times have you seen someone trying to do something for the first time and refuse help from an expert because they do not want to admit they don’t know? People have actually broken expensive electronics because of this. Everyone already knows that nobody knows everything, so it is OK to admit that there are things we do not know. Pride tries to paint a picture that it knows everything about everything; sometimes, it is humorous to watch such people talk about a subject they pretend to be experts about and in actuality know very little to nothing about the subject matter. Pride is not teachable; a student that thinks he already knows will find it difficult to learn - the pride of their hearts has deceived them to believe they are experts when they are not. Pride is very ugly and is the very thing that got the devil kicked out of heaven.

When Pride is wrong, it would rather act nice to you than say it is sorry; pride finds it hard to say sorry. I am sure we have all met people like this; humility, which is the nature of love, is quick to repent and ask for forgiveness. Pride in most cases would not even admit that it is wrong, it would rather defend it’s stand no matter how obviously erroneous and faulty such a defense may be; in other words, pride is very defensive and finds it difficult to apologize for a wrong. Lastly, for this post, pride refuses to show how impressed it is of the achievement of others; pride would actually down play such achievements. At times, pride would actually find something it has done in the past that is better than the current achievement of another being discussed. You would hear pride say things such as “oh, that is a nice car, but my first car actually had X, which this one does not have” or “oh he came first out of 40 people that took the exam? Well, when I did mine, there were 45 people that took the exam and I came first”. Pride can’t imagine anyone doing better than it, so it does not show impression, nor allow itself to be impressed by the achievement of others.

Many think pride is limited to the rich, Nah! Anyone can be proud: the rich, the poor, and everyone in-between… it is a state of the heart, not a state of the pocket.

The next post will look into other characteristics of the love of God.

The Command to Love (Part 2)

1 Corinthians 14:1 - Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest]
  
This scripture highlights the importance of love; it commands us to pursue love, make love our aim, and our quest. This scripture also helps us to see that love is not a feeling; it is something that needs to be done consciously, and on purpose - Love is not a reaction, it is an action. So how do we make love our aim? We walk, talk and live consistently in love; all our actions are guided by the nature of love. When in doubt if an action is an act of love, the answer is to ask if the action passes the checklist of love: Is what I am about to do patient? Is it based on pride or humility? Is it kind or unkind? Is it rude or is it polite? Is it envious? Is it boastful? Is it self-seeking? … You get the picture from 1 Corinthians 13 on what love is; in every situation, we need to go with the action of love.

Galatians 5:6 - For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.
  
As we can see from the scripture, even faith works by love; love activates, energizes, is expressed, and works through love. So love is inexcusable for a vibrant and living relationship with our father, God. Now, let’s take a closer look at the nature of love. 

1 Peter 4:8 - Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
  
Love covers a multitude of sin! It is rather unfortunate how often believers are so quick to talk about each other’s faults or sins. Some pastors actually turn it into a sermon and by the end of the sermon everyone knows exactly whom it is that was being preached about. No! This is not scriptural and a direct disobedience to the command of love. Some do this under pretense of wanting the other person to pray for the person; the truth is that the Holy Spirit knows how to raise intercessors for a person that needs it – he does not need the “prayer requestor ministry” to help him do that. We should not find ourselves picking up the phone to discuss our brothers or sisters faults, we need to spend that time praying for them if we get to know about it, or talk to them directly if we are in the position to do so. Love covers, not expose the faults of our brothers and sisters. It is actually very sad to see when a believer discusses the faults or sins of a believer with an unbeliever. We are one body, so every time we do that, we are only shaming our own body (1 Corinthians 12:12-30).

The love of God covers! This also extends to spouses that spill out everything going on in their marriages to their friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers; this is unfaithful to the spouse, and obviously not an act of love towards them. At the end of the day, this discussions only end up bringing more problems to the marriage than help. In some ways, this act is selfish because it makes the unfaithful spouse feel better; feel better at what expense? At the expense of making the spouse look bad and destroying their reputation – as everyone knows, in the absence of the other spouse, the talking spouse will usually eliminate what they are doing wrong and exaggerate the faults of the other spouse.  Love is not selfish and does no harm (Romans 13:10), so this act, on multiple levels, is against the command of love. I am not advocating not having counsel in marriage; there are however proper channels and people in places of authority in our lives that can help with such things. Some have found themselves doing exactly what the bible tells us not to do: casting pearls before pigs (Matthew 7:6); as the scripture says, it has led to destruction of lives, homes, friendship, and above all, a direct disobedience to the command of love, which is sin.

Romans 12:10 - Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another. 

Love prefers others above itself; Jesus died for us even though he never sinned. He put our needs before himself; obviously, what he did for us was not glamorous in execution, for he was naked, beaten, spat on, shamed, and the list goes on about what he did for us. However, this is what love does; love puts the needs of the other person first. Giving precedence to one another is putting others first, honoring them, and esteeming them as if they were better than us. Lets take an example we see everyday; there is only one seat left and two people walk into the room, usually the faster gets the chair. Love would give up the chair even if it got there first. Another example from everyday life is when people are having a conversation; love esteems and honors the other person enough to listen to what they have to say about the topic being discussed. It is however very prevalent for people to talk over each other, and not even listen to what the other has to say about the topic being discussed; this is not giving precedence or honor to one another.

In marriage, when both spouses are esteeming, honoring, and giving precedence to one another, it is so beautiful to watch how peaceful and full of love (God) the home is. No one knows everything, so even though the man is the head of the home, the wife’s input is vital in coming to a conclusion. In many cases, if men could really listen to what their wives are saying about a topic, they would see that the Lord was speaking through their wife about that situation. Love gives precedence; it honors, and esteems the other person.

In the next post, other characteristics of this love will be discussed.

Hope – the backbone of faith

Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

Have you waited for something all your life and thought you were finally about to get it and then, just then, everything vaporizes and you are left feeling empty, unfulfilled, unwanted or a failure? Have you ever thought you are living your dream only to find that it was not the real thing? Have you ever had a man or woman walk out of your life when you thought they were the one? I believe most of us will say yes to at least one of the questions above; I want you to know you are not alone. The Word of God is so true, as always, when it says hope deferred makes the heart sick; many people have ended their own lives when they think all hope is lost; some people have compromised when they think there is no hope, others have settled for whatever comes their way because they stopped hoping. When hope is absent, the anchor for our soul is missing (Heb 6:19); he that stops hoping stops living. We can not afford to stop hoping - hope is the backbone of faith.

1 Corinthians 13:13 - Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.

Though hope is not as much spoken about in churches compared to faith and love, it is one of the three things that will last forever. Faith is anchored on hope; without hope, there is no faith. Why? Because faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Heb 11:1). We can clearly see that in the absence of hope, faith cannot exist, which means the absence of pleasing God (Heb 11:6). So, it is important to understand what hope is. What is hope? Let’s look at other translations of Heb 11:1

God’s Word Translation: Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see.
Jubilee Bible 2000: Faith, therefore, is the substance of things waited for, the evidence of things not seen.

In these versions of the bible,hope is interpreted as expectation and a waiting for; expectation or a waiting for what? Romans 4:18 provides the answer to this question:

Romans 4:18 - Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be (NIV).

Abraham hoped against all hope, expected, and waited for the promise God made him; his hope, expectation, and waiting for was totally based on a promise God made to him. So the hope that is the backbone of faith in God is based on the Word/promise of God. From these scriptures we can see why sometimes the claim of being in faith about something may not be necessarily true because a number of times, the hope/expectation are not based on the Word or promise of God. Psalm 119:114 also affirms this truth:

Psalm 119:114 - You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope (NLT).

Your word is my source of hope! This scripture confirms what we see in the life of the father of faith, Abraham. The source of hope that brings about true faith is the Word of God! There are also expectations based on the lies of the devil and his words; these expectations also bring about results, but results that are not God's will for our lives. Now, my question to us is: what is our hope or expectation based on? If it is not based on God’s Word or a Word from God, we need to search the scriptures for a Word to anchor our souls in regards to the situation. When our hope is based on the Word of God or a Word from God, then our faith can be in God.

Promotion from above

Context: Daniel 1-3

It is God that qualifies (Colossians 1:12) and promotes his children, regardless of the land or workplace. It is rather common for non Christians and Christians alike to throw people under the bus, or be busy finding ungodly ways to get promoted. Eye service, back biting, working endless hours, and the list goes on of things people do in order to get promoted or "favored" by supervisors at work, but true promotion comes from above. Christians do not need to behave like the world because we are seeking promotion at work; we need to remember we are working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23-24) in whatever we are doing.  He will promote us in due season, if we do not waiver from him and if we avoid crafting out ungodly ways of getting to the top (Jeremiah 29:11).

The book of Daniel chapters 1-3 describes how Daniel and his friends got promoted to high positions in a strange land; this story shows us that the promotion we seek comes from above. What was common to Daniel and his friends? They refused to defile themselves with the king's meat; how does that translate to today? Christians have absolutely no need to play up to their managers or supervisors, because we have only one true boss, God. Managers and supervisors can easily ask us to do things that compromise our Christian faith, and it could even be a standard in that workplace. If it is the way of doing business that is against the Word of God, then we need to walk away from that job and trust the Lord for another. The bible tells us to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God... We need to comport ourselves in workplaces in a way that is pleasing to God and not in a way to feel accepted by co-workers. We cannot go around talking about people and back stabbing others and expect God to promote us. When we partake in backstabbing, judging, and condemning others, we just denied ourselves the privilege of God fighting for us when others come against us - remember that when there is a seed time, an harvest time is sure (Genesis 8:22).

This is not advocating not doing our  jobs and going around preaching at work; that would be robbery because they are not paying us to preach – they are paying us to work for them. This article is advocating doing the work in a way that will please the Father of light in whom there is no shadow of turning. Christians are actually to be the best at what we do; we can see an example in the life of Daniel. We can be friendly without being a friend of the world; remembering that friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4).

Daniel and his friends sought the face of God in regards to challenges in their Jobs (Daniel 2). Instead of crying, losing our peace, and complaining endlessly about our jobs, Christians should go to the father in prayer. When Daniel did this in regards to the king’s dream, he not only got the dream and the interpretation to the dream, he got promoted because he solved a problem no one else in the kingdom could. He prayed in place of complaining about the challenges of his work. Not only did he get promoted, but God became exalted in a strange land because of his manifestation through Daniel. God wants to be glorified in all of our workplaces, but we need to invite him into what we do at work and ask him for innovative solutions to challenges and problems at work. In the end, we get the problem solved in ways that amaze our colleagues; we get promoted and God is glorified. People at work will start asking questions on how we have the best solutions to problems and we can use that opportunity to tell them about Jesus. 

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not compromise their stand in God to keep their positions (Daniel 3). When the three Hebrew men refused to bow to the idol the king had made, they took a stand that could have cost them not only their jobs, but their lives. What compromise are we into at work? What is that thing we are doing that we know is wrong but are doing to keep the Job? That is what is delaying our promotion. Stop it now! Stop it now! Stop it now in Jesus name. That compromise could be costing that very thing we are looking for. What we may have "benefited" from this compromise cannot be compared to the promotion that comes from above. Let us stand out for God and not compromise our faith to buy the favor of our managers, supervisors... Our promotion comes from above.

His will?

Mathew 7: 21

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter"

We can do so much in the name of God and still not enter into the kingdom of God! The very thought of this is humbling and a warning that religion, spirituality, the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are no guarantee of spending forever with the Master.

It is apparent from Mathew 7: 21-23 that a man can move mountains, heal the sick, raise the dead and do so many things in the name of Jesus and not be in God’s will and could be in complete disobedience to God. Verse 23 calls such people wicked, evil doers, and other descriptive words depending on the version of the bible you read. Healing, raising the dead in themselves are God’s will because they are based on his word; the life of the person through which these signs and wonders are accomplished is what is brought to question in this bible verse. What matters to God as verse 21 explains is that we are obeying God i.e. that we are in his will for our lives. It is just as 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 explains about love; we could do all kinds of admirable things but without love, it is nothing. Why is it nothing? Because the love command, which is the will of God is more important to him than the acts that are suppose to portray love.

In our days, very little time is given to personal bible study, which is the number one place where the will of God is made known to us. There is also the will of God for each person’s life that is unveiled in his presence, but spending time to know the will of God has been overlooked, and sometimes the very principle of waiting on God to know his will has been left only to pastors. So many Christians depend on their pastor to know the will of God for their personal lives; I do not despise pastors confirming what we have received from the Lord, but basing major decisions of our lives solely on what a pastor tells us to do without receiving a confirmation from God ourselves is not for the new testament believer. Many people are in trouble or serious problems because they made a major decision solely based on what someone told them that God “said”! Let us spend time in his presence to know what he thinks about various situations in our lives before we make a decision. If we are truly his child, we will hear him speak to us. We will not be going into more details in this area of God’s will because this article is not focused on knowing God’s will in regards to decisions like choosing a career, where to live, who to marry and things that are very specific to our individual everyday life decisions. This article is more directed towards God’s will written down in the scriptures for us to understand. 
 

We cannot live a victorious Christian life if we are not a student of the word of God. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4).  So, if our faith is the key to victory, we have to meditate on God’s will (his word) because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17); faith is absent when the will of God is not known. Knowing the will of God requires a level of sacrifice that many of us are not willing to pay; the time to spend in the scriptures to get to know his will, the time to be quiet in his presence, and the humility to accept his Word to be the only way. There is only one way to knowing the written will of God, and that is to spend time in it. Because of the lack of study of the word of the Lord, there are a number of things people believe about God’s will that are not scriptural. For the remainder of this article I would like to talk about some things that some believers have come to believe to be God's will.

I have heard it preached a number of times that there are three levels of God’s will i.e. there is a good will, the pleasing (or acceptable) will and the perfect will of God. This is usually supported by quoting Romans 12:2. The bible passage reads as follows:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

I am not an English language major, and neither by any standard can I claim to be an authority in the English language; however, I know that the comparative and superlative of good is better and best respectively. One of the definitions of the word Good in the dictionary is “that which is pleasing”, and another definition for good is “complete”. One definition for perfect is complete. So, we see that the three descriptive words used in this passage were referring to the same thing. There is nothing like three levels of God’s will, there is only one will of God concerning situations, circumstances, and our life and we need to find it out and not settle down with just anything.

I have often heard believers say that a sickness or disease is God’s will to teach them this or that; this is not scriptural. It is never God’s will for us to be sick or have any sort of illness. This state of mind only prevents us as believers from exercising our authority and living a life free of sickness and diseases. 

Galatians 3:13 reads:

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 tree”.

Sicknesses and diseases are under the curse, why do some believers then believe that it is God’s will to use sickness or disease to teach them something? How does sickness and disease in the life of his children bring him glory? James 1:17 clearly states that Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. Sickness and diseases are not a good or perfect gift; they are not from our father. How would a father put sickness on his child? Matthew 7:11 also explains: If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him. Our God gives us good things and not evil. 

Isaiah 53: 5 reads:But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 

Another school of thought is that it is God’s will for them to suffer for sins committed in the past; my brothers and sisters, the scripture above clearly shows us that Christ paid for every single one of our sins. 2 Corinthians 5:17 also states Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Halleluyah! When we come to Christ, our old man that committed the transgressions is gone, and the person we are in Christ never sinned! However, there is a kind of pain and suffering that believers will have to endure, and that is the pain and suffering that comes from persecution due to our faith in God. 2Tim 3:11 shows that this is the kind of pain and suffering Paul suffered and Rev 2:10 talks about the same kind of suffering.  There is no scripture to back the belief that God teaches us lessons by bringing us under the curse. It is the devil that does this and we have been given the authority to live above him, his agents, and his appearance in any form or shape, which includes sicknesses and diseases.

Ephesians 1:20 – 21 and Ephesians 2:6 reads

Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places^, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

We need to give ourselves to the ministry of the word to enjoy the fullness of life that God has for us, because only in the Word can we become acquainted with his will. The bible declares “and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. How free we are depends on how much of his will we know and live by. It is not enough to know his will; we have to live out his will. Only in obedience to his word do we get the promised results. Isaiah 1:19 reads: if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.  

Lastly let us remember verse 21 of our text: “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter" Sons and daughters of God, let us not be foolish; let us understand what the will of God is (Eph 5:17).

What does the cross of Jesus mean to you?

The world has set aside days of the year to recognize the birth and resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. However, little is known about what these celebrations symbolize in our lives. Many see these days as days off, and some go to church only on these two days in the year.

What does the death and resurrection of Jesus mean to the world? What does the sacrifice of a guiltless man mean to the world? To answer this question, we will have to go back to the book of Genesis and take a look at the first Adam: God gave dominion of the earth to the first Adam when he commanded him in Genesis 1:28 to ...subdue it...have dominion over...that is still God’s plan today. However, man in Adam, gave over the rights to subdue and have dominion on earth to Satan when man disobeyed God and as it is written in Luke 4:6 

“And he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory (all their magnificence, excellence, pre-eminence, dignity, and grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will”

So the first Adam lost it to Satan when he disobeyed God, but God’s plan was and still is - for man to reign as kings in this world (Romans 5:17), he (God) had to redeem man back to his rightful position. You know when God commanded that man should subdue and have dominion in the beginning, he meant it and his words never go back to him without yielding fruits/results. In order for God to pay the ransom required to redeem man, he had to sacrifice his only begotten son.

Now, the first Adam was made in the image of God as it is written in Gen 1:27, so, man’s spirit was a reflection of God because God is Spirit and so his image must be spirit and not flesh because man’s body was formed from dust (Gen 2:7) to be a tent for man’s spirit (2 Pet 1:13).  Before the fall, as the image of God, Adam was a son of God (Luke 3:38).  That is why when man ate from the tree God had told him not to eat, he died like God had told him (Gen 2:17) he would if he ate of the tree of good and evil. As we know, the flesh of man did not die that day but his spirit did (became separated from God). Death began to reign in man through the first Adam; as man had children, the children were born as sinners and as his children had children, sin continued to reign (Romans 5:17) because the seed of Adam had been corrupted.

To redeem man, Jesus could not be born of the seed of man because death reigned and the state of death was passed on through the seed of the man. Matthew 1: 18 and Luke 1: 35 explain that Mary became pregnant with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, Luke’s account reads:

“Then the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you [like a shining cloud]; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God” (Amplified).

Jesus was born without sin and he never sinned, this made him the perfect sacrifice for the sins of man. A sinless man had to be punished for the sins of the guilty, hence the ransom for man was paid; man was redeemed when Jesus was crucified. In the Old Testament, the sins of man were covered each year with the blood of animals that had no blemish; the blood of animals could not erase (blot out) the transgression of man but the blood of Jesus blotted out our transgression once and for all (Hebrews 10: 1-18). Verse 18 of Hebrews 10 states something very important: 

“Now where there is absolute remission (forgiveness and cancellation of the penalty) of these [sins and lawbreaking], there is no longer any offering made to atone for sin”

Hallelujah! Unlike the Old Testament where sacrifice had to be made year after year, Jesus has paid for our sins once and for all. This also means that we don’t have to punish ourselves or be punished for our sins, he paid it all. When the enemy brings our past to us to make us feel unworthy to approach God or feel guilty, we need to remember that Jesus paid it all and that all sins are forgiven, forgotten and blotted out when we accept the sacrifice that Jesus paid on the cross.

Now, Jesus did not only bear our sins, he bore other things, which were a result of the fall of man. Isaiah 53 explains the sacrifice of Jesus explicitly; verse 4-6 describes an amazing truth:

⁴ Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
      it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
   And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
      a punishment for his own sins!
 ⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion,
      crushed for our sins.
   He was beaten so we could be whole.
      He was whipped so we could be healed.
 ⁶ All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
      We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
   Yet the Lord laid on him
      the sins of us all. (NLT)

So he took our weakness, sorrows, rebellion, our sins, our infirmities – He made us whole again. All that is needed to be restored to our rightful position is to believe in him as John 1: 12 reads: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. This is so because Christ is a life giving spirit as 1 Cor 15:5 (AMP) reads:

"Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life]"

We are restored back to life, back to son-ship from the state of death by the sacrifice Jesus paid because in him is life (John 1:4).  We are not only sons of God, we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17) meaning that whatever Jesus has, we have and all that he did on earth, we can do too. 

1 John 4:17 reads “In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world.”

As He is, so are we in this world? Amazing! As Christ is now, so are we in this world. We are to reign in this world as Christ reigned over everything; we are to live a victorious life. As children of God, we are not hopeless sinners because Christ paid it all for us. We are like him, we have been restored to his image and his likeness, and we are kings. For as death reigned through the trespass of one man, the sacrifice of Christ means a lot more. Romans 5:17 (AMP) reads:

"For if because of one man's trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God's] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)"

As believers it is time to live in the fullness of life that Christ has given us (John 10:10). One thing is certain, to get the results he got, we have to pray, fast, and give ourselves to the Word like he did.  If you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and saviour; the time is now, he loves you and paid the price for all your sins, invite him into your heart today.