Redemption

Prior to Jesus' coming, many had turned their hearts away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Others were looking towards the law passed down by God, trying to live rightly and continually falling short and thereby feeling discouraged or frustrated. There is a reason. To fall short of the law, is to experience the curse which is God's ultimate condemnation and His wrath.

But there is good news!!

God so loved us, in all of our sin and imperfections, that he sent His son, his only BELOVED son to die for you and me. Not because we were worthy but because we were loved. Jesus came to earth to feel what we feel, see the world He spoke into existence through our eyes, to relate to us on our level. God always meets us where we are, just as we are.

One day out of the year, the Jewish nation celebrate Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement as stated in Leviticus 16:29-34. On this one day out of the year, the sins against God, not against other people, are reconciled for the past year. On this one day, the traditional dress is to wear white symbolizing purity and calls to mind the promise that our sins will be made as white as snow as spoken in Isaiah 1:18.

Jesus Christ came to so that we, Gentiles and Jews, would be reconciled to God every day. God desires a relationship with you and with me! The law that was crushing down on us - Jesus covered us and took upon His flesh all of God's wrath. Galatians 3:10 says "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."" To do everything in the Book of the Law was impossible for man so Jesus became the incarnate law when he was up on the cross. He did this so it would be full filled and we would be saved from God's wrath, the curse. This was what Jesus spoke when He said, "It is finished." We who were living in the world were bought out of the world through the blood of Jesus Christ. When Jesus went on that cross, voluntarily for no fault of His own, He became the worst murderer, the worst liar, the worth thief the world has ever known. He did this to atone for all the sins of the world so that we could have relationship with the one that created us, who knows us so personally, and who loves us completely.

But how do we believe that this was for us? Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us [by covering us]. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Giles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. To redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons [and daughters], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts [the Holy Spirit], the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. [Galatians 3:11-14, 4:5-7]

And so it is, dear ones, that we are made free by Christ Jesus' sacrifice. We live by Faith. We express our freedom in Christ Jesus through our Faith. We build our faith by relationship.