Zeal For Truth

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of Christian is the reconciliation with God that comes as a result of the forgiveness of sin. This forgiveness is made available through Jesus Christ, the perfect, sinless Son of God, who willingly gave his life to redeem mankind for the glory of God. Although he was innocent, he became the substitute for guilty humanity, taking upon himself the retribution for the sins of the whole world to satisfy God’s righteous judgment.

Agape
What, might we ask, is the central motivating force behind the Just dying for the unjust? Was there some redeemable quality in man that God thought was worth saving? The answer is found in John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

The primary motivation for God sending Jesus was love. This divine love is the supreme character by which God is defined, the very substance of his being. God, who is love, sent Jesus to die for us while we were still in open rebellion to him (Romans 5:8). In fact, Jesus being driven by God’s love, asked for the forgiveness of those who were crucifying him (Luke 23:33, 34).

More than Forgiven
Notwithstanding the fact that forgiveness is provided to all who receive Christ, believers are more than just forgiven.  Although believers in the Old Testament were able to receive forgiveness, their spiritual nature was not changed. They were only forgiven sinners who had to meet the legal requirement of continual sacrifices to be forgiven again. This is in sharp contrast to the New Covenant – a better covenant based on better promises - in which believers are made new creations in Christ, who by one final sacrifice did not merely cover (atone for) sins, but took them away forever (2 Corinthians 5:17; Hebrews 8:6).  Much of the tenth chapter of Hebrews is devoted to the explanation of this. It is recommended that the reader take time to read the entire chapter, but for now, here is an excerpt:

9then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, 13waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.
14For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
15And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

16″THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM
AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:
I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART,
AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,”
He then says,
17″AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS
I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”

18Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

The establishment of the New Covenant carries the added benefit of being born of God’s Spirit, which involves receiving God’s love nature. This signifies the death of the old sin nature and the passage from spiritual death to spiritual life.

3Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  7for he who has died is freed from sin.  8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Continue reading ‘Forgiveness and the Love of God’