-Strength for Today- “God’s plan for forgiveness and Restoration.” - Isaiah 59: 1-2.
Adam and Eve tried to make things?‘right’?by covering themselves “with fig leaves.” However, their?“self-effort couldn’t restore their relationship.”?God would?require?“a sacrifice for sin.”?He provided for them?“clothes made from animal skins” as?“the very first sacrifice?- Genesis 3:21.??
??Now man would need a substitute and sin bearer for his sin. So, God provided?“the complete,” and “final sacrifice in the person of Jesus Christ,” who as John the Baptist would say,?“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”?-?John 1:29.?
Through Him,?God provided the way to restore our relationship with Him.?And that’s good news.?The good news is that Jesus came to save sinners from their sins,?(I Timothy 1:15),?He came “to restore man’s relationship with God.”?Jesus as God became man (John 1:1-14; Philippians 2:5-7).??He’s?the God-Man, (“the Theanthropic person”)?who was?“fully God”?yet?“fully Man.”?
?Because He is?“infinite,”?He’s the only One who?“could?make the infinite payment that God demands for the sins of all people.” And for that cause,?“Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures …was buried …and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” - I Corinthians 153, 4. “…He?by the grace of God tasted death for everyone,” (Hebrews 2:9), in order “to restore man’s relationship with God.”?
Here’ we’re shown the?“sovereign,” “omnipotent” “character?of God, unconditional love,” when He “demonstrated His love toward us, in that while?we were still sinners, Christ died for us” -?Romans 5:8). In His love He offered up His Son as our sin bearer, our Substitute. “In Him?we?have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”;?Ephesians 1:7.?
Faith in Jesus is the beginning of your Christian walk. Like any relationship,?“growing takes time.”?It requires “learning to yield to the Spirit of God by faith through the Word of?God?to?become the?“functional”?and “fruitful person”?God intends for you to be.?
??Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD
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