An Everlasting Covenant

Once again, Dr. J. Vernon McGee has pointed out something in his commentary of Genesis that I never really thought about.  It has to do with His covenant with Abraham.  The actual covenant is found in this passage:

Genesis 12: 1-3

¹ The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
 ² “I will make you into a great nation,
   and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
   and you will be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you,
   and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
   will be blessed through you.”

Abraham was a very practical man, and in the customs of his day, any time you went into contract with someone else, there was a ceremony to seal the promise.  So in Chapter 15 of Genesis, you see Abraham ask, "Lord, how can I know".  He wanted God to seal the promise or covenant He had made with him.  Below is the passage that contains the ceremony.


Genesis 15: 8-12, 17-21

⁸ But Abram said, “Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
⁹ So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
¹¹ Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

(skipping ahead a few verses)

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—
¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”


First of all, it is important to understand what a covenant is.  A covenant is an agreement between two parties.  There are two types of covenants: conditional and unconditional.  A conditional covenant is an agreement that is binding on both parties for its fulfillment.  Both parties agree to fulfill certain conditions.  If either party fails to meet their responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither party has to fulfill the expectations of the covenant.  An unconditional covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one of the two parties has to do something.  Nothing is required of the other party.  (explanation taken from www.gotquestions.org)

The covenant that God made with Abraham was an unconditional covenant.  It required NOTHING on Abraham's part and EVERYTHING on God's part.  God was responsible for fulfilling the covenant. 

Back in that time, this ceremony consisted of taking certain animals, dividing them into two pieces, and then both parties involved in the agreement would pass between the pieces of animals.  God caused a deep, paralyzing sleep to fall on Abraham.  This would not allow Abraham to pass between the divided animals.  God did this because He was taking on the full responsibility of the covenant.  God alone would pass through the divided animals.  This signified the fact that fulfillment of the covenant would fall to God, and Abraham would have to do nothing on his part. 

Well let's jump ahead to the covenant God made with us when He allowed His one and only Son to be crucified on a cross for our sins.  We were not present when that took place.  We came into the picture about 2000 years later.  We couldn't enter into a conditional covenant with Him, because we were simply not there.  It was Christ alone who bore the responsibility for our sins.  He was saying to us, that we are not responsible and that he alone would fulfill His unconditional promise to us.  Here is his promise in a nutshell. 

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life. 

We don't have to fulfill any agreement.  It is God's agreement with us that if we believe in His Son, we will be saved.  He is the one that will save us.  We can't save ourselves. 

Dr. J. Vernon McGee, in his commentary on Genesis, told this story.  I don't have the commentary with me as I write this, and I am going strictly by memory, but the point will be the same.

A boy goes away to college and returns home.  He returns full of doubts about God and salvation.  He asks his mother how she can believe that God will really save her soul, since her soul is one of many.  How could God remember her poor, insignificant, little soul?  His mother thought about this and told him that her soul might be insignificant but God had made a promise to her.  The way she saw it was that she didn't have anything to lose.  But God had everything to lose.  If he didn't fulfill his unconditional promise to her then His reputation was at stake. 

 You see, God is not a liar, and he never will be.  You can KNOW that when God makes a promise, He fully intends to keep it.  It might not be within our timelines, but his promise will be fulfilled.  Our souls probably do seem insignificant to us, but they are tremendously important to God.  So important to Him, that He allowed His Son to suffer and die for them.  How many of you can say that you would give up your child to death on a cross for someone else's soul.  I don't think there is one person out there that can say that.  The price for our souls has already been paid.  Our sins have been forgiven.  My husband reminded me this morning that God doesn't "reluctantly" save us.  He immediately sweeps us up into his loving arms the very moment we give our all to Him.  I'm so glad that my soul was significant to Him - the ONE TRUE GOD.  Praise God that He always fulfills His promises!

Joy through Loss

This was from a post (last week) on my private blog that I share with friends and family but I thought some of you might benefit from reading my story. So here it is!

Monday, January 17.. My Grayson would have been 3 years old.  But God had a better plan for my life.  I believe with all my heart that he knows what is best for each and every one of His children, and I thank God that He is in control, because I would sure hate to know that something so great is up to me.  Looking back over the past 3 years, I see how God used my pain for His glory.  He has brought me and Josh into true fellowship with Him.  He has renewed my relationship with Josh.  He has changed my heart, my mind, and my soul.  I'm still not perfect, nor will I ever be.  His word says, that no one is righteous.. no not one!  But by the shedding of his blood, I am now clothed in His righteousness. As I look back over my testimony that I wrote a few years ago, I see things in a new light.  Although I wasn't angry at God at first, I did become angry at Him later.  Thank goodness it didn't last long.  But looking back, I should have never been angry with Him.  Although he allows suffering to come into our life, He doesn't cause it.  Pain and suffering that we experience here on this earth is a result of the fall of man.  We are all evil.  That is the human nature of EVERYONE.  But Christ came to give us a new nature.  I praise God for that all the time!  He is faithful and just ALL THE TIME.  Because he is faithful, he says in Revelation that one day He will wipe away every tear and there will be no more sadness.  PRAISE GOD!  When Grayson died, he was separated from me on this earth but I have hope and faith that we won't be separated forever.  I will see him again.  But I think that once I get to Heaven, I might not even think about Grayson.  I believe I will be in such awe of my Saviour that the things of this Earth will dim in comparison.  I hope that as you read this you will not see me at all.  It is my prayer that you will see only God and how great and wonderful He is. 


Testimony I wrote a couple of years ago:
I have felt really led by the Lord to share my journey with each of you. As many of you know over a year ago I miscarried twice... A little boy, Grayson and another baby that I carried for only 6 weeks. It was the most trying thing I have ever had to face in my life and I didn't know if I would ever make it through. I initially wanted to be angry at God but I knew if I let myself explore that anger I might never return from it. So I clung to Him and rested in his peace and strength. I didn't know why God was allowing me to experience so much pain but I knew it had to be a part of His will for my life. I had a Bible verse I read over and over again to give me strength. Romans 5: 2-5 says: "we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." I prayed that verse for my life so many times. I do want you to know that anger finally did come a few months later. I was so angry.. angry at God and myself. It was so hard for me to keep that renewed strength, trust, faith and peace. Satan really tried to attack me and keep me from trusting God. But through God's strength I made it through and knew that God ultimately knew and still knows what is best for me and he is not going to give me anything I cannot handle. When I became pregnant with MT, it became hard for me to pray. I didn't even know how to pray because I know that God is sovereign and I didn't think it would matter if I prayed or not because God is going to do what He thinks is best anyway... Right.. WRONG! God wanted me to experience a relationship with Him and we do that through prayer and worship. I worried every single day of my pregnancy.. worried that something would happen to my baby.. and every single day God would give me a peace that I just could not accept. That again was Satan attacking me. Satan does not want us to experience God's joy and he will do everything in his power to take that joy away from us. But now.. I have this beautiful baby girl and every time I look at her I see how far God has brought me and the reasons why he brought me down the path He did. He does do everything for a reason.. and sometimes we do not know what that reason is and sometimes He reveals that reason to us. I look at MT and see a reason. I see that I wouldn't have her if I hadn't had to face the trials I did and I can't imagine not holding her or loving her. Joy came through my brokenness. I wasn't joyful when I was suffering, but through my brokenness I was able to experience the Joy that only can come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is so incredibly awesome and I see everyday a new way He has chosen to bless me. I hope that if you do not know Him or have a relationship with Him that you will choose to get to know Him. He is the best friend you could ever have and He will never hurt you, leave you, or give up on you. He loves you with a true unconditional love and He truly wants what is best for each of us. Hope that somehow my story will help someone else that may be going through a trial of some kind.It does get better!!! "Count it all JOY, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1: 2-4

Is God Fair?

Through my study of Joshua and Judges, I never questioned God's fairness in regard to the Canaanites.  I guess in my little mind, I just think that God is God and He can do whatever He pleases.  It's His world, and we are all just living in it.  But this morning, as I was reading in Genesis 15, Dr. J. Vernon McGee brought up this particular topic in his commentary of that chapter.  Then I thought to myself, just because I've never really questioned the fairness of God regarding the Canaanites, doesn't mean other people haven't questioned it.  So I dug deeper.  I don't need to defend God's judgments in any way, because He is God and I think He can pretty much take care of Himself.  But I do want to help you understand, through my research of this topic, that God WAS just and fair to the Canaanites, just like He is still just and fair to us today. 


Everything that I am going to present, I obtained from other sources through research.


Okay, so here is the big question.  Was it fair for God to order the destruction of the Canaanites so that His people (the Israelites) could enter into possession of the land?


Well you know that I can't just outright answer that question just yet! I have to give you some background.


Genesis 9: 18-27
¹⁸The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. 20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers." 26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant."


This passage lets us know where the Canaanites came from and gives us some very important information concerning them.  In this set of verses we see that Noah cursed his son, Ham, although not directly.  He specifically said, "Cursed be Canaan." Canaan was the son of Ham, and Amor was the son of Canaan.  The Amorites came from Amor and it is my understanding that the Amorites were a clan of the Canaanites.  I'm no Bible scholar, so please feel free to clear this up in the comments section of my blog.  But for the purpose of this study, I have used the terms interchangeably.


Now I want us to look in Leviticus to learn more about the Canaanites and their character.


Leviticus 18: 24-28 (The highlighted portions I placed here for clarification)
²⁴Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations (Canaanites) that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. ²⁵ Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants (Canaanites). ²⁶ But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born (Israelites) and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, ²⁷ for all these things were done by the people (Canaanites) who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. ²⁸ And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations (Canaanites) that were before you.


Here, we can see just how awful the sins of the Canaanites had become by the time the Israelites began to take possession of the land.  Their wickedness had reached such a point that the land itself is said to have become defiled, and that this land vomited them out.  But some may wonder if they had sufficient opportunity to turn away from their sins before God's judgment came upon them?  Well we have to go back to the book of Genesis to answer this question.

Genesis 15: 13-16
 ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. ¹⁵ (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) ¹⁶ After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”

400 years! I believe God was more than fair and just with these people.  It says right here in His word that he gave them 400 years to turn back to him.  God loved the people who already occupied the land of Canaan and I believe he desperately wanted them to turn to Him.  I do not think that God desired for these people to be destroyed.  I think that rather, He wanted them to repent. But some of you "deep thinkers" out there still have questions because you see that God had already said in His word that this destruction would happen.  BUT, let's read some verses in Jeremiah that will hopefully clear this up for you.

Jeremiah 18: 7-8
⁷ If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, ⁸ and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

So there you have it! You can now know that IF these Canaanites would have truly repented and turned to God then He would have relented and not inflicted the disaster upon them that He had originally planned. 

I believe that God was very gracious with the inhabitants of the promised land.  He gave them 400 years!  He even told Abraham that the Israelites would sojourn for this amount of time, meaning they couldn't enter into the land, since the sin of the Amorites was not yet complete.  He gave the Amorites 400 years to repent of their sins!  But even after 400 years, they still hadn't repented.  So God used the Israelites as his instrument of judgment. 

So back to our original question: Was it fair of God to order the destruction of the Canaanites so that his people could enter into the land to possess it? 

YES!  He gave them more than enough time to return to Him, but they chose not too.  They loved their sin and hated God, thus rejecting Him.  I think that after 400 years, God's patience wore pretty thin with these people and his judgment on them was very reasonable. 

So what can all of this teach us?  I believe if you have not yet allowed Jesus to be Lord of your life, turning away from your own sins, and giving your life to Him, then you should ask yourself this question: How much time is God going to give you before his patience runs out?  We are not promised the next breath, much less another day here on this earth.  Do not let one more second pass you by!  You may think you have enough time or that God's judgment is never coming, but I have news for you - His judgment is coming and I think that day draws closer and closer with every passing breath.  We are living in a world that loves sin and hates God.  So ask yourself, How much longer will God tarry before He takes His people home?  I hope that you are certain that when He does return, you will be going home with Him.  Because if you are not saved, then you can be certain of this: God will send you to hell.  And you may say, well that's just not fair.  But friend, God has been MORE THAN FAIR and MORE THAN PATIENT with our world today.  He loves you with every ounce of His being and nothing makes him happier than when someone accepts His free gift of salvation.  I am brought to tears thinking about his grace and mercy!  Please know today where you will spend eternity.  Come to Jesus now.  His arms are outstretched.  He is waiting.  He is waiting for you.

RESOURCES:

The Bible
Thru the Bible with J. Vernon Mcgee, Vol. 1: Genesis-Deuteronomy
www.answersfromthebook.org
www.gotquestions.org
 

Parallels - Old Testament to Today

  I always try to pray before I read my Bible and ask God to reveal Himself to me in a new way so that I can gain some of His insight and understanding.  This morning, when I saw that my daily Bible reading was Judges 1-6, I  thought, "What could God show me in Judges?" I had obviously forgotten that the book of Judges is packed full of important lessons to be learned from God's people, the Israelites.  God definitely had something in store for me this morning, even though I seemed to doubt His ability to come through in a book I barely remembered.  So I will share with you what He taught me this morning through His word. 

We have to backtrack a little to get some background, so let's go back to Deuteronomy. Here is Chapter 7. I know it's a lot to read,  but it's very important because it contains God's specific instructions to the Israelites.  I will highlight portions I want you to pay particular attention too.

¹"When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, ²and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must  devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ³You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. ⁵But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
 ⁶"For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. ¹¹You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
 ¹²"And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. ¹³He will  love you, bless you, and multiply you.  He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. ¹⁶And you shall consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you.Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
 ¹⁷"If you say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?' ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them but you shall  remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰Moreover, the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. ²¹You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God. ²² The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. ²³But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. ²⁴And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God. ²⁶And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.

Okay, so here are direct instructions from God regarding the people that possess the land that God has chosen for Israel.  God did not tell them to go into this land and just live there.  He wanted them to utterly destroy the people that inhabited the land, burning their idols - in essence doing away with everything that had anything to do with these people.  I believe God had a reason for this.  I think He knew just how easy it would be for the Israelites to fall away from Him, if they allowed the people of the land to remain there.  Let me use this illustration you might have heard before.  You are standing in a chair.  There is a person standing on the floor.  Which is easier?  You pulling the person up on the chair with you, or the person pulling you down to the floor with them?  I think it would be much easier to pull someone down rather than lift them up.  God knew this too.  That is why he gave His people STRICT instructions about what they were to do upon entering the promised land.  Let's see what the Israelites do with these instructions. 

In Chapter 7 of Joshua, we see the disobedience of the Israelites regarding the Lord's specific instructions.  In the very first verse of chapter 7, it says that the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things.  A man named Achan took some of the devoted things that belonged to the people of the land, thereby disobeying God's instructions. If you want to see how God dealt with him, you can finish reading Joshua 7 on your own.  Then in Joshua 9, we see how the inhabitants of Gibeon deceived the Israelites by telling them that they were foreigners and wanted a covenant with Israel so that they wouldn't be destroyed.  Joshua didn't seek the Lord's counsel on this before he made a decision regarding the Gibeonites and decided to go ahead and make a covenant with this people not to devote them to destruction.  Later, Joshua finds out that these people of the land had deceived them, but he had to honor the covenant with them and not destroy them as the Lord had previously instructed.  Now if you continue reading in the book of Joshua you will see that Israel did follow God's instructions regarding a lot of these people but they seemed to pick and choose when they would decide to follow them and when they wouldn't.  Moving ahead to Joshua 13, we see that the half tribe of Manasseh did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites but allowed them to dwell in the midst of Israel.  Then in Joshua 15, we see that the tribe of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem so they dwelled with them. In Joshua 16, the tribe of Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites and they lived in the midst of them.  Then In Joshua 17, we see that the tribe of Manasseh could not take possession of certain cities, and the Canannites persisted in dwelling in that land.  It's pretty obvious that allowing these people to dwell among them is NOT the same thing as destroying them.  We keep seeing "they could not take possession" or "they could not drive out the people of the land".  Well why not? Didn't they have God on their side? YES!  God had already told them that He would fight for them if they obeyed Him.  But I think the reason why they couldn't drive out these people from the land God had given them was because they lacked faith.  Sure, these people might have had iron and strength as an advantage over the Israelites, but what is iron and man's strength compared to having God Almighty fighting for you! I truly believe if this chosen people had faith in God to conquer the people of the land, then by all means it would have happened! 

Now we arrive at the book of Judges.  I had to read Joshua before I arrived at Judges and none of what I'm about to share with you really clicked for me, until I arrived at the first 6 chapters of Judges.  In the first chapter of the book of Judges we see the continuing conquest of Canaan and the Israelites failure to complete it.  In chapter 2, we see Israel's unfaithfulness, which is really not a new concept for them.  It amazes me how God continues to hold them in his hand, protect them, and deliver them - despite their lack of faith.  I say it amazes me, but it shouldn't surprise me, because this God of Israel does the same thing for me today.  In verse 11, we see that the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they began to worship idols.  They abandoned the one true God to worship man-made idols.  A lot of you, including myself, think we are safe when it comes to idol worship, because none of us are bowing down to statues or Asherah poles.  But we do have idols.  We worship people, money, children, material things, etc.  Idols are ANYTHING that take the place of God. 

Because the people of Israel turned their backs on God, he allowed their enemies to rise up against them and cause them great distress.  Only when they were in this terrible distress, did they cry out to the Lord to deliver them, which He did, time and time again.  God gave Israel judges to help lead them. While the judge was alive, Israel was faithful to God.  But when the judge died, they started worshiping idols again. I bet this pattern continues through the entire book of Judges, however; I can't say for sure since my daily Bible reading was only the first 6 chapters.  But feel free to read the book of Judges for yourself and let me know if I'm wrong about this. 

Now that you have this big hunk of background that spans all the way back to Deuteronomy, I want to point out a few things.  Hopefully, by this point, you aren't sick of reading, because we are getting to the good stuff!  As I was reading in Judges this morning, it was like a lightbulb went off in my head.  God had a plan for the people of Israel and you can rest assure that God's plan is BEST.  However, the Israelites did not follow God's plan, therefore, they didn't receive the very best that He had in store for them.  Here is where I believe you can draw a parallel from Israel's sins to the Christian's sins today.  God has a plan for us, a perfect plan for our lives, the BEST plan for our lives, layed out for us in His will. 

When He saved us by His grace, He gave us a new nature.  Ephesians 4: 22-24 says, "to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."  Even though we have this new nature, we still have to deal with sin in our lives.  In Romans 7, Paul points out that he does the very things he doesn't want to do because of indwelling sin. But here is the good news, God's grace is greater than ALL of our sins.  After God gives us this new nature, we no longer have to let sin be the master of our lives.  This new life now belongs to God, and He should be in control.  When we are obedient to Him and living in His will for our life, we can KNOW that we are in God's best - the very best that He has for us. 

So we are not much different from the Israelites.  When we allow sin to continue to "dwell among us" instead of destroying the hold it has on our life, then we are saying to God that His best isn't good enough for us.  Instead of letting God be our master, we are allowing sin to control us.  You can look in the Old Testament, and see that when Israel was faithful and allowed God to be in control, they were successful in their endeavors.  But when they turned from God, and turned to idol worship, God allowed them to be overtaken by their enemies.   But EVERY SINGLE TIME that Israel confessed their sins and begged God to regain control of their lives, HE DID.  To me, that is a great testament to how much our God loves us.  No matter what we do, He still loves us and He forgives us.  He still welcomes us back into His outstretched arms.  That is very reassuring to me because I feel like every day I fall flat on my face in failure.  I feel exactly the way Paul felt in Romans 7. 

Just because we know that God is faithful, even when we aren't, does not give us the freedom to keep on living in sin.  You can't continue to live in sin if you are a child of God.  You might falter, you might fall away, but you can't continue that way.  God will not allow it.  You should not allow it.  When God gives you a new nature, one created after His very likeness, we can't just let sin remain and "dwell among us".  We have to destroy the hold it has on us, just like God wanted the Israelites to destroy the people that inhabited the promised land.  He knows how easy it is for sin to take hold of us and drag us down from the chair to the floor.  That is why He doesn't want us to remain in sin.  Let us rely upon God's strength and endurance to cut loose any sin that is still remaining.  You might not can get rid of it on your own, but with God fighting for you, who or what can stand against you!  Let's learn a valuable lesson from Israel and be obedient to God so that He can deliver on His very best for our lives.

A Ram in the Thicket

^{Genesis 12: 1-3
 1} The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
 ² “I will make you into a great nation,
   and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
   and you will be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you,
   and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
   will be blessed through you.”

This is the first time in the Bible that God tells Abraham that he will be made into a great nation.  How does one become a "great nation"?  Well obviously, one has children, and their children have children, and so on until the population multiplies into this "great nation".  But this is not done without first having a child.  At this point in the Bible, Abraham did not have a child, much less children to create this "great nation".  But God said to Abraham, " I will make you into a great nation.."


^{Genesis 13: 14-16
 14} The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. ¹⁵ All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. ¹⁶ I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.


Here we see how the Lord told Abraham that his offspring would be like the dust of the earth.  Can anyone count the dust of the earth? I would sure like to meet the person that tried to do this!  It is an insurmountable task!  This is the second time in the Bible where the Lord tells Abraham that he will have offspring ( A LOT OF OFFSPRING!).  But he still has no children. 




^{Genesis 15: 1-6
 1} After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
   “Do not be afraid, Abram.
   I am your shield,
   your very great reward.”
 ² But Abram said, “Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
 ⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
 ⁶ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.


Okay, a third time the Lord tells Abraham that he will have offspring and that they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky.  God even clarifies that his heir will be his own "flesh and blood".  Well that is pretty clear that his offspring will come directly from him and not through a servant of his household.  This time, the author of the book of Genesis states that Abraham believed the Lord.  Let's think about this.  How hard would it be for you to believe God, if He told you that you would be a great nation - that your offspring would be like the dust of the earth or as numerous as the stars in the sky - and you knew you were on up there in age and had yet to have a child?  I don't know about you, but I think I might have had a hard time believing God if I had been in Abraham's shoes.  But the Bible tells us that Abraham BELIEVED GOD and it was counted to him as righteousness. 


Genesis 16: 1-4
 ¹ Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
   Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
  


Okay, we just read in the previous chapter of Genesis that Abraham believed God.  So why did Abraham agree to what his wife, Sarah wanted.  Why did he agree to take Hagar as his wife?  Well I think at this point, God had not made it exactly clear how Abraham was to obtain offspring, only that it was to be his own flesh and blood.  So far, Sarah's involvement had not been mentioned.  So as far as Abraham knew, it was okay for him to take Hagar as his wife and have a child with her.  All Abraham knew so far was this: his offspring would be of his own flesh and blood.  Abraham having a child with Hagar does not nullify this promise of God in his eyes.  But let's keep going.


Genesis 17: 1-8
 ¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. ² Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
 ³ Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, ⁴ “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. ⁵ No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. ⁶ I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. ⁷ I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁸ The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”


  A fourth time now, God has told Abraham that he would indeed have offspring and would be the father of many nations, that he would be fruitful.  God has established a covenant with Abraham that from him would come kings.  One king in particular comes to my mind - the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace - JESUS.  But God still hasn't cleared up for Abraham where exactly this offspring would come from (other than from his own flesh and blood).  We have to assume that Abraham thinks that this promise from God will come down from the children he has with Hagar. But God is about to clear this up for Abraham.


Genesis 17: 15-22


¹⁵ God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. ¹⁶ I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
 ¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
 ¹⁹ Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. ²¹ But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” ²² When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.




Abraham was utterly shocked about this.  You can hear it in his voice.  He thinks it is impossible for him and Sarah (both on up there in years - way on up there I might add) to have a child.  Much less, a child that God will establish His covenant with as an everlasting covenant.  Abraham even says, "If only Ishmael (son he had with Hagar) might live under your blessing!" But God clears it up for him.  God states that Sarah will bear him a son and they will call him Isaac, and this is the son with whom the covenant would be established.  Doesn't get any clearer than that.  Where at first, the waters seemed muddy to Abraham about the "hows", God has made it crystal clear.  God has not only said that Sarah would be involved, He has specifically called the child by name (Isaac) from whom He would establish the covenant. 


Genesis 21: 1-7


 ¹ Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
 ⁶ Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” ⁷ And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”


This is it!  This is where God fulfills his promise to Abraham.  The promise He had been telling him about for quite some time now.  Isaac is finally born!  So now this covenant that God has promised to establish through Abraham's descendants (directly from Isaac) is brought to life.  But God has some things in store for Abraham, regarding Isaac, that will test his faith. 


Genesis 22: 1-18


¹ Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
   “Here I am,” he replied.
 ² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
 ³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
 ⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
   “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
   “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
 ⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
 ⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
   “Here I am,” he replied.
 ¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
 ¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
 ¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”


WOW! Can you imagine what Abraham must have been thinking when the Lord told him to sacrifice Isaac.  Well I'm a parent myself, and it just hurts my heart and my head too much to think about.  But think about this.  God had promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation through Isaac.  At this point in time, Isaac had not had any children, thus he couldn't be making a great nation until that happened.  A great nation surely couldn't come from a dead boy that had no children.   But we saw earlier that Abraham believed God.  This is pure speculation but if Abraham believed God that he would make him a great nation through his son, specifically his son Isaac, then Abraham might have thought that surely God would bring Isaac back to life.  I believe that Abraham BELIEVED GOD.  God had not revoked his promise or even said to Abraham, "Ha ha just kidding about that whole great nation thing." So as far as Abraham was concerned, God was great and if God asked him to do this, even if it seemed to go against His promise, then God must have a plan to bring Isaac back to Abraham so that His promise could be fulfilled.  I think Abraham truly believed that God had asked him to do something, and he was going to do it.  He even went as far as to bind Isaac, place him on the altar, and raise the knife to slay him.  But then something happened.  God Almighty stopped Abraham from killing his son and He Himself provided a ram caught in the thicket to be sacrificed instead.  So God did not in any way go back on His promise to Abraham.  The covenant would still be fulfilled. 


But this isn't really about Abraham's faith, although I think it was important to outline the background and point out the fact that he believed God.  I think we can all  learn a lesson from Abraham about believing God - believing God that He is who He says He is and He will do what He said He will do.  I think all of these things are extremely important and I don't think I could have gone any further without first laying all of that out for you.  Instead, I think that this is more about God's faithfulness. Not only faithfulness to deliver good on a promise he made to Abraham, but faithfulness to all of his children.  First of all I want to point out that God didn't ask Abraham to do anything, that He Himself wouldn't do.  I think that at this point in history, God already knew that He would have to provide His one and only Son as a sacrifice - a sacrifice for you and for me.  God Himself provided for us a ram in the thicket.  A perfect, holy, sacrifice, whose blood was poured out for all mankind.  Jesus's blood had to be shed in order for us to be able to approach the Almighty God.  The only way to God is through Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, the ram in the thicket. 

The Scapegoat

Our pastor is doing a Bible Study on the Scarlet Thread through the Bible.  Last night, we were studying several passages in the Old Testament but Leviticus 16 was the main focus.  I can't take credit for anything I present to you on this particular blog posting.  I just thought it was great information and wanted to pass it on to you. 

Let's start with the scriptures (New International Version):
(I would recommend reading all of Chapter 16 so you can have the whole picture but for the purpose today I am only presenting portions of it)

⁶ “Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. ⁷ Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁸ He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat.^{[b] 9} Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. ¹⁰ But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.

(Skipping ahead to verse 20)

 ²⁰ “When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. ²¹ He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. ²² The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.

I have probably read these verses many times as I have read through the Bible,  but I never understood them.  I always kind of thought the book of Leviticus was not that exciting anyway and it always seemed like a chore to read through it.  Boy, was I wrong! 

Did you know that there were 613 laws that were given to Moses by God that the people of Israel had to follow?  On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), Aaron would place his hands on this trembling goat's head for no telling how long in order to confess all the sins of the people (613 laws broken every single day for an entire year).  Can you imagine how long that had to take!  All the while this goat is just standing there, taking on the sins of the people.  When Aaron was finally finished with this arduous task, he then released the scapegoat to an "appointed man" who then led the goat out into the uninhabited wilderness.  Imagine how lonely this poor goat must have felt - all alone with the sins of a nation placed upon its head.

Well like I said, I've read this before, never understanding the significance of the scapegoat. The scapegoat represents Jesus.  Jesus took on all the sins of the world (past, present, and future) and had to bear that burden alone.  God, Himself turned his back on Jesus while He did this.  Jesus did not have to do this.  He could have called on a league of angels or even God to rescue Him from the pain (physical and spiritual).  But He didn't.  WHY?  Because He loves you and He loves me.  Enough that he allowed Himself to take on the sins of the world while He hung on that Calvary Cross, so that we wouldn't have to be punished for our sins.  He is now seated at the right hand of God, seated because there is no more work to be done, no more bloody sacrifices that have to be made.  He made the ultimate and final sacrifice for the entire human race. 

The only way that any of us can escape the rightful punishment of our sins is to accept Jesus as our Saviour, confessing our sins to Him, recognizing that we are dirty sinners in desperate need of a Saviour.  Jesus' blood then covers us, so that we can come before God, holy and righteous, not our own holiness or righteousness, but that of Christ Jesus.  The Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags.  Have you ever thought about what these "filthy rags" were?  They were the rags used by women during menstruation.  That is our righteousness dear friends.  Dirty, nasty, menstrual rags.  That is what we are to God.  But He doesn't have to see us that way.  He made a way for us to have the righteousness of Christ - to be seen as pure, holy, and clean.  Jesus poured out his blood for us so that we can be washed clean of all our sins.  This should humble us.  I want to be reminded every single day of the cross and what it means for me.  Jesus' blood is the only way that I can approach the throne of God.  Thank God for His sacrifice!  I hope that you will think today about what Christ endured for you.  Often times, we think about the horrific physical pain He endured, but I believe that the spiritual pain he suffered was much more excrutiating.  I don't think we can even imagine what it was like for Him to bear the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders, to face loneliness and shame for US.  He did this for us, and it costs us nothing.  It is FREE!  I hope with all my heart that you have accepted this free gift from God, and that it has changed your life.  Because it will.  The blood of Jesus is that powerful. Period. 

Imitators of Christ

Do you know Susie Super Christian?  I do.  I've known her or someone like her pretty much my whole life.  I look at Susie and I wish I could be dedicated like her, read my Bible like her, have a willingess to serve like her.  She does it all and still manages to look presentable, have her house clean, and discipline her children without losing her patience, or worse yet, her mind.  My entire life, I have wanted to be like Susie.  When I was in high school, I wanted to have the courage she had to stand against peer pressure.  When I was in college, I wanted to have the courage she had to stand against peer pressure, maintain excellent grades, and to go on mission trips every time there was a school break.  When I entered the "working world", I wanted to have her endurance.  The endurance to get up at 4 am and study her Bible, still be on time or even early for work, and then go to the soup kitchen after work to serve others.  When I got married and had a child, I wanted to exemplify the Proverbs 31 woman that I saw her exemplify everyday.  Not only did she cook 3 meals a day, go to work, bathe her children, feed the dog and take out the garbage, but she also taught Sunday School, kept the nursery on Wednesday night, and managed to squeeze in a couple of those mission trips that she loved so much during her college years.  OH TO BE LIKE SUSIE SUPER CHRISTIAN!!! My life's ambition!  But here's what I didn't know about Susie.  Susie had her struggles.  Susie had a rocky relationship with her parents in high school.  Susie got pregnant by her boyfriend in college and had an abortion.  Susie stole money from her job to support her compulsive shopping habit.  Susie doesn't love her husband anymore and is having an online affair.  But I don't know any of this.  Because I'm so blinded by the fact that she is everything I think I want to be.  I am wanting to imitate Susie because I think she is perfect.  Susie isn't perfect.  But here's the good part.  The part where my great and awesome God reminds me that no one is perfect, no one is good, except for His Son.  His Son that died on the cross for me and for Susie - for our sins that people see and for our sins that people don't see.  Then He reminds me that I should be imitating Jesus, not Susie. 

Why do we do this?  Why do we strive to be like other people? People who aren't perfect.  People who didn't die on the cross for our sins.  People who don't even love us, or could ever love us the way Christ does.

Well let's forget about Susie, because some of you have already realized that the people you know in this world aren't perfect and you wouldn't want to be like them anyway.  But here's what you do.   You are looking at people in the Bible, and you are thinking, "I'll never measure up to David, Peter, Paul, or fill in the blank."  Guess what!  David, Peter, Paul, or any other person in the Bible with the exception of Christ Himself, didn't measure up either.  They weren't perfect and they sinned just like you do. And if you can't remember any of that, let me just remind you.

David:  God's anointed one, a man in the lineage of Christ! A man after God's own heart.  Well David wasn't perfect.  David lusted, committed adultery, and then murdered someone. 

Peter:  Disciple of Christ.  Literally walked with Jesus on this earth.  Well Peter wasn't perfect either.  He lacked faith (remember the whole walking on water thing?), he cut off someone's ear, he denied Jesus not once but THREE times.

Paul:  Imitator of Christ.  Persecuted for Christ.  Well Paul, he wasn't perfect either.  He persecuted Christians.  He held the cloaks of the men that stoned Stephen. 

Well now that you know that people in the Bible weren't perfect either, let me share this with you.  There is no person in this world that measures up.  NO ONE!  We all fall short.  EVERY ONE OF US!  Even people in the Bible that we look up too, that we try to model our lives after, even Susie Super Christian.  So what does that tell you?  I know what it tells me.  It is telling me to model my life after the one person that walked on this earth that didn't sin, the one person who was a perfect enough sacrifice to atone for not only my sins, but your sins too.  This is the man we should be looking to, to be our example.  Lots of people do lots of good things but Christ did everything right and he has all of the answers.  I promise you (and you can take this to the bank) that if you are modeling your life after Christ, you will have joy unspeakable.  Not just happiness, but joy.  Joy in Christ.  I pray that you have it and if you don't have it, I pray that He will not stop pursuing you until you recognize that He is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE and you surrender your whole heart to Him.  That's all he wants.  He just wants your heart, all of it.  Let Him worry about the rest.  Because if He has your heart, you will want to be an imitator of Christ. 

No.. Not me!

Sometimes, when I am reading the Bible, I think to myself, "How could they do that to God?" Let's stop right there.  Who is "they"?  Well you can pick just about any person in the Bible.  You can start with Adam, move right along to the Israelites, pause with David, and then move on to Peter.  Sometimes, I guess I think that I am different somehow.  That given the same set of circumstances, I would have done better.  I would never have hurt God the way that these people did, after He had shown them so much love and faithfulness.  But I have to stop right there.. mainly because God is bringing me to my knees.  He is reminding me that I am just like these people in the Bible. 


Think about Adam and Eve.  God created them for fellowship with Him.  He created the most beautiful place for them to live and provided for all of their needs. All He wanted was for them to not eat the fruit of a certain tree.  He even told them what would happen if they ate of this particular fruit, and it wasn't pretty.  He told them that they would die.  The death God was talking about here not only lent itself to the physical death of the body, but more importantly, the ultimate death, which is separation from God.  Well along comes this beautiful serpent.  I know we like to think of serpents as nasty and slimy, but really I think this serpent was probably the most beautiful creature in all of Eden.  And why wouldn't he be?  After all, the Bible says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  He totally suckered Eve.  He told her, "Really, God told you not to eat of this fruit! The audacity! God knows if you eat this fruit, you will be like Him, knowing good from evil.  Heck, you will be like gods yourselves!"  Well in that moment, Eve made a choice.  She decided that she didn't believe God.  Not only did she decide that she didn't believe Him, she also decided to disobey Him and Adam went right along with it.  Now, at this moment, I am thinking to myself, "How could she not believe God! How could she disobey her creator!" And then all of a sudden I snap back into reality and I think, "Wow! How many times have I gone through times of unbelief, how many times have I disobeyed God?"  Why do we do this?  Why do we separate ourselves from the people of the Bible.  Don't we all have the same sinful nature?  OF COURSE!  So who am I, to pass judgment on these people!  I praise God that He reminds me, when I start thinking that somehow I am better, that somehow there is good in me, that no one is righteous, no not one!  We are all evil.  Evil to the core.  We are born into sin and our whole life there will be sin in our life.  But sin doesn't have to be our master.  We can have victory in Christ Jesus.  His blood covers our sins, all of them!  No matter how small or how great, we are forgiven.  Romans 3:23-26 says,


²³ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ²⁴ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: ²⁵ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; ²⁶ To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.


Now those are a lot of big words! But basically I believe it boils down to this for me.  God knew that the only way we could come to him was through a blood sacrifice.  Not of lambs, or bulls, or any other animal.  But only through the blood of His only Son could we be justified.  Someone's blood had to be shed, and because He loves us so much, He didn't want it to be ours.  It couldn't be ours anyway.  We aren't holy or righteous enough.  We aren't perfect.  But thank God that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice that could atone an entire world's sins: past, present, and future.  God took it a step further.  He did all of this and then He decided it would cost us nothing.  We wouldn't have to do anything.  I think He made it free because He knew we could never ever do enough to earn it.  I think He made it free because He loves us that much.  All we have to do is recognize that we are sinners and know that we can not get to Heaven on our own merit.  We can do nothing.  We are nothing, apart from Him.  The next step is to simply confess and believe with our heart.  An excerpt from the Roman Road to Salvation says this,


A person receives God's free gift of love and life by placing faith in Jesus
Christ. To believe is simply to take God at His word. With our heart
(whole believing) we believe that Jesus is God's Son who died for our sin
on the cross and arose from the grave to live in us as Savior and Lord.


I think that sometimes, we try to make this hard.  The world will tell you that nothing is free.  That you can't get something for nothing.  We try to convince ourselves that we have to do something to earn our salvation.  Well let me tell you what God says in the Bible.. We are saved FOR good works, not BY good works.  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!  He didn't wait until we were a little more holy or a little more righteous, and he certainly didn't wait until we were perfect.  He died for us while we were still dirty rotten sinners.  He loves me and He loves you.  He loves you so much He pursues you.  I don't think He expects us to do a thing.  He comes to us.


Let's go back to Adam and Eve in the garden.  When they had sinned against Him, God didn't wait for them to come looking for Him.  He came looking for them!  Isn't that the most amazing thing! He could have totally written us off.  He could have just destroyed this earth after that first sin and said well that didn't work out, so oh well!  I believe God knew before He even created man that we would give in to sin.  Now let me stop right there, because some of you are probably thinking, "Well why did God even put that tree in the garden anyway if He knew it would lead to sin?" And I think the answer to that question is simple.  God didn't create robots.  He knew He had to give us free will.  What's free will without choices?  God had to give Adam a choice in order for Adam to exert his free will.  And guess what, we have the freedom to either accept Christ as our Savior, or deny Him.  What do you choose today?