October 07, 2010

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him —2 Corinthians 5:21

Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.

The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. . .” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be.

And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.

A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.

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October 7, 2010

Journal Entry for Today

Last night in Bible study, the question was asked,”How do we stay close to God so that we know His voice and His will for our lives, especially when life is being very good for us? We seem to turn to God when life is full of trials and challenges, but we seem to become very independent of God as we live the abundant life. How can we avoid this pattern of behavior?”

I replied that the only way I know to stay connected to God is to be in constant fellowship and connection through daily prayer and Bible study, like CO2, where we are also accountable to a brother. I asked if anyone knew any other way to stay connected on a daily basis and no one could think of another answer.

And God says…”Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He will make your paths straight. When you come to Me in prayer and search out My truths in My word, you are rewarded. Knock and the door will be opened, seek and you will find. When you pray in secret I will answer your prayers openly for all to see. When you seek My Spirit for your daily life, you will be rewarded. You will not need to seek My will; you will be living My will. You will not need to seek connection with Me; you will be living the connection and commitment.”

“When you seek Me daily, and look into My word, you are transformed and we are connected. It is here that I touch your heart and mind and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am the Lord your God. When you live like this, you live your days in certain, knowing Me.”