May 26, 2006

I can't believe that it is Friday. I'm getting posted late as usual. The really good news for today is that I figured out why my podcast didn't come out with all the music and the words. I redid the podcast in another file and was able to listen to an mp3 of the podcast with voice and music. If all goes well, I will have a podcast with music and voice for next Wednesday.

I am also putting things together to start doing a video podcast. I don't know how glamorous it will be, but I hope it will be one more way to reach out to others. So maybe a video podcast  with voice and music for next week. To be continued!

Still lots of time to talk about gaining peace with God:

Why did Jesus come? God began to teach His people that man could only be saved by substitution. Someone else would have to pay the penalty for man’s redemption. Adam was the federal head of the human race. When Adam sinned, we all sinned.

 

The word justify means the clearance of the soul from guilt. Justification is far more that forgiveness of sin. Sin must be put away and made as though it had never been. Man must be restored so that there shall be no spot or blemish or stain. Man must be taken back to the position he had before he fell from grace.

 

The only solution was for an innocent party to volunteer to die physically and spiritually as a substitution before God. This innocent party would have to take man’s judgment, penalty, and death. God’s own Son was the only personality in the universe who had the capacity to bear in His own body the sins of the whole world. Only God’s Son was infinite and thus able to dies for all.

 

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ had no beginning. He was never created. The Bible teaches that the heavens were created by Him. All the myriads of stars and flaming suns were created by Him. The birth of Jesus Christ that we celebrate at Christmas was not His beginning. His origin is shrouded in that same mystery that baffles us when we inquire into the beginning of God.

 

Only Jesus had the power and capacity to bring man back to God. He would have to die in the place of sinful man. Voluntarily. Jesus came to reveal God to man. It is He who told us that God loves us and is interested in our lives. It is He who told us of the mercy and long-suffering and grace of God. It is He who promised life everlasting.

 

God demands death, either for the sinner or a substitute. Christ was the substitute. The awful suffering of Jesus Christ was his spiritual death. He who knew no sin was made to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Because He knew no sin there is a value beyond comprehension in the penalty He bore, a penalty He did not need for himself. Now that the ground of redemption has been laid, all the guilty sinner has to do is believe on the Son and he can have peace with God.

 

In the cross we see the depth of man’s sin, the overwhelming love of God, and the only way of salvation. There is no possible way of being saved from sin and hell except by identifying yourself with the Christ of the cross. Two thousand years ago God held your sins and mine to the flames until every last vestige of our guilt was consumed.

 

The blood sacrifice runs throughout the Old Testament-a foreshadowing of Christ’s perfect sacrifice. The Bible teaches that blood redeems. Blood brings us nigh. The redeemed sinner will never have to face the judgment of God. Christ has already taken his judgment. Blood makes peace. Blood justifies. The repentant sinner, pardoned through the blood of Christ, regains his full citizenship. Blood cleanses. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all of our sin. 

 

Without the resurrection there could be no salvation. There are certain laws of evidence which hold in the establishment of any historic event. There must be documentation of the event in question made by reliable contemporary witnesses. There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty three. In the face of overwhelming evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ there is plenty of doubt.

 

The resurrection of Christ meant first that Christ was undeniably God. He was what he claimed to be. Second, it meant that God had accepted Christ’s atoning work on the cross, which was necessary for our salvation. Thirdly, it assures mankind of a righteous judgment. Forth, it guarantees that our bodies also will be raised in the end. The Scripture teaches that as Christians, our bodies may go to the grave but they are going to be raised on the great resurrection morning. And fifth, it means that death will ultimately be abolished. The power of death has been broken and death’s fear has been removed.

 

Paul looked forward to death with great anticipation as a result of the resurrection of Christ. “I love Him so much that I can hardly wait to see Him!� Without the resurrection of Christ, there could be no hope for the future. The Bible says that someday we are going to stand face to face with the risen Christ and have bodies like his.

Thanks again for joining me today. I would welcome a chance to have someone else write a guest blog. Send me a note at: [e-mail].

Please have a safe Memorial Day weekend for those of you in the United States. Keep all the men and women of your armed services in your prayers!

 

Yes, there will be a Monday blog! I wouldn't miss you for the world. Until then, thank-you and God Bless.

 

Pastor Bob Emery