Digging the Word

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Salvation: Made A Reality By Jesus

God's plan of salvation is fulfilled by Jesus sacrifice on the cross.

Ephesians 1:7-12 He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

Luke 2:11 The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

In yesterday's post from Ephesians 1:1-6 we learned that God has always had a plan. God wasn't caught off guard and he didn't say "Oops!" when Adam and Eve disobeyed him for the first time. The plan was somewhat of a mystery for thousands of years, mankind had a glimpse of God's plan, but we didn't know too much about it until he was ready to reveal the details to us.

The mystery of God's plan started to be revealed in the prophets and then in the announcement of Jesus birth when the angels told the shepherds that the Savior was born. Jesus' teaching continued to unveil the mystery and show us that God planned to save the world, not just the Jews, through Jesus death.

We know that God is loving, merciful and kind but the plan of salvation also reveals that God demands justice and perfection in order to have a relationship with him, we need a sacrificial lamb to purify us and make us right in God's eyes.

Jesus sacrifice is final.

Hebrews 10:1, 4 The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were never meant to forgive sins. They were only a reminder of the fact that they had sin and that they needed the perfect and final sacrifice that God promised to send. There was only one sacrifice that could forgive sins, the only spotless lamb that could be offered was God himself, he knew when he created man that he would have to come down here and die in our place.

The only sacrifice that can cover my sins has been made and now I can enjoy a relationship with God for eternity. I didn't do anything to obtain this great favor with God, it is only because God is so rich in love and kindness that he wanted to make me right with him, what an awesome gift!

More scripture about God's plan: 2 Timothy 1:9-10

Monday, May 20, 2013

Salvation: Planned By God

God's plans started a long time ago and they have never changed.

Ephesians 1:1-6 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God's holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. 2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.

6 So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son.

Making plans is something that most of us like to do, it gives us something to look forward to and it is also a source of hope. Having a plan will help us see that there is a way out of a bad situation and give us hope that a better day is coming.

Plans also help us to be organized and efficient but the plans that we come up with are always subject to change, since we don't know what is coming up in the future, we often make plans that we soon realize are not doable. God has the advantage when it comes to planning, he can see the complete picture and he will never have to say , "Oops!"

God was the first to make a plan and as old as his plan is it is still the same plan. God's plan was conceived before creation and you can see it carried out as the process of creation was done in the proper order. If he had made the elephant before he made dry land then we may not have elephants today since they would have nowhere to stand.

Part of God's plan was to have a relationship with people that are chosen by him, that concept is one of the most difficult and least liked doctrines in the Bible, the idea that some are chosen to be his and others are not is the doctrine of election.

We see election in the Old Testament when God chose Abraham over any other man on earth, next God chose Issac over Ishmael, Jacob instead of Esau, each time God made a choice that had nothing to do with human accomplishments, God chose and that was it.

John 6:44 For no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them to Me, and at the last day I will raise them up.

The doctrine of election is found in the New Testament as well, Jesus teaches us that we don't even have the ability to come to salvation unless we are drawn to him by God the Father, the choice wasn't made by us. We like to think that we did something in the process of salvation but we were so bad off that we needed help just to know that we were so bad off. We were completely at God's mercy to give us the desire and the faith to know him and accept his plan of salvation.

The ultimate question of why God chose some for salvation and left others in their sinful state is one that I cannot understand with my finite knowledge. I cannot understand his ways but I do know that he is perfect in his goodness, love, wisdom, and justice.

Thank you Lord for the greatest gift ever! I don't understand why the gift of salvation was offered to me but I receive it and want to share it with others.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Praying? Don't Be Shy!

God's people are encouraged to pray boldly.

Nehemiah 1:3-7 They said to me, "Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire."

4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. 5 Then I said, "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of unfailing love with those who love Him and obey His commands, 6 listen to my prayer!

Look down and see me praying night and day for Your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against You. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! 7 We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that You gave us through Your servant Moses.

Psalms 102:1-2 A prayer of one overwhelmed with trouble, pouring out problems before the LORD.

LORD, hear my prayer! Listen to my plea! 2 Don't turn away from me in my time of distress. Bend down to listen, and answer me quickly when I call to You.

I have been in church all of my life and I have never seen anyone pray the way God's people did in the Bible. In the Bible there is a forceful passion without any messing around these people pray what they feel. It makes me wonder how we can see their prayers and the results that they achieved and yet we don't follow their example?

"Hey God, it's me again, I know you are busy and you have other more important things. I know you already know this but let me just ask this one thing if it's your will. Sorry to bother you."

That's not the kind of prayer that Nehemiah prayed! Nehemiah spoke to God with passion, he wasn't afraid to say "Listen to my prayer!" God wants to hear the emotion, he wants to hear how we really feel, he can handle it! Nehemiah wasn't being disrespectful, he showed that he revered God. He began by saying "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God."

We don't dare pray with an exclamation mark! It seems too demanding and rude we come to God all shy and timid afraid to make a request. We know that God knows everything and he has a plan and a purpose for everything so we think that maybe we shouldn't bother God with our little problem.

Keep on asking boldly!

Luke 11:8-9 But I tell you this--though he won't do it for friendship's sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. 9 And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

The way that Jesus taught us to pray is nothing like the average Christian today. In Luke 11 Jesus lesson on prayer was about a man that won't give up, this guy is shameless and bold, he has a lot of nerve to wake up the man and his family and make him get out of bed to help him.

In this lesson on prayer the guy is talking back to his neighbor and he isn't taking no for an answer. Jesus gave us three verbs for us to get busy doing: keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

Besides teaching us about prayer Jesus also gave us an incredible example on praying with force and boldness. When he came to earth he knew why he came, he knew the terrible way that he was going to die, nevertheless he still prayed with great passion for God to make another way.

Matthew 26:39 He went on a little farther and bowed with His face to the ground, praying, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine."

Jesus prayed boldly, he didn't want to suffer such cruelty and yet he was willing to accept the Father's will, he didn't think that it was wrong to ask boldly for a different plan. I need to follow Jesus example and quit praying like a wimp.

Lord help me to stop praying so weak! Wake up the passion in me and help me realize the power that is available in prayer.

Additional scripture on bold prayers: Hebrews 4:16, Ephesians 3:12