Memorize: Obtaining righteousness by Christ
Key Verses: 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 15, 19
Once things are made right between ourselves and God we can live in peace with God. To put it simply, God is not mad at us anymore for our behavior. This changes everything. We used to view suffering as something negative. Now God can use suffering to work wonderful things in our lives. What had been ‘worthless suffering’ now becomes suffering with an eternal outcome. When suffering comes we get to experience God’s presence in new ways which reinforces His promises to us. He can hear His voice, even in the valley of the shadow of death.
The timing of God’s intervention in our lives is perfect: when we are powerless to accomplish it ourselves, then God intervenes. We were sinners when God entered our world and died in our place. It was not when we had cleaned up our lives and become good little human beings that God intervened. Exactly the opposite is true. We had made such a mess of it that only God could get us out, that is when grace came.
And now that we are in right relationship with God through the grace He extends in Christ, we don’t have to worry about His wrath any more. His requirements have been satisfied. Payment has been made in full. But you might ask, “How can one man’s death pay the price for everyone?” That is because one man’s sin got us all into this in the first place. Adam sinned and we all got the consequences. Now God in Christ pays the penalty for everyone’s sin. One man messed it up and one Man makes it right. Adam brought death, Jesus brings life. Read these verses and see all the things that we get because of Jesus’ side of this equation. All the negative of Adam’s choice can be undone through God’s grace. Every negative effect of Adam’s sin have been counteracted through the grace that Jesus provides. Jesus provides the antidote to sin’s poison. Through faith in Him we can be restored. We still live in this sinful world and so have some residual effects present in our lives. We will suffer physical death, for instance. But our relationship with God will carry us into eternity with Him. What Satan stole in the Garden of Eden Jesus restored on the Cross.
The Arnold Journey 