The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. (Psalm 33:6)
(via hopefisch)
Source: instagram.com
The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. (Psalm 33:6)
(via hopefisch)
Source: instagram.com
Perhaps he could have died another way, but God decreed that it would be by crucifixion. Crucifixion represents that in Christ’s death, he was bearing the wrath of God for the sins of humanity. In Galatians 3:13 Paul says “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” He is quoting Deuteronomy 21:22-23 which says that anyone who is “hanged on a tree” is “cursed by God”. On top of this, we see in Isaiah 53 that the Crucifixion was prophesied hundreds of years before it happened. Christ was crucified for our sins, and bore the wrath of God in fulfillment of the Scriptures.
This is an encouraging message to receive. I’m glad that you feel welcome here. I agree that the Christian culture does seriously lack compassion. Historically speaking the church has always cared for the downtrodden and for those that they probably disagreed with. Christ always ministered to and was present in the lives of the “sinners” but never condoned their sin. The same is true today, he loves me and is present in me, and yet does not condone my sin. If we are really being “conformed into the image of the Son” through communing with him in his death and resurrection, then our lives should look as much like his as they can. This means loving those we may disagree with.
Be blessed friend!
-Brandon
This is a really great question. Basically, Christ died on the cross not only to save us from our sins, but to save us from the penalty of our sins. The Apostle Paul says that “the wages of sin is death”. When we sin we are in essence rebelling against God. We are telling God that we think we know how to achieve fulfillment better than he does and that we think we can do a better job at being the God of our lives than he can. And we all do this every single day. Now, God is a holy and just God who cannot allow crimes to go unpunished, and since humans are the ones who are committing these sins, it has to be a human to pay the penalty. But no mere human can pay the penalty for the sins of all human kind, only God can do that. So God came down from heaven in the flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a perfect life so that he could give us his righteousness and he died on the cross to take upon himself the penalty that was due to us for our sins. Basically he traded his righteousness for our sin and the wrath that should have been on us. Christ had to die on the Cross because the wages of sin is death.
Be blessed,
-Brandon
You can always see who’s a legalist because he can’t laugh at himself. He’s the one going around saying, ‘That’s not funny.’