1 Tim 1:15-16
15 It is a trustworthy
statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16 Yet
for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ
might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those [l]who would
believe in Him for eternal life.
Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like
me wrote the former slave ship captain, a person we now recognise has the Anglican
Vicar and Hymn Writer John Newton.
Some 2,000 years ago, a man was lead to his death by an
occupying army to die a death that was both humiliating and agonising, both the
political and religious authorities had conspired to end the live of this one
man because they felt threated by his message and popularity his friends had
run away from him and where now in hiding, one of his friends had betrayed him
and one of his closest friends had denied him, he was beaten and bloodied, and
was led to certain death by public execution, of all the tens of thousands if
not hundreds of thousands who shared his fate or will share his fate including some
of his latter disciples, this one death out of thousands of similar deaths of
those who had been crucified on a cross of wood, this one death was and is of
eternal significance, this death bought God’s Gift of Salvation, the forgiveness
of sins, The Redemption of Mankind.
When our Lord Jesus came, He had one mission in mind, he
voluntary laid aside his divine attributes and was born by a woman, he lived a
normal life in seeming obscurity, he launched his mission by these words The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me see Luke 4:18-19, he had been tempted to sin by
the deceiver and accuser Satan, yet had not sinned, indeed there was no sin
found in Him, his mission then and now is to save sinners. John the Baptist
said these words when Jesus came to him to be baptised in Water, Behold the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and see John 1:28-30.
What do we mean by the Word, sin?
Sin means missing the mark, failure, offense, taking the
wrong course, sin, guilt, it’s also used in the New Testament in a generic
sense of concrete wrongdoing, a principle and quality of action, and as a
sinful deed this includes acts/desires/passions. Sin separates us from God the
father because of sin we are unable to have a relationship with Him, Man has
tried to find a way to have a relationship with God, and because of our sinful
nature we have failed, yet God has provided us the way to Him , see John 14:6.
Let us look now, how Sin came into a perfect World, we all
know that when Adam & Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they were deceived
by satan, see Romans 5:6-21 that because of the fall, sin entered a perfect
world, we have inherited sin because we come from Adam & Eve and because of
this we have a sinful nature and the desire and inclination to sin, see Romans
3:21-26.
Because no man is born without sin, and we have sinful desires and inclinations, it is
impossible for a man to die in our place for our sins, God sent his Son Jesus, who voluntary died in
our place for our sins, He died as our substitute he took the place we deserve,
paid the price that we should really pay, he surrendered his life that we may
live, he laid aside his relationship to his father, so that through him and his
sacrifice we can enter into a relationship with His Father, and our Father see
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Next for this reason I found Mercy
No comments:
Post a Comment