Choose LIFE

Because of Good Friday, we are able to make a new choice for our lives.

We are able to choose LIFE! (John 3:16.)

 

How?

.1. Expiation – Through His death, Jesus removes the guilt of our sin.

John 1:29, John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”

Isaiah 53:6 says, “The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him,” and

Hebrews 9:26 says “He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

 

.2. Propitiation – Through His death, Jesus replaced the wrath of God (sins payment) with God’s favor (His desire to do all kinds of good things for us without sacrificing His justice and holiness.)

 

Romans 3:25-26 says that God “displayed [Christ] publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time, that he might be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.”

Hebrews 2:17 says that Christ made “propitiation for the sins of the people” and

1 John 4:10 says “in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sins.”

 

.3. Reconciliation – Jesus has removed our separation from God so we can move into a personal relationship with Him. We can now pray to God as “Our Father” a special shared relationship that Jesus has with His Father.

Romans 5:10-11: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

Acts 2:21 – And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

 

.4A. Redemption – Jesus became the payment price (ransom) necessary to set us free from the captivity of our sins.

Matthew 20:28 – “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many”

 

His Ransom freed us from three things:

.a. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law (our inability to keep every law at all times): “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13-14).

.b. Christ redeemed us from the guilt of our sin. We are “justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

.c. Christ redeemed us from the power of sin: “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

 

.4B. Redemption – Our redemption from the power of sin is thus the basis of our ability to live holy lives.

1 Corinthians 6:20 – “You have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies.”

2 Timothy 1:9 -He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

Titus 2:11-12 – For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.

 

.5. Christ defeated Satan and his evil powers:

John 12:31 – “…now shall the ruler of this world be cast out.”

1 John 3:8 – “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

Hebrews 1:14 – “that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil”

Colossians 2:15 – “Stripping off the rulers and the authorities, He made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”  

 

Satan’s only weapon that can ultimately hurt people is unrepentance (not accepting God’s forgiveness for sins.)

 

 

Our Substitute

Jesus became our atoning substitute.

 

He died for us (Romans 5:8) – He took His sin free life which earned “eternal life” and traded it for our sinful lives which earned death (Romans 6:23).

As Isaiah says, “he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities . . . the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

 “He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

and “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).

 

 

 “Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).