The Lord’s Rescue Plan We are all born with hearts rebelling against God. Read | Romans 3:10-26 Romans 3:10-26 New International Version (NIV) 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. Righteousness Through Faith 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. --------------------------------------- The Creator placed two people with clean souls in the Garden of Eden, but when Adam and Eve chose to disobey, their hearts became sinful. God had told them that the penalty for their sin was death (Gen. 2: 17). Mankind’s first parents bequeathed their sin nature to the entire human race. So we are all born with hearts rebelling against God. Like a toddler who defies his parents by touching a forbidden item, we disobey our heavenly Father because we prefer to follow our own desires. It is not our wrong conduct that condemns us, but rather the fact that our nature is corrupt. Whether good or bad, our deeds don’t determine where we will spend eternity. Apart from the Lord, no one is righteous—not a single person has done enough good to earn a place in heaven. But the Father loves us and wants us to live with Him eternally. So, before the creation of the world, He planned a solution. The rescue plan was simple—a perfect sacrifice had to be made for mankind’s sin so that everyone could be blameless before a holy God. By accepting this sacrifice on his or her own behalf, any individual would receive a new nature to replace the corrupted one. In addition, the Holy Spirit would indwell that person to provide truth and guidance. The sacrifice was Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, bearing all our sin. When we trust Him as Savior, our “flesh” nature dies with Him. The Holy Spirit comes to make our hearts new so we can find joy in obeying God. We are rescued and set free! intouch.org
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 04:32:02 +0000
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