God has shown grace in saving sinners!
The good news of the Gospel starts with God's love, and it is all about Jesus. It is for both Jews and Greeks — in other words, all people. It is meant to be received by sinners, and it is received by faith in the person and work of Jesus, just as Abraham received it. The good news of the Gospel reconciles us to God, and it changes what King we follow!
We never have to doubt our heavenly Father's love for us. Are we resting in God's love as He's shown it to us in Jesus?
Paul uses a compare-and-contrast format here in this passage: Adam and death on the one hand, and Jesus and righteousness on the other.
When Adam sinned, death entered the world and guilt was imputed to each of us. But the perfect work of Jesus is greater, and He has given us the free gift of justification! All we have to do is receive this gift; we can never earn Christ's favor by our own works.
We are either still under the dominion of sin and death, or we have been brought into Christ's Kingdom of life and grace!
Which kingdom are you in? Who is your ruler? Which dominion are you under? The kingdom of Adam and condemnation? Or is Christ your King – reigning over you and freely giving you righteousness, joy, and peace that the world can never take away from you?
God loved us while we were yet sinners, and He's done everything necessary to reconcile us with Himself — even though we were weak and sinful.
God's love for you is counter-intuitive, not like human feelings of love. He proved His love for us by sending His own Son to die for us.
We have a friend in Jesus. We don't have to wait till we're "good enough"; we are reconciled to God through the righteousness of our Savior. In Christ, we are turned from enemies to friends!
If you are in Christ, God is with you, no matter what you may be going through.
The only way we're made right with God is by Jesus Who saves us. If we want God's face to shine upon us and bestow the peace that only He can give, then it must be by faith. We have access to God's favor, and it didn't cost us any thing, even though it cost Jesus everything.
God gives us challenges and tribulations — not to harm us, but to help us become stronger and grow in character. And He gives us a hope that does not disappoint. He has given us the Holy Spirit to be with us and work this hope in us.
Is Jesus your only hope? Rejoice in the grace that comes through Him!
There have been hard times in all of our lives when we have wondered, "Where is God?" And even though God's presence is a central theme in the Book of Exodus, where do we see Him here in this first chapter? His apparent absence drives us to go looking for Him, and we do see Him here in several ways.
God was busy fulfilling His coverant promises that He gave in the Book of Genesis to His covenant people. He caused His people to multiply, despite the Egyptians' satanic attempt to stop His plan of redemption. He was also fulfilling His original plans for His Creation, which He has not given up on, despite our rebellion against Him. In addition, He was blessing His people with many children, even though that was a motivator of the Egyptians' hatred for them. He was working with ordinary midwives in the ordinary circumstances of bearing children to bring about His purposes.
The Lord may seem absent sometimes, but He was there for the Hebrews and He is still there for us now. He has never abandoned us, He has redeemed us through Jesus' perfect sacrifice on the cross, and He still blesses us. Nothing at all can ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ!
We always tend to say that we are not the one who has a sin problem. But in this passage, God says that we do indeed. It's time for us to admit that we are sinners, and to look to Jesus alone for justification.
No person or group has moral superiority before God. And we can't grade ourselves on a sliding scale and say we're better than others. Our default mode is sin, and we can't blame others or our circumstances for it.
The evidence is against us. What hope do we have? God's Law condemns and silences us, and our only hope is for our Judge to look at our Advocate: Jesus Christ, who never sinned, and resisted all temptation. He takes His robe of righteousness and puts it on us.
Stop trying to justify yourself. Don't whitewash your sin. Call it for what it is, confess it to the Lord, and look to Christ for forgiveness.
Sometimes it's really easy to accuse others when we ourselves have the same problem. But we cannot avoid God's judgment by pointing our finger at someone else. How, then, do we escape His righteous wrath against our sins?
We first have to be honest about our natural condition: we are under judgment, and the Lord will judge with equity. There's no way we can stand before the Omniscient Judge and say, "I'm righteous."
So what hope do we have? Where do we run when the gavel is about to fall? We must run to the cross as fast as we can. Christ has taken away our sins and given us His righteousness. He was put to death for our sins, and He was raised again for our justification.
What kind of person will you be? Will you say you haven't sinned and make God out to be a liar? Or will you confess your sins to the one who is faithful and just to forgive them?
Stop pointing fingers at everyone else, confess that you are guilty, and then look to Jesus and rest in His finished work of redemption!
