You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
#727
The Divine Mystery Revealed (34)
by Jim Mettenbrink
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In the last article, we closed
with the beginning of the unfolding of the mystery hidden from
mankind through the ages (Colossians 1:26). Since
from the Garden of Eden man has failed Gods supreme command
of total allegiance by being sinless and thereby bringing death
to each of us, God resolved to save us by becoming human flesh
and keeping His commandments for us (Matthew 5:17,18; Luke
24:44).
God came into humanity via the
virgin having been conceived by Holy Spirit, thus Jesus was man
and God at the same moment (Matthew 1:18-24). That
Jesus came into the flesh and kept the law sinlessly, He became
the acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the entirety of humanity.
He paid the penalty of sin (death) on the cross which Gods
commanded animal sacrifices could not pay (Hebrews 10:5-10).
That Jesus did so was the continuing revelation of the
Divinely planned mystery.
Since Jesus had never sinned, He
had always had fellowship with God, both through eternity and
now as a human being. Jesus experienced on the cross that
which He had never known the effect of sin. For
three hours, from noon until the moment of His death, the world
turned dark (Matthew 27:45,46; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44-46).
In that last moment, He cried out in anguish My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?
Having the sins of the world heaped on Him separated Him
from the Father, the same result we suffer because of our sins.
He died and was buried as a human. In His death we
acknowledge His humanity.
In His death, the penalty of your
sin was paid. Like a criminal, the penalty of crime is
the prison sentence. But once the penalty is paid, the
record still shows the person to have been a criminal.
On the last night before Jesus
was crucified, as He instituted the memorial of His coming death,
He
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink
from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:27,28). What
is remission? Why Jesus blood? What is the
connection between His blood and remission of sins? The
Divine mystery hidden through the ages continues to unfold!
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