August 2016 Words of Life (Week 1)

Words of Life

You Were Bought at a Price

The church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.  Acts 20:28b

          Romans 5:7-9 says, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”  Jesus died for us and we are now justified and redeemed by His blood.  Imagine yourself in a courtroom before the judge.  You are being charged with all the crimes you have committed in life; stealing, lying, gossiping, adultery, unforgiveness, etc…  The judge tells you that you must spend the rest of your days in prison or you can pay $5 million dollars to be released.  Your response is that you do not have $5 million dollars.  Then a man walks up to the judge and talks with him for a moment.  The judge then grabs his stamp and marks “Paid in Full” in red ink on your paper.  Jesus paid our penalty with His blood to the death.  1 Peter 2:24 says, “[Jesus] bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed.”

          To clarify even more, picture a boy who has just made a small wooden boat.  He crafted every detail of the boat.  One day he took his boat to the river and let it sail.  Everything was good until a storm came.  A current swept his boat down river.  The boat was now lost.  A week later the boy was walking through town and saw his little boat in a storefront window!  He ran home to get his money, went to the store, and purchased his boat.  He hugged it tight and said, “you are twice mine.  First I made you, and then I bought you!”  God made each one of us.  We were His, but we drifted away due to sin.  Then 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, “You were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”  We are now God’s again.  He made us and then bought us back with Christ’s blood.  Through His blood we are cleansed to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14).

 

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