Words from the Cross - Personal

John 15:13-15 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends…I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 

I have had several great discovery days in understanding things about the Lord. The greatest ones are those through which I see the personal connection between what Scripture says and how that applies to me.

I struggle often, probably like you do, reading or listening to the stories over and over and only hear ancient words. It is altogether different when I read and see my name written on the pages.

I can even visualize Jesus hanging on the cross, dying for the sins of the world, but miss that He is doing so for me. He’s paying my price. He’s carrying my sins. He’s suffering my death. He’s doing that for me. Jesus laid down His life for me.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. That whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Who is the world? Who is the whosoever? Who gains everlasting life by believing? This is a collective message to be applied personally.

Col 1:21-22  And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach

Col 2:13-14  When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 

We have a common experience. Remember what that was like?

Eph 2:1-3  And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 

But God: instead of leaving you there:

Eph 2:4-6  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 

Rom 5:8-10  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 

Reconciled – the relationship

Saved – the benefits – deliverance

Rom 5:11  And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 

2Cor 5:19-20 God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 

Here is the message:

2Cor 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

2Cor 5:15  and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. 

2Cor 5:17  Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 

TAKEAWAYS:

1. The Bible is written collectively to apply to everyone.
2. The Message is to be taken personally to apply to me.
3. When I discover that truth, my life will be transformed.