The Sacrificial Lamb

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If animal’s blood could actually erase sin-debt, we’d still be offering those frequent sacrifices and Jesus’ death would have been unnecessary. Yet we must remember that though the act itself had no saving power, the ritual of sacrifice was God’s idea (Leviticus 4). He established such offerings as a powerful illustration of the seriousness and penalty of sin. The practice also pointed to Christ’s perfect sacrificial death on our behalf and the salvation He offers.

Commentary from the In Touch devotional by Charles Stanley, May 27, 2019.

Thoughts of the Wicked

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Proverbs 15:26

Thank Satan

There would not be sin, confusion, and chaos in this world if not for the enemy of man-the enemy of our very souls.

By Grace You Have Been Saved

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And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Ephesians 2:1-3

Fallenness

Ten times Exodus refers to God’s hardening Pharaoh’s heart (e.g., 4:21; 7:3,13), and other times to Pharaoh’s hardening his own heart (e.g., 8:32; 9:34). This does not mean that God actively created unbelief or some other evil in Pharaoh’s heart (see James 1:13), but rather that He withdrew all the divine influences that ordinarily acted as a restraint to sin and allowed Pharaoh’s wicked heart to pursue its sin unabated (see also Romans 1:24,26,28).

Commentary from the MacArthur study Bible, notes for Romans 9:18.

Unfathomable

Both the depths of our sin and the love of Christ for us are mostly unfathomable to us.

Can You Pay?

Jesus tells a story of a debt that was owed in Matthew 18:23-35, and forgiveness and unforgiveness. Essentially saying, that as often as you are sinned against, you are to forgive. In the story one man had a very large debt, ten thousand talents, which was forgiven-and which today equals about six billion dollars. Another man owed a small debt to the man that was forgiven his large debt, but the man would not forgive the debt and had the man that owed a small debt thrown into prison.

We are all ten-thousand-talent debtors to God. Not a day passes without each of us sinning many times in thought, word, deed, or motive.

Commentary from the Masterwork Bible Study, Spring 2021, The Blessing of Humility by Jerry Bridges.

Abandon Yourself

Belief in the Lord Jesus, in who He is and in what He did on our behalf, isn’t just intellectual acknowledgement but complete abandonment of ourselves to Him.

Commentary from the In Touch devotional by Charles Stanley, April 28, 2021.