Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and were guilty before Him. But God so loved Adam and Eve that He put to death a substitute in their place, and covered them with the skins of that sacrifice. Now they were no longer condemned because the animal, though innocent, was condemned in their place and died instead of them.
Do you see how God was illustrating the good news about Jesus? He put it in a story form so that we could see it happening before our very eyes.
God wanted you to see the love He has for you so He has told it over and over, in literally hundreds and thousands of stories all through the Bible. Each story has this main point: someone (something) taking the place of another.
For a few moments, you might like to think about what the word ‘substitute’ means for you... Do other similar words come to your mind such as a replacement, a stand-in, an alternative, a proxy, or a representative person or thing serving in the place of another? This one main point of the entire Bible is called “the Great Exchange”. It is a Beautiful Exchange as this song reminds us:
Notice the “Great Exchange” in this passage:
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This means that God put all our sin on Jesus, Who was perfect, sinless and holy, and then God put all Jesus’ holiness (perfect living, sinless perfection, etc.) on you. In other words, God took your sin off of you and put it on Jesus, and then took Jesus righteousness off of Him and put it on you.
So God looked at His perfect Son as the worst sinner, as one who was guilty and deserving to die, so that He can now look at you as perfect and holy, deserving to live forever. He made Jesus sin for you and at the same time, He made you righteous in Him. All of this happened at the cross.
If you can understand this teaching you now have an amazing gift, for you are now able to pick up your Bible and read anywhere in it, and use this key to open up the understanding of the passage. You now can go on one treasure hunt after another looking for all the places in Scripture that God has hidden His gospel. The Apostle Paul worded the treasure this way: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2 NIV).
But you know something? This treasure will only have value to you if you believe it to be true; otherwise, you just won’t have any interest in it.
So the question is, do you believe this gospel message to be true?
Do you believe that you are a sinner (have not lived perfectly), and are therefore deserving of God’s judgment, His condemnation and the subsequent penalty of death?
And do you believe that, like the animal in the story of Adam and Eve, God put His Son to death in your place?
Do you believe that He loves you and sent Jesus to die for you?
If you feel and know yourself to be sinful, doing wrong things, falling short of God’s requirements, then you can also rejoice that Jesus is holy, lived perfectly and fulfilled all of God’s requirements for you. He lived for you, He died for you, He rose again for you, He is interceding for you right now and He will come back for you to take you to be with Him.
In tomorrow’s lesson, I want us to see an amazing passage that was written 700 years before Jesus Christ was born. It details this “main message”, this good news about Jesus, very far in advance of when Jesus came to this earth.
The reason we’re looking at these passages is to discover Jesus Christ in amazing ways, ways that can become thoroughly consuming to anyone who believes. And when we get thoroughly captivated by Jesus, we are set free from all other obsessions. Media addiction has met its match in Jesus!
Question 5. Do you believe the message you read today? Do you believe it applies to you? Why or why not?
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