Grace came through Jesus Christ

"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" John 1:17. 

I remember watching a move "Saving Private Ryan". I probably saw it 5 times. It is good. One scene from the movie came to my mind recently. It was  one of the last scenes. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) was shot and dying. Private Ryan (Matt Damon) rushed to him to hear the last words from the captain. What were those? "Earn it". It took a lot for the special team to go and search for Ryan. They sacrificed themselves to bring him home to his mother. So, it was a very natural statement by captain Miller before his death. He wanted to be sure his death was not in vain and Ryan lived worthily of the sacrifice that the team made to bring him home.  

Jesus made a great sacrifice to bring you back to the Father. However, you cannot earn it. The sacrifice was a gift given to you and me for free. In the times of law that was given through Moses, you had to earn your righteousness by following the commandments. If you followed them, you were blessed, if you disobeyed, you were cursed. So, you had to earn it. There was no grace in the law. Nothing was for free. You earned either blessing or curse. The process of justification was reversed through Jesus. He paid the price for our sins and justification for us. We don't have to earn it. It is for free. It is the grace of God. Yes, God expects our gratitude and worthy living, but even if we don't, it is a free gift, which you can accept or throw it away. Which one are you going to do? The gift is very precious! God Himself died for you and me!

Why Old Testament sacrifices were not good enough

"For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year" Hebrews 10:1-3.

The main subject of the epistle of Hebrews is the difference between the Old and the New Covenants. Apparently, the sacrifices that were offered under the law were far from perfection and they were merely a shadow or symbols of the things to come. We see that God was not pleased with those offerings and they could not cleanse people from their sins. Their consciences would still feel guilt for their sins despite the fact sacrifices were offered to remove the sins. Their sins could not be removed due to inferior blood. People, in the Old Testament developed a consciousness of sins and the sacrifices reminded them that they were constantly guilty before God. Fortunately, that changed.

Jesus came and offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins once and for all. He was innocent and His sacrifice was enough to remove the entire sins of the world and make us right in the eyes of God. His perfect sacrifice makes our consciences perfectly clean. You have to believe it. God no longer counts your sins if you come to Him by faith in Jesus. All of your sins were put on Him. His sacrifice is enough. You can come to God with boldness knowing that you are forgiven and clean. You shouldn't have consciousness of sins, but consciousness of righteousness that Jesus gave to you. Praise God, Jesus took your sins, and gave you His righteousness. You are guilt free. And God accepts you with His hands wide open.  

From death to life

"Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life" John 5:24. 

In the Old Testament, you had to do good works to be justified by God. If you kept all commandments but failed at one thing, you broke all law. You were guilty. You could only be justified by observing the entire law. If you failed at something, judgement of God was in store for you. The law demanded for you to be righteous. It was a heavy burden on the shoulders of the Jews and nobody could really fulfill the entire law. If they thought they could, they actually were lying to themselves. 

Christ came. He was the only person in the world who never sinned and fulfilled all the commandments of God. He died for you and me. The New Covenant was established. On the cross, God poured His judgement on Jesus for all the sins that the entire world committed: past, present and future. Now, what you have to do to be saved and have eternal life is to listen to the words of Jesus and believe. If you do, you are saved and pass from eternal death to eternal life. You don't have (can't) to be good in order for God to justify you. In the New Covenant, God does not demand righteousness from you, He supplies His own righteousness for you. You cannot be good enough. You have to accept (believe) the gift of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and you will never be judged by God. You will pass from death to life. What a glorious gift God has given us! Thank Him for that. 

Christ is the Power and Wisdom of God

“…but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God…” 1 Corinthians 1:23-24.

Non Christians do not understand the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. For some it is foolishness, for others it is weakness. However, we see the real value of that. His death redeemed the entire humanity from slavery to sin and Satan. He took away the keys of the gates of hell from the devil and is now the Lord of the universe. Heaven is open now for those who repent and believe in this act of Jesus. Isn’t it powerful and wonderful?