*Romans 5:8-9
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!
In 1964, in a small city in the state of Massachusetts, there was a family with 9 children. Sadly, the family's situation was not ideal. Their fathers were varied & absent, while their mother was chaotic & neglectful. As a result, the children lacked discipline & ran around the neighborhood unsupervised, getting up to mischief.
Betty Ann Waters & her brother, Kenny Waters, were part of this family. With just a year between them, they were inseparable & did everything together. Before they were teenagers, they found themselves in the hands of the police on numerous occasions for petty crimes, such as stealing candy or leaving school without permission, but as time passed, Kenny got rougher & his crimes increased dramatically.
Not long after, Betty dropped out of school & got a job as a waitress in a restaurant. One day, the police came to Kenny's house to arrest him, saying that he was guilty of murder. Kenny provided evidence to prove that he had been working all night, which meant that it was impossible for him to be a culprit. Nevertheless, the courts insisted that he was guilty & his record did not help his credibility. Betty immediately began to work on her brother's defense. When she saw how difficult the situation was & that they were condemning him to life in prison without parole, she left her job & went back to school.
When she finally graduated from high school, she decided to take up her assignment: becoming a lawyer to fight her brother's case. She went to college, where she spent 13 years working toward her law degree. While she was studying, she represented her brother in court & diligently studied any law that might possibly help to set him free. After 18 years, she found a group of lawyers who investigated DNA found in murder cases - something that was at the time a relatively new science. She sought their help & a DNA test proved that Kenny was innocent. He was released from prison & Betty stopped working as a lawyer. Her mission had simply been to see Kenny set free. She gave the best part of her life for her brother - because of her love for him.
While many say that they know what it is to love, true love comes with a price; it requires both dedication & sacrifice.
Jesus poured out His life unto death so that He could secure our freedom. & yet, we often do not protect that freedom with enough resolve & we end up becoming victims of our own carelessness.
Some Christians feel so confident about coexisting with their old nature that they do not realize that although they try to exercise control over their own desires & try to lead a good life, at the moment they least expect it, their fleshly nature can rise up & destroy them.
There is only 1 way to treat that nature & that is by putting it to death.
Jesus, in His infinite love, took the place we deserved & gave His life so that our sinful nature could be destroyed.
A divine exchange took place on the cross; God gave His Son, who had never sinned, & offered Him up to receive punishment we deserved.
Jesus carried all our sins upon Himself & gave us His righteousness in return.
Although He had never sinned, He was judged as if He had committed the worst of all atrocities & He received the sentence that was reserved for lawbreakers.
*2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The only thing the Lord now asks is that we believe, so that on account of our faith, all His blessings can become ours.
Jesus took all the evil we were & gave us all the good He is in return.
As a result, God no longer sees us as we were in our sinful condition - He now sees us as He sees His Son: pure & without sin.
When we confess what His blood has done for us, we rebuke the accusing spirit that brings guilt & condemnation.
DECLARE: By the blood of Jesus, I have been justified & God sees me as if I have never sinned.
REMEMBER:
THE BLOOD OF JESUS JUSTIFIES ME.
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