Daily Bible Verses for 5/10/2017

Daily Verse(s)
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

Reading Notes
As these passages come to a close we see that the last two verses of these passages, tell us so much about Jesus, who He is and what He did for us. Jesus took on humanity, this means that Jesus added humanity to His divine nature without diminishing any of His divinity. Thus becoming forever fully God and fully man, the God-man Jesus Christ. The term used by theologians to describe the fact that Jesus is fully God and fully man, is the “hypostatic union.” But why was this necessary? Dear child of God, this was necessary in order that He could become our mediator. In other words, only someone who shared in our humanity, having experienced what we experienced, yet sinless, could be the perfect substitute thereby taking our place at the Cross of Calvary. A sinful person cannot, no matter how great the emotions or sincerity, take on the sins of another person. Therefore, Jesus had to do for us, what we could not do for ourselves. Only Jesus because of His divine nature and because of His sinless humanity could bridge the gap between us, a fallen humanity, and a holy God. Dear believer, the incarnation of Christ was necessary because it was the only means by which God could reconcile us back to Himself. There are no amount of animal sacrifices, no amount of good deeds that can remove the sins of mankind.

All of our sins in both thought and deed are rebellion against God, no matter how big or small, they are a violation of God’s law. And just like in a court of law, no amount of good deeds can remove the penalty of a crime committed. Moreover, what we call good deeds are God’s standard for our day to day behavior, they do not count as “extra credit” toward our salvation. If that were not enough, God judges us not only on the things we do, but also on the motivations and desires behind the things we do, as well as those things we should have done, but failed to do. Those good deeds of helping others that are in our power to do, but because of the demands of daily life, we just fail to do them even though we know we should. Those are referred to as the “sins of omission.” Therefore, it becomes obvious, only one who is sinless and meets God’s perfect requirements can remove the sins of others and that one person was Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus is the eternal God of Heaven, who stepped out of eternity and took on humanity in order to be the perfect sacrifice for our salvation. There was no other way to reconcile mankind back to a Holy God. And that’s why God Himself, stepped out of eternity in the incarnation of Christ and took on flesh. And by taking the punishment that we deserved, Jesus forever put to death the enmity between us and a Holy God. Moreover, in Jesus there is no nationality, neither Jew or Gentile. Instead, we are all one nature, we are all one people in Christ and by faith, one family in the eyes of God. And by Him we become a new creation, and through Him we have become children of God and joint-heirs in the kingdom of God.