Jesus Christ was in relationship with God in the beginning. Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." This shows that our God is a relational God. Since were made in His image, it is good for us to desire relationship with Him and with others. Jesus is God and was with God from the beginning.
You know the story of Abraham and Isaac?
Gen 22:2 He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Can you imagine how much Abraham loved Isaac - the promised child of the Covenant - and after all those years?
Gen 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. Abraham trusted in the Lord, a trust that only the Lord could give him.
Gen 22:7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
Gen 22:8 Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together. Even when Isaac was wondering what was going on, Abraham was firm in the Lord because He trusted and loved the Lord more than he loved his son. But look at what he says in bold! God provided a replacement for Isaac, and that replacement was a ram. But the ultimate replacement was Jesus Christ.
I love how the Lord foreshadows Christ throughout the Old Testament! But what God didn't ask Abraham (or us) to do, He did Himself. Please don't miss this. The story isn't about how strong Abraham was, it's about what God's willing to do for us. He loved us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His only Son so that we might also be sons and daughter with Him!
Gen 22:2 He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Can you imagine how much Abraham loved Isaac - the promised child of the Covenant - and after all those years?
Gen 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. Abraham trusted in the Lord, a trust that only the Lord could give him.
Gen 22:7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
Gen 22:8 Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together. Even when Isaac was wondering what was going on, Abraham was firm in the Lord because He trusted and loved the Lord more than he loved his son. But look at what he says in bold! God provided a replacement for Isaac, and that replacement was a ram. But the ultimate replacement was Jesus Christ.
I love how the Lord foreshadows Christ throughout the Old Testament! But what God didn't ask Abraham (or us) to do, He did Himself. Please don't miss this. The story isn't about how strong Abraham was, it's about what God's willing to do for us. He loved us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His only Son so that we might also be sons and daughter with Him!
So, God's up in Heaven, completely self-sufficient (He wouldn't be God if relied on anything else), doesn't need us, and we're surely guilty of failing His law. But out of His mercy and grace, He came to save us.
Eph 2:1-7 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Now, Jesus was God and he came down from Heaven to earth. Think on that for a minute. Bill Gates donating away all his stock, ownership, and bank accounts and living in a slum to help people does not approach what Christ did. That may be why Christ didn't mind going lower than the Jews were willing to go - to the prostitutes, tax collectors, murderers - the "sinners". He saw it all as gross and messy, yet loved us anyway.
This is the Christ:
Rev 1:12-18 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades...."
Christ came to conquer sin and death. He can surely free you from sexual sin. Free indeed.
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