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LIVE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS
We who are saved should desire to live for righteousness. We should want to live following the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all of our days. You and I should do this out of love for Him and all He has done for us.
24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 1 Pet 2:24 NKJV
BEARING OUR SINS
Our Scripture verse reminds us that our Lord died on the “tree” that was cut into beams and fashioned into a cross shape on Calvary.
He was flogged 39 times by Roman whips laced with pieces of metal.
Forty stripes were the death sentence. For this reason, Jesus was barely alive when He walked carrying His cross for us to the execution site.
ON THE CROSS
Christ agonized on the Cross for 6 hours, struggling to breathe while suspended by His nailed hands and feet.
He did this for us. He took our punishment.
OUR SINS
Any and all sins ever committed are punishable by death. Why?
The Bible tells us in Romans 6:23 KJV,“For the wages of sin is death…”
IN GOD’S PRESENCE
To clarify, God is perfect and into His Presence can come nothing that is not pure and righteous. No sin will exist in God’s Presence in Heaven. Therefore, Christ died for you, and He makes you pure by His sacrifice. You can enter into God’s Presence justified by His Son.
There is no entering without Christ and His offering of Himself as the Sacrificial Lamb for us.
It is the final and complete sacrifice made for sin.
It forever ends the sacrifices of bleating lambs upon altars. They were only a symbolic and partial sacrifice for sin.
This gift of The Son was the lasting gift and makes us clean.
HOW DO YOU THANK HIM?
How do you thank someone who has died for you?
For example, if someone threw themself on a grenade to save your life, or pushed you away from the bus bearing down upon you, how do you thank them?
If someone dies for you, you never forget them or their sacrifice; do you? You might set up a foundation or a memorial for their honor.
FOLLOW HIM AND LOVE GOD AND OTHERS
Christ simply tells us to follow Him and to love God and others.
He wants us to live for righteousness!
He wants us to repent of our sins and turn from them. We now want to live without grieving God by sinning further.
God forgives your sins through Christ and that means your sins are now gone and forgotten.
Finally, when you ask Christ to be your Savior and enter your heart, all things become new. Asking God to forgive you for those sins of yours through Christ brings full Salvation.
THE GIFTS OF SALVATION AND HEALING
We know He died to bring us Salvation. He endured the Roman soldiers’ flogging to bring us a source of healing by His stripes.
Your faith in Christ and believing that He is the Son of God Who rose from the dead, and sincerely confessing these truths brings you the blessings of Salvation through Christ’s blood AND Healing through His stripes.
It was ALL done for YOU!
What a glorious passage! What glorious gifts!
In love and gratitude, we now WANT to live for righteousness as we follow the path Jesus set for us.