Tag: greedy for iniquity

19.l. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners”

Romans 5:6  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Isaiah 53:6   All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

 1 John 4:9-10   In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

While we were helpless and with no hope and at the right time God sent His Son to die (redeem) the ungodly.  This does not mean God universally saved all of mankind, but that His Son, Jesus Christ, universally paid the price that universally saves all who would believe.  There has to be a connection between what Jesus did and each individual person.  This connection is belief first.  Without belief in God, His Son, and the need for His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you, then there is no need for Him.  Some may say that they believe in God but they have never come to the place where they realize the need for Jesus Christ.  They may even say they get more and more convinced about God the older they get and still they do not come to the place where they know they need Jesus Christ.  Still, others, as they get older, get bolder and bolder in their denial and rejection of God.  What good is the death of Jesus if you do not see a personal need?  If all you see is a universal general payment for the sin of mankind then the point of His death is still missed.  The death of Jesus, for your personal sin, must be a known heart-deep certainty.  If it is not personal then His death has no benefit for you other than to judge you unwilling to believe your need and for His death a full once and for all payment (redemption and forgiveness) for your sin.   Once you come to the point where you know the need, then by faith you trust in, cling to, and rely solely on Him.  There is nothing you can do to earn it.  It is a free gift of grace, mercy, and love.  There is no work you can do to become worthy of it.  Belief and faith are the work God has established for redemption, salvation, and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  You can’t vow your way there.  You can’t do enough good to get there.  

While we were helpless, lost, disobedient, rebellious, selfish, self-centered, self-righteous, self-worthy, and self-reliant, God, out of grace, mercy, and love, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the redemption, salvation, and forgiveness.  While we were yet sinners.  We had nothing to do with why God purposed this act of overwhelming love toward us.  It is only out of His grace, mercy, and love.  There is no earning this.  If we did not earn it, then it was not due us, and if it was not due us then it is a gift from God.  This gift is offered to each and every person, but they are never required to take it.  Eternal life in heaven awaits those who accept this gift of redemption through Jesus Christ.  The very hand of God is offering this gift of eternal life and how sad is it that the gift from the God of the universe is so easily cast aside and deemed unworthy of our self-centered lives?

95. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge

1 Samuel 2:12   Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.” And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish,” he would say, “No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.” Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.

Hosea 4:6-9     My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.  The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.  They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity.  And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

Romans 1:21    For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:28-30    And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

R.C. Sproul  You see the crisis in both the church and the world. Our leaders lack a moral compass. A new barbarism ricochets through pop culture. An entrenched post-Christian secularism and statism dominate Europe where the Reformation once reigned. People around the world have forgotten who God is, so they’ve forgotten who they are and how they must live.

People look for solutions in a crisis. They turn to politics, programs, or gimmicks. They may retreat, or, crumbling before the challenge, they live compromised lives. Such is the way of the world we live in and should not be the way of those who believe.

s it possible that our seeking, desiring, and wanting to humbly honor and serve God has stopped?  Is it possible that we have become seekers of self-interests, self-satisfaction, self-sufficiency, self-helped, self-loved, self-made, and self-serving?  As Christians is it possible to stop seeking God and have growth in our life? Is it possible that in our seeking and receiving forgiveness, new birth in Jesus Christ, finding peace and rest for our soul we have come to a place in our life where seeking to know Jesus more has stopped other than to find resolve to some trial or trouble facing us?

Life will always offer something to fill our lives apart from giving our whole heart, mind, and soul to honoring, serving, following, and obeying Jesus.  Stay in His word.  Desire His word. Seek to know and serve Him each minute of each day.