{"id":321,"date":"2014-04-12T12:32:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-12T12:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkwood.org\/blog\/?p=321"},"modified":"2015-03-03T18:44:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T18:44:37","slug":"an-inconvenient-faith-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/an-inconvenient-faith-34\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Faith (34)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“When they hurled insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”<\/em> (1 Peter 2:23-25)<\/p>\n

On April 8th 1983 a magician named David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear in front of a live audience.\u00a0 It was an amazing illusion that was broadcast on live TV for millions to see.\u00a0 When it comes to magic, the greatest tricks involve something disappearing.\u00a0 A coin or a card that is there one moment and gone the next.\u00a0 But the bigger the item the better.\u00a0 There is no doubt that what he did that night was spectacular but, there is something we all know when it comes to things vanishing into thin air…nothing disappears.<\/p>\n

In fact, part of the thrill of the illusion is saying, “How did he do that?”\u00a0 In other words, how did he make me think it disappeared?\u00a0 I know it must be up his sleeve or in his pocket.\u00a0 Maybe it was done with mirrors or a trick container.\u00a0 It is sometimes baffling but, one thing we know for sure…nothing disappears.<\/p>\n

Isn’t it odd that we do not use the same thinking when it comes to our theology of the cross and, specifically our sins.\u00a0 When we read of the forgiveness of sins we talk about it as if God is a grand magician who used the cross as a magic wand to make our sins disappear.\u00a0 He just made them go away.\u00a0 But, wait a minute…we know better.\u00a0 We know that things do not disappear.\u00a0 What happened to those sins?\u00a0 Where did they go?<\/p>\n

My friends, our sins did not disappear when Jesus died on the cross.\u00a0 The Scripture above tells us that Jesus took our sins upon Himself and bore the “wages of death” that they carried.\u00a0 Jesus was not a magician, He was a Redeemer.\u00a0 He paid the price for your freedom.<\/p>\n

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”<\/em> (1 Peter 1:18,19)<\/p>\n

We are forgiven because of the sacrifice of Jesus when He shed His blood on the cross.\u00a0 Our sins did not vanish…they were transferred to Jesus and He became the sacrificial lamb…the Passover lamb…the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”<\/em> (John 1:29)<\/p>\n

So, today meditate on this thought and live in a renewed spirit of gratitude that Jesus took your sin upon Himself so that you might be free to live in righteousness.<\/p>\n

Thank you Jesus!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“When they hurled insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-an-inconvenient-faith-2014-lenten-blog","category-all_posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parkwood.dreamhosters.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}