For Our Sins

Galatians 1:3-5 - Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15:3-5 - For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

1 Corinthians 1:20 - Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

John 1:29 - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

2 Corinthians 4:4 - The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Ephesians 6:12 - For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Conclusions:

• Paul’s source of the early Christian tradition was other Christians
• The heart of the gospel is that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried and that He was raised from the dead
• Wise man is probably a reference to Gentile philosopher in general
• Scholar is probably the Jewish teacher of the law
• All humanly devised philosophical systems end in meaninglessness because they have a wrong concept of God and His revelation
• Lamb of God is an expression found in the Bible only in John 1
• John was saying that Jesus would be the sacrifice that would atone for the sin of the world
• The god of this age is the devil, who is the archenemy of God , the unseen power behind all unbelief and ungodliness
• Those who follow the devil have in effect made him their god.
• Christ, who is both the Incarnate Son and the Second Person of the Trinity, authentically displays God to us, for He is the very radiance of divine glory
• Christ is the image of God in which man was originally created and into which redeemed mankind is being gloriously transformed until at last, when Christ comes again at the end of this age, we who believe will be like Him
• “Not against flesh and blood” is a caution against lashing out against human opponents as though they were the real enemy and also against assuming that the battle can be fought using merely human resources
• Rules and forces are Paul’s allusions to powerful beings in the unseen world

Application:

• Is your source of tradition other Christians?
• Do you have a wrong concept of God and His revelation?
• Did Jesus sacrifice atone for your sins?
• Has your mind been blinded?
• Do you lash out against human opponents?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible