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

Do Not Repay Evil With Evil

1 Peter 3:9 - Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

1 Thessalonians 5:15 - Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

Matthew 5:44-45 - But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

1 Peter 2:21 - To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

Romans 12:18-20 - If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

Conclusions:

• Retaliation is never a Christian option
• Christians are called to forgive
• Prayer is one of the practical ways love expresses itself
• The patient endurance of injustice is part of God’s plan for the Christian
• It was an important feature of the true grace of God experienced by the readers
• Christ is the supreme example of suffering evil for doing good
• His experience as the suffering Servant-Savior transforms the suffering of His followers from misery into privilege
• Jesus pronounced a blessing on peacemakers, and believers are to cultivate peace with everyone to the extent that it depends on them
• Doing good to one’s enemy, instead of trying to take revenge, may bring about his repentance

Application:

• Do you forgive?
• Do you love your enemies?
• Do you endure patiently?
• Do you cultivate peace with everyone?
• Do you feed and provide drink to your enemies?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible

Free Men

1 Peter 2:15-16 - For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.

John 8:32 - Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Galatians 5:13 - You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

Romans 6:22 - But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Conclusions:

• Closely connected with Jesus, the truth is not philosophical truth but the truth that leads to salvation
• The truth setting you free is freedom from sin, not from ignorance
• Liberty is not license but freedom to serve God and each other in love
• Slavery to God produces holiness, and the end of the process is eternal life
• There is no eternal life without holiness
• Anyone who has been justified will surely give evidence of that fact by the presence of holiness in his life

Application:

• Has the truth that leads to salvation set you free from sin?
• Do you use your freedom to serve others in love?
• Have you become a slave to God?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible

Last Days

James 4:15-5:3 - Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days.

1 Corinthians 5:6 - Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?

Acts 2:17 - " 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

1 John 2:18 - Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

Conclusions:

• To illustrate Christian holiness and discipline, Paul alludes to the prohibition against the use of leaven in the bread eaten in the Passover feast
• Leaven in Scripture usually symbolizes evil or sin, and the church here is called on to get rid of the yeast of sin because they are an unleavened batch of dough—new creations in Christ
• Peter interprets the quote from Joel as referring specifically to the latter days of the new covenant in contrast to the former days of the old covenant
• The age of Messianic fulfillment has arrived
• With other New Testament writers, John viewed the whole period beginning with Christ’s first coming as the last days
• They understood this to be the last of the days because neither former prophecy nor new revelation concerning the history of salvation indicated the coming of another era before the return of Christ
• The word last in “last days”, “last times” and “last hour” also expresses a sense of urgency and imminence
• The Christian is to be alert, waiting for the return of Christ
• John assumed his readers knew that a great enemy of God and His people will arise before Christ’s return
• That person is called antichrist, the man of lawlessness and the beast
• But prior to him, there will be many antichrists
• Antichrists are characterized by the following: (1) They deny the incarnation and that Jesus is the divine Christ; (2) they deny the Father; (3) they do not have the Father; (4) they are liars and deceivers; (5) they are many; (6) in John’s day they left the church because they had nothing in common with believers
• The antichrists referred to in John’s letter were the early Gnostics
• The anti in antichrist means against

Application:

• Have you removed the yeast of sin?
• Has God poured out His Spirit on you?
• Are you alert waiting for the return of Christ?

All Scripture verses taken from NIV

Conclusions derived from NIV Study Bible