HE PAID YOUR DEATH PENALTY
February 10, 2002 am
MF Blume
Ezekiel 18:20-24 The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear
the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity
of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked will turn
from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and
do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned
unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I
any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and
not that he should return from his ways, and live? But when the righteous
turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth
according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live?
All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his
trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in
them shall he die.
Let us turn to Genesis and note as aspect of man and God's glory that
becomes a very predominant issue in the bible.
Genesis 3:22-24 And the LORD God
said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and
now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and
eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the
garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove
out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims,
and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree
of life.
Notice that CHERUBIMS formed a barrier to the garden entrance after Adam
sinned and was banished.
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The next time they are mentioned is in the following setting.
Exodus 26:31-33 And thou shalt make
a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and
fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims
shall it be made: And thou shalt hang it upon
four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of
gold, upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the vail
under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within
the vail the ark of the testimony: and the
vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.
The ark of the covenant was put within this very holy place beyond the
veil.
Exodus 25:21-22 And thou shalt put the
mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony
that I shall give thee. And there I will meet
with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat,
from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony,
of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of
Israel.
God's word uses two major stories that shows a repeated thought.
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Something is stressed over and again.
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And that idea is that something God wants people to have is barred and
blockaded away from man.
It started in the Book of Genesis with the Garden of Eden.
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Man is in a Garden where a river of life and a tree of life exist.
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God walks with man in this garden.
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Man takes fruit from the wrong tree and is cast out of the garden and barred
from entering it again by a sword and cherubims.
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We're cast out of the place we were created to dwell in where we fellowship
with God.
Then centuries later, The Exodus story of Israel leaving Egypt as God plagued
the lights out of the place takes us in a story of the wilderness journey.
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God led His people from the limits of Egypt through the Red Sea into the
barren wilderness to take them to the promised land - the land God wanted
them to have long ago to begin with.
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The land where they would serve God.
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And during the journey He has them build a portable temple called a Tabernacle.
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And he specifically designs it to have a room where He would manifest His
presence and actually let his presence be seen and felt.
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But this room is blocked from all but one person, called a high priest.
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It was called the most holy place.
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God said He would speak to man from between the cherubims that were on
the ark of the testimony, or the ark of the covenant (a gold plated chest
where they put the ten commandments after God gave them to Moses).
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And this ark was behind the veil.
What is so exciting about these stories is that they lead to the same point.
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The place where God dwells is blocked off from mankind.
The entrance to the garden and the entrance into this room in the temple
is blocked by some glorious creatures, whose full purpose is not so much
the point of my sermon, except for the thought they BAR the entrance.
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They are cherubims.
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A sword is beside them in the Garden story.
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They are emblazoned and portrayed upon a VEILING material in temple, while
they actually existed in the garden entrance, and were not simply illustrated
at that entrance like they were in the temple veil.
The fact that both the Garden and the very holy room of the temple were
blocked away from man is one indication of similarity in the stories.
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And the second similarity is the idea that God dwelt in these two places.
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Thirdly, cherubims obstructed the entrances into these abodes.
The presence of God is known as the glory of God in the Bible.
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The glory of God was barricaded away from people.
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Since the temple and tabernacle seem so similar to the story of the expulsion
from the Garden due to man's sin, it seems that God is keeping the story
of the garden in humanity's mind.
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He is preserving the thoughts of the beginning when man sinned for the
first time, and lost his place with God.
Leviticus 16:2 And the LORD said unto
Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into
the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the
ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
If you keep reading, there is a whole elaborate system of ritual and sacrifice,
with the High priest alone being able to wash and wear white linen, and
enter that most holy place ONCE every year.
Leviticus 16:12-14 And he shall
take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the
LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within
the vail: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that
the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony,
that he die not: And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle
it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat
shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.
He had to enter with the incense and the blood of the sacrifice.
All of this is such an easy way to explain why Jesus died.
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Remember that the high priest had to take BLOOD into the most holy place
past the veil.
After the Exodus journey through the wilderness, they do finally get into
the land of their own, and are told to build a stationary temple with the
same room barred off from all but one man.
That veil, by the way, that barred man from this most holy place, was
so thick that it is said that if it was tied between two oxen, and they
were marched in opposite directions, they could not rip it.
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It sounds like an impossible barrier to cross.
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Sort of like the flaming sword blocking man from entering the Garden.
In fact, when two brothers did try to enter this most holy place, with
cherubims on the veil, we read…
Leviticus 10:1-2 And Nadab and
Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire
therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD,
which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and
devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
FIRE WAS THERE just like the flaming sword at the Garden entrance.
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Truly, God was showing the picture of the sealed garden entrance through
the story of the tabernacle.
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BUT A MAJOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GARDEN AND THE TABERNACLE'S MOST
HOLY PLACE WAS THAT A MAN COULD GO IN ONCE A YEAR PAST THAT VEIL WITH BLOOD.
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GOD IS TRYING TO SHOW US SOMETHING.
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A KEY TO ENTRANCE.
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IF THE MOST HOLY PLACE REPRESENTS THE GARDEN, WHERE GOD'S PRESENCE AND
GLORY WAS, THEN A MAN WALKING INTO THE MOST HOLY PLACE, (EVEN IF IT WAS
ONLY ONE DAY A YEAR), WAS BETTER THAN NEVER ENTERING.
These sons of Aaron were slain due to entering the most holy place.
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One might question this, since God formerly said that He would meet and
commune with man from the mercyseat of the ark behind the veil in the most
holy place.
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How is man supposed to commune with God there is God is going to slay man
who enters?
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The problem was that the people who entered into that holy place had to
have more than censers of sweet incense.
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THEY HAD TO HAVE BLOOD.
Things are a bit better than the Garden scenario, since at least one man
could enter this most holy place with blood, even though it was only one
day a year.
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Adam could not enter the Garden again in his lifetime.
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And the idea of blood gives us a hope!
God's glory has since been a mystery to mankind.
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In fact, we have religions everywhere, who try to explain God's glory.
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And just by the very fact that there are scores of entire religions who
all differ as to what God's glory is, we know that man is still pretty
mixed up and its still a mystery to many people - even religious people.
Man lost fellowship with God's glory.
God's LIFE was barred away.
His glory and His life, both speak of the same thing.
Rivers of life.
Fruit of Life.
Tree of Life.
Glory!
All this was barred from man.
But we read something special.
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was
the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended
it not.
John 1:14 And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and
we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Jesus is the WORD.
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He had LIFE in Him.
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He was LIGHT.
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And the WORD was made flesh and WE BEHELD HIS GLORY.
God's GLORY CAME TO US!
Recall that I said the GLORY was behind a veil in the temple.
Hebrews 10:19-20 Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living
way, which he hath consecrated for us, through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
What a beautiful poetic way of saying we can get back into the glorious
presence of God.
And we read we can enter this most holy place by the blood of Jesus.
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Just like the high priest who alone could enter the most holy place once
a year with blood, we read WE CAN ENTER IN.
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Nothing is said about ONCE A YEAR, though.
And it says by the blood of Jesus.
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Death.
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His death paid MY Sin penalty.
And as much as Aaron had to have blood in order to enter the most holy
place, we read that we can enter by the blood of Jesus Christ!
And it also says the veil is his flesh.
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Veils blocked glory.
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He was GLORY IN VEIL.
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GOD IN FLESH.
1 John 1:1-7 That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For
the life was manifested, and we have seen it,
and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal
life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and
with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your
joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and
declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie,
and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Fellowship with the Light!
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LIFE WAS MANIFESTED.
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LIFE was in the Garden.
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Tree of Life and river of Life.
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John said he saw it, and showed it to us.
These bible writers saw God's glory and that is the reason we have the
Bible.
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They are showing us so that we all can fellowship with God.
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And here we see what the Lord was trying to show us by having the high
priest enter with blood.
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The BLOOD OF JESUS cleanses us from all sin.
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Sin is what kept us out of the garden and the most holy place.
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Jesus shed that blood when He died.
He died to deal with our sins.
Sin is a killer.
The soul who sins has a penalty to pay - death.
God laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
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So when Jesus died, our iniquity was dealt with.
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God smote it.
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He smote your sins when He smote Christ.
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When He struck Christ down, He struck your sin down.
When Christ died, He was smitten and struck in death.
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It may have looked gruesome and terrible, but the death of Jesus on the
cross was the greatest form of God's love to ever be shown.
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This Jesus was God Himself in flesh.
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If it was going to take some suffering and dying to gain mankind back again,
God was going to do it, and He did!
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Death had to occur because of sin.
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But nobody said another could not die INSTEAD of you, to pay YOUR penalty.
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But it could not just be any person at all.
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If we all have a problem with sin, then your death would not benefit me
as my death to pay my sin debt, because you have your own sins to be dealt
with.
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That is why one way and one way only would work.
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The only way to have a sinless person who has no sin in Himself to die
for us would be for GOD, HIMSELF, to be made that person.
An angel who never sinned could not die for us, because we are not angels.
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Animal sacrifices were carried out for this reason in the Old Testament
times, but the reason they had to be done repeatedly was because we're
not exactly like beasts either.
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But these sacrifices did show us the principle of a death to affect a sinful
person's sins.
The only way this perfect sacrifice could be, is for God to manifest Himself
in flesh as a man.
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After all, He is God!
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He has that ability.
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Throw off all limitations when you talk about God!
His death was the death of a sinless one, for the possibility of Him taking
YOUR SIN upon Himself.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him.
And remember that He died our deaths and paid our sin-penalties by His
death.
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Since sin caused us to have to die as a penalty one day, then Christ's
death to pay that penalty for us deals with the sin.
A person is never tried in court for the same crime once the sentence is
passed.
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And while we were on death row, due to our sin, after the sentence was
passed by God's Holy Word, the Bible, Jesus came and took our sentence
instead of us.
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And we cannot be tried for the same crime twice, once the sentence has
been met.
This is not some secret society where you have to go through all these
degrees to get to some weird light.
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Everyone is meant to know God.
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Its not just for some super-saints of God.
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Its for everyone.
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ALL OF US CAN ENTER BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.
His blood cleanses us from sin, -- in other words we truly believe that
Jesus did what it took for us to have our sins removed.
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He DIED because WE had to die.
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And His blood was shed in His DEATH.
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So the blood represents His death AS US.
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And since His death dealt with our sins, we can now FELLOWSHIP ONCE AGAIN
WITH GOD'S GLORY.
1 John 1:7-10 But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and
the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not
sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Sin is in the way and, lo and behold, we find a way to get sin taken care
of so we can fellowship with the GLORY OF GOD AGAIN!
Jesus died on the cross for a specific reason.
Isaiah 53:3-7 He is despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid
as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like
sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the
LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to
the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth.
When this death did occur, something very SIGNIFICANT OCCURRED.
Matthew 27:50-51 Jesus, when
he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold,
the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
He died the death penalty that we were supposed to die.
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And to indicate that it dealt with sin, which was the element that caused
God to block us from His presence, the veil ripped in two that blocked
the holy room of God's glory.
His death is supposed to be considered as YOUR DEATH.
Hebrews 9:25-28 Nor yet that he
should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place
every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since
the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath
he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered
to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear
the second time without sin unto salvation.
Christ had to die only one time, because we owed a single death due to
sin.
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The above is saying that because man had to die one time, and then face
judgment, Jesus Christ was offered in death (sacrifice).
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And it says He was bearing the sins of many.
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Not sins of Himself, but of many others.
Jesus' death was the means by which God's glory would be re-introduced
to man.
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Since His death was responsible for removing our sins, then the veil barrier
that represented man's banishment from the Garden was ripped away.
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Because of Jesus' death, man can enter the GARDEN AGAIN.
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Not physically, although we will go to Heaven one day, but GOD'S PRESENCE
IS WITH CHRISTIANS RIGHT HERE IN THIS WORLD EVERY DAY OF THEIR LIVES.
Paul spoke of it as reconciliation.
Colossians 1:21-22 And you, that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you
holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 And all things are
of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
RECONCILIATION.
Notice how his being made sin has to do with reconciliation.
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And DEATH.
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Reconciled BY Jesus Christ.
You've got to believe that Jesus died to pay your penalty.
And this saving work of God in Christ's death is what repentance and
baptism are all about.
VERY IMPORTANT POINT NOW.
Jesus' death made the entrance possible.
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But YOU have to do something about it.
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Just because He died for us, it doesn't mean everyone is automatically
back in the Garden.
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Acts 2:38 says that one must Repent and be baptized for the remission of
sins.
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Remission of sins is eradicating sins and getting them out of your life.
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And in order to see them eradicated, you have to repent and be baptized
in Jesus' name.
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REPENT MEANS to make a decision to turn around and serve God and live the
way he wants you to live, rather than keep on going in the same old life
of sin.
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And baptism is no significant because we read…
Romans 6:3 Know ye not, that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
It makes His death YOUR death.
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Baptism is your stand for the fact that you believe you needed HIS DEATH
in order for you to get back to God again.
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To deal with your sins.
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His blood cleanses your sins away, and the same idea is shown in baptism
where you are put into HIS DEATH…. His death is when he shed that blood.
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And all of that represents the fact that HE PAID YOUR DEATH PENALTY so
you could get back to God's glory again.