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Oh To Be Wise Meditations
What exactly does God want? God wants you to have faith in the one he sent. If your waiting for a miracle so that you can have faith in Jesus, then the miracle will pass you by without you noticing. We have to be like the Samaritans who were stirred within themselves by the testimony of the woman Jesus met at the well. And when they got to hear him speak they truly believed in Him. They had their faith in Jesus because of what they heard him say. Listen to this testimony in John 4:42, Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world. Thank you LORD, that Jesus himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. People need God’s righteousness. And everybody needs it, because everybody has sinned. This is a more important matter than anything else in a person’s life. Jesus taught that righteousness is even more important than food and drink. Moreover, it is impossible for anyone to earn righteousness. But God offers it as a free gift to everyone who trusts him. God gave Jesus as a sacrifice so that people would receive a right relationship with himself. Jesus achieved this by the gift of his life (in other words, when he died for us). And people receive a right relationship with God by faith in what Jesus did. So we see that God is righteous. He did not punish former sins because he is patient. This now proves that he is righteous. And also, that he makes righteous anyone who has faith in Jesus. I hope you are catching this, God in Christ forgave sin that was left unpunished in the past. Also God in Christ in the present makes righteous anyone who has faith in Him. We must take Jesus at his word that He is the Saviour of the world. He lived a holy life to cancel out the former and future sins of the world. But He also died to bring us into right relationship with God through faith. Jesus gave us something to believe in, Himself. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Having faith is like having a legal document signed and sealed. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. People used to offer animals as sacrifices when they asked God to forgive their sins. The law told them to do this. But even at that time, people knew that the death of an animal was not sufficient to pay for their sin. So sincere people realized that they needed to have a humble attitude. And they knew that they needed to trust God. They knew that God would provide the perfect sacrifice. And this happened when Jesus died. And the same thing for us today, by faith we believe Jesus already died for our sins. He has a holy audacity for us to believe in Him and live a redeemed life away from sin. To live in victory by faith in his blood. Take him at his word, Jesus will do the rest. Jesus is our Living Sacrifice past present and future. Lets be one for Him by living for Him.
Meditate John 4:41
