How the Righteous Respond
Responding rightly to Christ’s redemptive work should result in a growing love for God that produces good works, love for people, and a desire to obey the Bible’s commands.
No Greater Love
The Final Payment
We must be careful to consider the high cost of our redemption as Jesus suffered sin’s just penalty on the cross purchasing reconciliation for those who are truly penitent.
Pardon for the Penitent
God is rich in mercy to all, but shows the magnificence of his grace in bestowing favor to the penitent who deserve nothing but his unmitigated justice.
Salvation in Perspective
We would do well to keep this sinful world and our eternal salvation in perspective, pitying the lost and joyfully anticipating the return of our glorified and exalted Savior.
Condemned In Our Place
We must learn to appreciate the great exchange of our redemption wherein Christ’s perfection is granted to sinners like us while the entire penalty for our sin was borne by him in his suffering and death.
Unmet Expectations
Knowing many people are interested in Christ for all the wrong reasons, we must be vigilant about maintaining a thoroughly biblical view of God and the Christian life amid all voices to the contrary.
Second Chances
We must be mindful and vigilant of the continual battle we face with sin and temptation, grateful for God’s restraining grace and his immeasurable patience.
Stubborn Rejection
We must resolutely affirm that Jesus is the expected Messiah of the Old Testament and unabashedly live in light of his credentials as Deity.
The Price of Forgiveness
The perfect and infinitely valuable life of Son of God fully paid the just demands of the Father’s holiness by incurring all the painful punishments our sins deserve.
Christ’s Unfaithful Friends
Peter’s denials certainly remind us that our best intentions to follow Christ will be punctuated by stumbling, but they should also motivate us to quickly get up, confident that God uses imperfect servants to do great things.
The Ongoing Betrayal
Spiritual defection and apostasy should rightly concern and even anger us, leading us to personal vigilance and a thoughtful ministry of strong encouragement in the lives of others.
Pain and Temptation
The triune God demonstrated love for us in the most costly transaction imaginable; in response we ought to eternally thank him and sacrificially obey all that he commands.