Balancing Truths: Pt. 5 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. All this week we’re looking at balancing truths in the Bible. Some things that we tend to focus on, have a balancing truth that brings a more reasoned understanding of what God is like, of how the Christian life works, of how to approach difficult circumstances in our lives.

And we’ve been looking at different ones all week. Some of them have been truths that we love to remember and cling to, and there’s a reminder that there’s actually a much harder truth to balance it with, and some have started with the hard side that we focus on and reminded us that there’s a good truth also.

And today’s just helps us with an understanding of our relationship with God. Here’s our balancing truth for today.

You were forgiven by God once for all when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and He took your guilt to the cross.

And you still need God’s forgiveness every day.

Let’s think about the first part of that. You were forgiven by God once for all when you put your faith in Jesus and He took your guilt to the cross. In 1 Peter, chapter 3, verse 18 in the New Testament of the Bible, Peter says,

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that means Jesus for us.

The righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.

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So one time for all sins, the righteous one, Jesus died for unrighteous people, that’s us, that he might bring us to God. His one death on the cross paid for all the sins in my life, and my sins are taken by him to the cross, and my penalty is paid in full.

Romans chapter 3 emphasizes it again starting in verse 23. Paul says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Maybe in your life as you’re listening, you’d say, I know that’s me. I’ve fallen so far short of what God wants for my life. Well, the Bible acknowledges that and says that’s true of everyone. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified. That means God declares us to be righteous. Our sins are gone.

They are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation and means a gift that removes anger.

A propitiation by his blood to be received by faith, you see it, we’ve all fallen short, but when we turn in faith to God and say, You sent Jesus to the cross. He didn’t deserve it. He took my place. He took my guilt.

So that I can be justified, declared righteous as a gift, not because of good things I do, but simply because of what Jesus did for me at the cross. There’s the first sight of the balance.

Here’s the other side. I still need to be forgiven every day, even though I was forgiven once for all at the cross.

1 John chapter 1 starting in verse 5 says this.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses 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 we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

He’s writing to Christians and he’s saying if you sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins if we confess them and bring them to Him. Well, how does this work if we’ve already been forgiven once for all? Well, our legal guilt before God has been dealt with at the cross. We are His children now.

But as his children there’s a relational issue when we disobey Him, right? We don’t stop being His children, but we need to restore the relationship, and in the restored relationship comes the blessing and God’s work in us and through us. Come to God today and ask His forgiveness for things today that you know are offending Him in your life.

I’m John North.

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