BSF--Lesson 5

Due to an unexpected outing last night I didn't get my BSF blog done, and now I'm stealing just a few minutes away from folding and putting up laundry to share with all of you what I learned yesterday. Our lesson was taken from Romans 3:21-26, and it is all Good News. After hearing so much bad news this was the Good News that we were waiting on! We talked about righteousness and redemption, justification, propitiation, and sacrifice of atonement...all big words. To simplify...righteousness has nothing to do with what we do, it has to do with our position not behavior, biblically it means to be right with God. Justification is an act whereby God declares us not guilty, we contribute nothing. So righteousness is our position when God declares us justified. Redemption means to buy back. Our teacher gave the illustration of Hosea in the Bible where his wife,Gomer, left him and he bought her back out of slavery. (Third Day fans=Gomers!!) Just like Jesus bought us back . Propitiation, the removal of God's punishment for sin through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Sacrifice of Atonement, the sacrifice that God gave through his son to atone for our sin. So we deserve death, we are all sinners, and all unworthy of what God did for us. However, God in Love gave his only son so that we might have eternal life. There is nothing that we can do to earn or deserve this, but it is all there for us to receive if we have faith and believe. I pray that we never underestimate the sacrifice that was made for each one of us and that we find the urgency to share it with others that are undeserving, just like us!