8 words to know

On Sunday night we had our Bible study group over for a Christmas gathering. Of course there was plenty of food and fellowship but the center piece of our time together was the Lord Jesus Christ. My devotion and challenge to our group for this Christmas was "why Jesus came." My exhortation was for us to understand, embrace and live out Romans 3:23-26;
Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Rom. 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
Rom. 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
Rom. 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Have you considered 8 key words in these verses that help us to understand why Jesus came?

Sin – treasuring other things like job, family, security, health and your convenience in life more than you delight, embrace and treasure Christ. When something else receives a higher priority in your life than Jesus then that is sin. And for most of us in this room it happens many times a day.

Justification – an instantaneous legal act of God in which he: (a) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ's righteousness as belonging to us, and (b) declares us to be righteous in His sight.

Glory – the holiness of God that has gone public

Grace – His good favor toward you. This grace can’t be earned, merited or inherited but is simply a divine act of God toward you that you in no way deserve.

Redemption - Christ's saving work viewed as an act of "buying back" sinners out of their bondage to sin and to Satan through the payment of ransom.

Propitiation - A sacrifice, namely Jesus Christ, that bears and absorbs the wrath of God till the end and in so doing changes God's wrath toward us into favor.

Righteousness – God’s unswerving commitment to the glory of His name – this is the most right then that God could ever do!

Faith - this is the faith that is satisfied with all that God is in Jesus Christ as we have received Him and continue to believe in Him. It is the condition or state of the heart that turns away from self and sin and depends, relies and trusts in Jesus Christ above anything else.

Bible study group we need to learn and practice the discipline of preaching the gospel to ourselves every single day.