Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am in the Netherlands. I have had a great time in Ede with great friends and a great church – HOPE (House Of Praise Eda). We have experienced God and we have been blessed with His kindness, His presence, and another measure of His life. Our Father is good!
God’s mercy justifies us to live, and His grace empowers us to live. Christ died to for us while we were still sinners. God’s mercy is a gift to sinners. Mercy is the testimony of God’s connection to us even though we were living lives disconnected from Him. It’s God’s gift of reconciliation. Jesus’ death upon our cross, justifies us to live – this is God’s mercy. It’s an act of His love for us. Because God loves us, He desires to save us from all destruction. He saves us from His wrath.
Romans 5:6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
What is the wrath of God? I don’t believe that God’s wrath is upon people. God’s wrath is upon anything that destroys the life of people. When we live our lives disconnected from God, we pursue things that cannot give us life. Those things prove to be destructive to us in some way. If we embrace those things as our good news, our salvation, or our way of life, we experience the consequence of what God has placed upon those things. We experience the wrath of God. God’s mercy is His judgment that saves us from the things that His wrath is upon. Mercy ends the past, and grace empowers the new.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
God’s mercy is His provision for the death of our old man in Christ. The free gift given to us through and in Jesus is God passionate pardon that justifies us to live. This is God’s mercy. The consequence of death has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the empowerment of eternal life that comes by Christ’s resurrection can now reside within us. This is God’s grace that empowers us to live today and into eternity. God’s grace is the empowerment of righteousness in Christ to reign in life. That grace is His manifest presence in us that transforms our hearts and minds to be who we are meant to be as God’s sons and daughters in our world. This is good news for us, for our marriages, for our families, and for every aspect of our world. God’s mercy fulfills our death in old Adam. God’s grace empowers us to reign through eternal Adam – Jesus Christ. This is not just in our life beyond this world. It is in our life today and every day in this world.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
