Our Bodies As a Living Sacrifice Romans 12:1-2 Having come to the end of our series on substitutionary atonement, the question now is how should we respond to what we’ve learned? Of course, that should always be the question after studying the Bible. If we don’t apply its truth to our lives, all we’ve done Read More
Year: 2018
Substitutionary Atonement Part 6: Jesus Christ’s Atoning Sacrifice
Jesus Christ’s Atoning Sacrifice Romans 3:21-26 Up until now, this series has covered only passages from the Hebrew Scriptures on the subject of substitutionary atonement. We have looked at how, from the very entrance of sin into the world, God had a plan to bring people back into a right relationship with Him. He gave Read More
Substitutionary Atonement Part 5: Messiah’s Sacrifice Prophesied
Messiah’s Sacrifice Prophesied Isaiah 52:13-53:12 We have already seen in this series how from the very onset of sin, God had instilled in the hearts of His children the hope of a coming savior. Through prophecy and visual typology, He revealed that this savior would die bearing the sins of the world, defeating Satan and Read More
Substitutionary Atonement Part 4: The Sacrifice of Bulls and Goats
The Sacrifice of Bulls and Goats Leviticus 1-7, 16 When I read Leviticus, I often find myself making faces. All the gory details about the animal sacrifices are, well, icky. (I can use that word since I have small children, right?) We are so far removed culturally from the Levitical sacrificial system that it almost Read More
Substitutionary Atonement Part 3: The Sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover
The Sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover Exodus 12 The Passover in Exodus is one of the clearest pictures of substitutionary atonement in the Hebrew Scriptures, specifically of the substitutionary atonement provided for you and me through Messiah Yeshua on the cross. Please journey through this with me to see (or to be reminded of) Read More
Substitutionary Atonement Part 2: The Sacrifice of Isaac
Image Courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington The Sacrifice of Isaac Genesis 22:1-16 The Background Imagine this: After a lifetime of infertility, you receive a promise that your offspring will comprise a great nation. You might hope. Imagine waiting year after year for a child to fulfill the promise and year after year Read More
Substitutionary Atonement Part 1: A Sacrifice for Adam and Eve
Introduction: Substitutionary Atonement Substitutionary Atonement, a key theme in the Bible, involves three parties: the transgressor, the transgressed, and the substitute. The substitute (though innocent) takes the punishment that the transgressor (though guilty) deserves, in order to restore him to right standing before the transgressed. Here it is in biblical terms: God is holy (Isaiah Read More
We Love Because He First Loved Us: How to Think Deeply About Love on Valentine’s Day (Part 2)
We Respond in Obedience: Love God and Love Others “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). “And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21). In the previous post I talked about how we were designed Read More
We Love Because He First Loved Us: How to Think Deeply About Love on Valentine’s Day (Part 1)
I can remember as a single woman feeling sad every Valentine’s Day that I didn’t have a man in my life with whom to celebrate the day of love. Sometimes, in college, I would go out with all my single friends and we would all bemoan our singleness together (or else take up an I-don’t-need-a-man Read More
A Season of Depression-a Testimony to God’s Grace
The Depression It was the fall of my senior year at Moody Bible Institute and I found myself, having just begun my final semester of Elementary Education courses, in a panic. I was terrified of my upcoming semester of student teaching and had lost the passion and desire I had once had for becoming a Read More