Today and tomorrow, my post on Scripture Dig is “Why the Cross?”. I have to tell you that as I am writing this, I am so excited, so humbled and so thankful by the extent of God’s sacrificial love for us.
I want to encourage you to pop over to Scripture Dig to read the rest of this post and tomorrow’s post, as well.
If you have a loved one who doesn’t really get the cross – or if you know someone who is struggling with what they believe about Christ – please let them read this post.
The Scripture Dig team is praying for souls to be saved! For the souls of those we know and love – for the souls of those we don’t know and love. For your daughter, for your son, for your mom, for your dad, for your friend. We are praying that God would use this month’s dig into the topic of salvation to reach those who may never cross the threshold of a church.
You may want to go back and look at the previous posts for this month and print them out for your friends. But we want you to know that we love you all and are praying for those you know to be saved.
Here is today’s post:
Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to go to the cross? Or what the cross has to do with your life today? How can a 2,000 year old event possibly be relevant to us?
It’s rather complicated, yet clearly simple.
Man was created to live with God forever but he disobeyed God’s simple command to abstain from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam’s sin placed all of mankind under the curse of sin and left us all in need of a Savior. The cross was God’s preordained response to our need for redemption. That’s why Jesus came…to reestablish our relationship with God that had been broken because of sin.
That’s the short version. But Scripture Dig doesn’t exist to sum things up. The passion of our heart is to thoroughly convey the truths of God’s Word as we all seek to grow and know Him more (at least to the extent our small space in cyberspace will allow in a blog). So, we’re going to take a walk through Scripture to get a thorough understanding of the plan and purpose of the cross.
It all began in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived the dream life. They had everything they could possibly need, Beautiful rivers flowing through jewel laden lands; food for the taking and the presence of the Living God. Certainly, beyond anything we could ever imagine.
But there was one stipulation – God told them they could eat from any tree in all the land, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. His warning was clear. “…for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:17)
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the enemy of our souls came dressed in snake’s skin with destruction on his heart and lies on his lips. Eve succumbed to the enemy and Adam succumbed to Eve. And that was the beginning of the end.
The forbidden fruit brought an awareness of their own nakedness. They quickly clothed themselves with fig leaves and tried to hide themselves from God. “Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” Gen 3:9
The Lord knew where they were and what they had done, but it was confession time for the not-so-dynamic duo. The fig leaves may have covered their nakedness, but their sin and their shame remained.
After a couple of attempts to pass the buck, they knew they had to face the consequences. It was immediate death. Not physically, but spiritually. They were given the knowledge of good and evil and found themselves on the wrong side of the track.
With Adam and Eve standing there wearing nothing but their sin, shame and a couple of fig leaves, the Lord came to their rescue and clothed them in a coat made from animal skin. Since the skin of an animal is not available unless blood has been shed and death has occurred, it was obvious what had taken place. The animal’s life was sacrificed to cover the culpable couple’s sin and shame.
Genesis 3:21 says, “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”
Please click here to continue this post at Scripture Dig.
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Stephanie! I've missed coming by. I'm so excited for your recent addition to the Scripture Dig family!
A few years ago, a good friend pointed out the “first sacrifice” in the Bible for sin…the sacrifice of the animal who had to lose his life to clothe Adam and Eve. It was a real eye opener! I hope to get over to Dig and read more of what you've shared. I'm sure it's fabulous!