Brothers and sisters,
Happy Monday to all! It was great to worship with all of you yesterday. As we took the Lord’s Supper together, we remembered that Jesus’ death and resurrection have made all who believe God’s children and one with each other. We remembered Jesus’ shed blood made the forgiveness of our sin possible. From Genesis 3 yesterday we looked at the entry of sin into God’s good creation. Sin brought judgment, death, and chaos to all of creation. However, we saw God immediately began to pursue fallen men and women to redeem and restore them and creation to Himself. When Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to cover their guilt and shame by sewing fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, their guilt. But it did not work. However, God took animals, slaughtered them, and made coverings for the man and the woman. This is a picture that I think points to Christ and His being slaughtered in our place. All we can try to do to cover our guilt and sin will not work. All the fig leaves we can sew together, all the moral living and benevolence and religious rituals we do to try to cover our sin will never cover our sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Blood was shed to provided skins to temporarily cover Adam and Eve. Ultimately, God provides the permanent covering for our sin when Jesus shed His blood in our place to take away our guilt. The innocent One, Jesus, became sin, the sin offering, for us because only what He does covers our sin. We see in all this God loving, caring, and pursuing sinful mankind. God pursues us so that we can have paradise restored and once again walk with God. God pursues sinful men and women and provides the way for us to be restored to Himself and each other.
I want to thank our faithful Bible study teachers and small group leaders for all they do to help us grow in understanding and living for God’s glory. Thank you, Jason, David, Deanna, Grace and Annette for their leadership.
Remember to keep praying continually for each other.
Love being your pastor,
Bob Ray, Pastor, East Madison Baptist Church