Day 5--The battle has already been won!!

'One man's offence brought condemnation on all humanity; and one man's good act has brought justification and life to all humanity. Just as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience are many to be made upright.'

ROMANS 5:18-19

We've talked a lot about God wanting you, loving you, calling you by name despite your brokenness. But as if that wasn't enough--God became man so that he could pay your and my debt for our sins. You see, if Jesus wouldn't have died for us, we would have to pay our sin with death--and I'm talking about spiritual death, eternal damnation. Sin came into the world through Adam, and salvation, redemption, reconciliation with the Father came into the world through Jesus of Nazareth, the new Adam, God made flesh. God could have come up with a billion ways of fixing the problem, don't you think? He is, after all, God. AND YET... He became man, was born in humility, and went through the most horrendous death at the time--a punishment that belonged to us--so that we could be made whole again. 

In today's gospel, Jesus and Satan have an epic battle, and at the end, Jesus says 'AWAY WITH YOU, SATAN!!' Jesus wins. He always does. He always will.

What you have to understand is that this war between death and life, salvation and damnation, good and evil, has already been won by the Blood of Jesus!

In the movie The Passion of the Christ, there is a scene right after Jesus draws his last breath and then dies on the cross and the earth starts shaking where the devil is shown SCREAMING and just losing it. You know why? Because that's when the devil realized that he had lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In that cross, Jesus had given himself, out of love, for the expiation of our sins.

So, if the battle is already won, what's there to do? Well, you and I need to choose a side! And tell me, who's dumb enough to choose the loser side? Exactly. However, sometimes people choose the loser side because they don't know or understand what Christ did for them or how He won the battle for them. You have no excuse though--I've just told you ;)