ON
RACISM (PREJUDICE)
Genesis 1:26 (NLT)
Then God said, "Let us make people in our image, to be like
ourselves. They will be masters over all life—the fish in
the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals,
and small animals."
Genesis 5:3 (NLT)
Adam's... son Seth was born, and Seth was the very image of his
father.
Comment: All human beings are related, going back to a common
ancestery. Humanity is a family that shares one flesh and blood.
Remember this when prejudice enters your mind or hatred invades
your feelings. Each person is a valuable and unique creation of
God.
Acts
17:26 (NLT)
From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.
He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and he determined
their boundaries.
Galatians
3:28 (MsgB)
In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew,
slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That
is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.
ON
REDEMPTION
INTO CHRIST'S FAMILY
REDEMPTION:
the purchase back of something that had been lost, by the payment
of a ransom. The original Greek word occurs nine times in Scripture,
and always with the idea of a ransom or price paid, i.e., redemption
(see Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45).
There are many passages in the New Testament which represent Christ's
sufferings under the idea of a ransom or price, and the result
thereby secured is a purchase or redemption
For
example: Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Galatians 3:13; Galatians
4:4-5; Ephes. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; Titus 2:14; Hebrews
9:12; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Rev. 5:9.
The
idea running through all these texts, however various their reference,
is that of payment made for our redemption. The debt against us
is not viewed as simply cancelled, but is fully paid. Christ's
blood or life, which he surrendered for them, is the “ransom”
by which the deliverance of his people from the servitude of sin
and from its penal consequences is secured.
It
is the plain doctrine of Scripture that:
“Christ saves us
neither by the mere exercise of power,
nor by his doctrine,
nor by his example,
nor by the moral influence which he exerted,
nor by any subjective influence on his people,
whether natural or mystical,
but as a satisfaction to divine justice,
as an expiation for sin,
and as a ransom from the curse and authority of the law,
thus reconciling us to God by making it consistent with his perfection
to exercise mercy toward sinners”
(Hodge's Systematic Theology).
