Read the full transcript below:

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation…” – Ephesians 2:13-14

 

Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ, without whom all mankind would be at odds with God for all eternity. He alone bridges the great chasm of separation caused by our sinful rebellion. Because our sin makes us unholy we have been separated from a Holy God. There is a list of requirements that God has put in place in order for us to be deemed holy and perfect. Unfortunately we are incapable to follow that law to the letter. In fact there is an endless archive for each person documenting all of the ways that we have broken God’s law and that record is set in place as judge and jury against us.

But now for the good news: there was actually One Man who did perform according to the rules- the GOD-Man, Jesus Christ.

The Word took on flesh so that He could put into motion God’s predetermined plan of redemption. In the likeness of men He came and lived a sinless life. While our natural man is sinfully inclined and whereby cursed, Jesus Christ was without sin yet became a curse for us. In His death on the cross, Jesus took on the sin of the entire world – past, present and future. God then judged that sin with His holy wrath. It pleased God to do this because of what the sin represented. This sin divided; it built a wall around our hearts and blocked our access to the throne of God. God declared war against that great enemy at Golgotha, and then raised the flag of victory three days later by the emptying out of a rich man’s tomb.

Jesus was indicted according to the laws that we had broken. He was punished according to the penalty that our sins deserved. Once the wages of sin were paid for in Christ’s blood, God raised His Son from the dead, conquering the enemy of sin and death once and for all. We no longer have to fight for the dark side against God. We have been brought back into fellowship with Him; the fellowship that was broken in the Garden of Eden by man’s decision to put his will ahead of God’s will. All of this was made possible because God loves us, as is demonstrated in Jesus, who reconciled the fallen world back to Himself by being obedient to the point of death according to the will of the Father (2 Cor. 5:18-21, Phil. 2:7-8).

We were separated from God because we exalted our will ahead of God’s will. We are reconciled back to God by Jesus submitting His own will unto the Father’s will (Matt. 26:39, John 5:30). Praise the Lord for His amazing love! And for the beauty found in His Word!

You may feel like you are so far from God that He could never accept you. I know that I have felt as if I had outrun the Lord’s love at times. According to the Bible, Jesus removed that which separated us from God when He died on the cross. If we put our faith in Jesus Christ, our Prince of Peace, then we have access to the throne of God (Heb. 4:15-16) because of His shed blood. And because of what He has done for us, we can know with surety that we will never again be separated from God’s love which is in Jesus (Romans 8:35-39).

 

“…having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” – Ephesians 2:15-16, 18