Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

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are sins sent away from us through Christ’s death for us (cf. Matt. 6.12; 9.6; James 5.15; 1 John 1.9). We are now declared righteous though his death, and have peace with God through faith in Jesus (Rom. 5.1). With all of these and other rich images of the wealth attained for us through the death of Christ, it will be important for you to model the important trait of multiple right answers in regards to the death of the Son of God for us. Model in your discussion and manner the importance of taking a symphonic approach to the meaning of Christ’s death. Many things have been accomplished by our Lord, and our goal should be to enable our students to recognize and celebrate this important truth. As usual, pay close attention to the objectives in this lesson. They will help guide you into the kind of recognition of the riches of Christ that are associated with his passion and suffering on our behalf. This devotion focuses on the vicarious nature of our Lord’s death, which is so critical for an understanding of our participation in Christ’s death, and our continued carrying of our cross before him. Christ did not die in a vacuum; his death was a direct punishment upon his divine person on account of the very acts that we have committed countless thousands of times. It was our rebellion, our disobedience, our foolishness, and our cruelty that caused him to endure the rejection and wrath of his Father in our place. Often, it is possible to turn the death of Jesus into an abstract conversation about theological issues, obtuse notions about things that the human mind was never meant to know. Rather than embracing the plain and direct meaning of Scripture, we hide our true complicity in the torture and murder of Christ by eclipsing it with big words about “propitiation” and “justification.” When, in fact, his hair was yanked out, he was punched in the face, and his back was cut to ribbons with the lash because of our own personal guiltiness before God. We have trampled God’s law, and Jesus’ painful death was his loving answer to it. Through the death of Jesus, my own personal sin is redeemed.

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