PATCH

The law was impossible for people to fulfill. The significance of nailing all our sins to the cross is that Jesus took all our sins upon Himself and died in our place to take our punishment . This also paved the way for us to go directly to God to confess our sins and to receive his forgiveness. When we ask for forgiveness, God is merciful to forgive and this wipes our slate clean. However, we still have to bear the consequences for our sins for eg if a person steals he would have to spend time in prison. In place of the law, the Holy Spirit becomes our guide. When we sin, the Holy Spirit will convict us. We can never be perfect but wth the Holy Spirit leading and guiding us, we grow in obedience to the Lord. The cross bring triumph over evil spiritual forces because satan cannot condemn us and we have been given power over him.

A belief system can be empty and false when it does not have a firm foundation. The principles/teachings all sound good and promising but they cannot hold when the time comes for these principles/teachings to be tested. Also, the teachers and those who subscribe to such a system will lie and become defensive when challenged. I was born into a Buddhist family but fortunately I was never captivated. Even as a young child, I could not believe the teachings. Unfortunately, as a new believer in Christ, my leaders in the church i attended made christianity deceptive and hollow. I was always waiting for God to hit and strike me. I felt I was being judged all the time.

By what means did Jesus accomplish this reconciliation? Jesus who is the Son of God, came down from heaven and became a man like all of us. He who did no wrong willingly gave Himself up to die on the cross for our sins. For our sake he was crucified - nailing all our sins to the cross. Through his sacrifice, all our sins have been forgiven and we have been restored to a right relationship with God. What does the blood of his cross have to do with it? To whom are we "presented"? In the OT, an unblemished animal was sacrified and the shedding of blood provided forgiveness. Jesus became the unblemished sacrificial lamb to shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins and cover us with His blood to present us as righteous before a holy God.

What does reconcile mean? It means to make good again/restore something e.g a relationship which has been broken What was our state before reconciliation? (verse 21) We were separated from God because of our sins and evil ways. Our sinful nature made us enemies with a Holy God. We had no hope because we have been cut off from God.

Paul is talking about both the unversal church and the local congregation. Jesus is the head of the body - the church. Every church, corporately and individual christians, should worship the Lord only, not the pastor, the elders, the church building, the songs etc. We should serve each other and our communities to glorify His name and to exemplify his character. Christians should do the will of God and be guided and directed by Jesus only. Today, instead of asking Jesus the Head for help, many christians follow their leaders blindly and many churches tend to rely on the programmes they have concocted or simply copy the "succcessful" ones of other churches. The visible church represents the "head" because it is supposed to be a shepherd to the sheep. The visible church is to feed, minister to and look after its flock. It is also supposed to point non-believers to Jesus through His love, mercy and grace. We can demonstrate Jesus' love, mercy and grace through good works, in the way we treat people in and outside the church and through the preaching of the Word. How well we follow his leadership depends on our walk with Him. If we truly love Jesus as our Lord and saviour, we will follow his leadership completely. It does not happen overnight but it becomes a gradual process. It gets easier as we learn to obey.

“Thrones,” “powers,” “rulers,” “principalities,” “authorities,” etc. probably refer to both earthly as well as angelic and demonic dominions. What does this passage teach about the relation of these powers to Jesus? “Thrones,” “powers,” “rulers,” “principalities,” “authorities,” are words associated with control, command and sovereignty, etc. Although angels and demons do have some form of power, they are still subject to Jesus who is ultimately Lord of all. How should this affect our fear of them? It is very easy to say we should not fear them. However when we are going through warfare, especially for new believers, we tend to be very afraid. As we grow in our walk with God we learn to trust in Him and our faith increases and the fear dissipates. How should it affect our prayers? We should pray all the time and not only during times when we have problems. We should also pray confidently and with faith, knowing that God hears and will answer our prayers in His time and according to His perfect will.

What does “firstborn of all creation/every creature” mean? It means He is preeminent (far more superior/outstanding) over all created beings. Is Jesus a created being? No. If not, what does “firstborn” mean here? It means the sum total of everything created. What do verses 16-17 teach about Jesus’ pre-existence? All things were created by Him and for Him. If they were created by Jesus, he had to exist first to create them. What does verse 16b teach about the purpose of creation? All things were created to worship Him. According to verse 17, what is Jesus’ past role in creation? All things were created by Him and for Him. What is his present role in creation? He is in complete control of all creation and He is the only way to the Father.

A simple definition of a shepherd is one who who looks after the sheep, feed them and protect them from wolves and other predators. When a sheep wanders off from its flock, the shepherd would go and look for it. When the sheep is injured, the shepherd would tend to it, nursing it back to health. God was the faithful shepherd to Jacob - he looked after Jacob and provided for him and his family. He guided Jacob in all that he did. God has been shepherding me all my life. He has provided for me and guided me. Even when I took the wrong paths, he brought me back to the right ones. Yes I trust Him completely now. It was not so easy to trust him when I first became a christian because I did not understand His ways.

We tend to forget that God is a God of mercy and grace and He is in complete control of everything that happens in our lives - the good and the bad. When there is a lack of crisis or no crisis in our lives and we are receiving blessings at the same time, we tend to think that God is rewarding us because we have been good. This is not always true. God enjoys blessing us but everything is in His perfect timing. Crisis can make us react differently, depending on our level of faith, our maturity as a Christian and our walk with God. Many of us will be devastated when there are crisis in our lives. We may think that we have done something wrong to deserve such a punishment, God has abandoned us or we have been worshipping the wrong god. Whilst its true that we do suffer the consequences of our sins and these can manifest in the form of a crisis, sometimes God allows us to experience hardship to refine and mould us. IF WE ARE AT THAT LEVEL OF FAITH where we have learnt to COMPLETELY TRUST God, crisis can help us grow in our faith because then we will learn more of God's nature, His promises and His faithfulness and even if we do not experience a deliverance, we will never turn away from worshipping him. For some of us, it is the crisis that will teach us to turn completely to God and when He comes through for us, our faith in Him will grow. On the other hand if we insist on just feeding on milk, when storms come our way, we will blame God and turn to anything else (even ungodly acts) which can help us get out of the crisis.