Sabbath School Today, Volume 9 - Paul E. Penno
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
you shall die") that the day Adam sinned was the day he would die. If Adam<br />
had reaped the just punishment for his rebellion, then the human race would<br />
have ceased to exist that very afternoon. We are only still here six millennia<br />
later because of the infinite love of our God.<br />
This truth is the essential meaning of that complicated sounding phrase,<br />
"legal justification." Standing before the broken law, Christ stepped into<br />
Adam's "shoes" and assumed complete responsibility for the crime Adam<br />
committed, and accepted the just punishment to be inflicted upon Himself.<br />
To do this, Christ had to also, one day, assume the nature of fallen Adam.<br />
Corporately, as the "Last Adam," Christ took upon His sinless nature the<br />
nature that needed redeeming, and as corporate mankind, He lived a perfect<br />
life, and then took that perfect life and offered it on the cross of Calvary.<br />
"Because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead" (2 Cor.<br />
5:14). And as Christ is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,"<br />
His "one just act" (see Rom. 5:15-19) emancipated the entire human race. [2]<br />
Thus, the Godhead canceled the death penalty for every human being--<br />
"especially those who believe." For the many who will not believe, "there<br />
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of<br />
judgment and fiery indignation" (Heb. 10:26, 27).<br />
What a message we have been given to share with the dying world--a<br />
world in chaos, that is looking for love in all the wrong places! God loves<br />
you with an intimate, personal, undying love that will not let you go, unless<br />
you resist and chose to run away. Such good news, when shared with people<br />
who are searching for relief from the troubles of this world, will bring unity<br />
"in Christ" when they learn to appreciate what has already been done to save<br />
them eternally from sin. They don't have to "get better" first, before God will<br />
love them. They are already "beloved" in Christ who gave His life for them,<br />
and "adopted" them into His family (Eph. 1:3-5).<br />
184
Change language