In Christ’s life of perfect obedience to God’s will, His suffering, death, and resurrection, God provided the only means of atonement for human sin, so that those who by faith accept this atonement may have eternal life, and the whole creation may better understand the infinite and holy love of the Creator. This perfect atonement vindicates the righteousness of God’s law and the graciousness of His character; for it both condemns our sin and provides for our forgiveness. The death of Christ is substitutionary and expiatory, reconciling and transforming. The resurrection of Christ proclaims God’s triumph over the forces of evil, and for those who accept the atonement assures their final victory over sin and death. It declares the Lordship of Jesus Christ, before whom every knee in heaven and on earth will bow. (John 3:16; Isa. 53; 1 Peter 2:21, 22; 1 Cor. 15:3, 4, 20-22; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15, 19-21; Rom. 1:4; 3:25; 4:25; 8:3, 4; 1 John 2:2; 4:10; Col. 2:15; Phil. 2:6-11.)
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See also these Bible lessons from previous years:
(Brief snippets given. See the URLs for much more.)
- Walking Like Jesus (1997b) “What does it mean for Christ to be the propitiation for our sins? … One frequent charge against the Bible is that the Old Testament and the New Testament are so different. … But the truth is that though circumstances and situations varied, the message of salvation that God has wanted to communicate has always been the same. It is truly the ‘everlasting gospel.'”
- Moved Through Compassion (1997d) “Jesus Revealed God’s Merciful Character in His compassion and healing. …God saves us by literally becoming one of us in the person of Jesus. In Jesus we encounter God as the companion of our lives, the fulfillment of our human yearnings. He is God’s presence become flesh. He is divine compassion in human form and feeling, the ultimate revelation of God as companion to humanity.”
- His Healing Touch (1997d) “Just as Jesus used His hands to form Adam from the clay of the ground, He often healed by laying His hands on the suffering. He understood our need to be touched.”
- Jesus the Champion of Choice and Liberation (1997d) “Christ was constantly seeking to dispel the common misunderstandings about God. God was pictured by religious leaders as harsh, exacting, and judgmental. But Jesus, “God with us,” touched, healed, and restored people, indicating that illness is very often not a judgment by God, but the natural, inevitable result of humanity’s fallen condition, resulting from the wrong choice of our first parents. It was His purpose to restore our relationship with God and to make us whole.”
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