Day 2 - JAnuary 2, 2021

Scripture: Genesis 3-4, Ephesians 2
 Follow the plan here: www.biblestudytools.com/bible-reading-plan/thematic.html
Today’s theme is about the brokenness and suffering of sin, and the redemption of Jesus Christ.
 
We are all too familiar with the pain of Genesis 3 and 4. It is truly the most heart wrenching of chapters in all of the Bible. It explains our heartache and grief, the sin and suffering of the world. It gives us an understanding of why there is death.
 
Death isn’t something that God intends for us, and He has worked painfully, sacrificially and powerfully to redeem and save us. That’s the message of Ephesians 2, a perfect companion to Genesis 3 and 4. It skips a whole bunch of the story, of which we will certainly be reading about soon enough. But it reminds us again, what it is that we have in Jesus. He has taken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. He has saved us, through Christ, through his grace. It’s not something we earned, not something we did, but what he has done to rescue and save us.
 
So while we sit in the heartache of Genesis 3 and 4, we also can rest in the peace, hope and joy of a redeemed life in Jesus Christ. 
 
    As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:1-10

God be with you.

​Jordan