Lent (part 6)

{via}

Christ suffered & died...

To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning (Ephesians 5:25) - "... in God's mind marriage was designed in the beginning to display Christ's relationship to his people... Marriage is meant to make Christ's love for his people more visible in the world."

To Create a People Passionate for Good Works (Titus 2:14) - "When God's forgiveness and acceptance have freed us from fear and pride and greed, we are filled with a zeal to love other the way we have been love. We risk our possessions and our lives since we are secure in Christ. When we love other like this, our behavior is contrary to human self-enhancement and self-preservation. Attention is thus drawn to our life-transforming Treasure and Security, namely, God."

To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness and Costly Love (1 Peter 2:19-21, Hebrews 12:3-4, Philippians 2:5-8) - "Our suffering for other does not remove the wrath of God. It shows that value of having the wrath of God removed by the suffering of Christ. It points people to Him... our imitation of Christ points people to him who alone can save. Our suffering is crucial, but Christ alone saves. Therefore, let us imitate his love, but not take his place."

To Create a Band of Crucified Followers (Luke 9:23, Matthew 10:38) - "When Christ meets a person today, it is always on the Calvary road--on the way to the cross. Every time he meets someone on the Calvary road he says, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me' (Luke 9:23). When Christ went to the cross, his aim was to call a great band of believers after him."

To Free Us from Bondage to the Fear of Death (Hebrews 2:14-15) - "The devil may kill our body, be he can no longer kill our soul. It is safe in Christ... We are the freest of all people. And the Bible is unmistakable in what this freedom is for: "You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another"(Galatians 5:13)."

So That We Would Be with Him Immediately After Death (1 Thessalonians 5:10, Philippians 1:21, 23, 2 Corinthians 5:8) - "Those of us who believe in Christ do not go out of existence when we die..."

To Secure Our Resurrection from the Dead (Romans 6:5, Romans 8:11, 2 Timothy 2:11) - "Be astonished, and come to Christ. He invites you: I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believe in me, though he die, yet shall he live."