Daily Bread – August 26, 2023 (The Seventh Day – Genesis 2:1-3) 2 Peter 1:9 – For the one in whom these things are not present is blind and short-sighted, forgetting that he was cleansed from his former sins. The Greek word used for “former” is ‘palai’, and it means “long ago, old or former.” It is used in the passages of Scripture in Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13, “They would have repented long ago.” The fact of the matter is this: The New Testament doctrine of redemption is emphatic about how the sins of the redeemed have been washed away, purged, and destroyed (Revelations 1:5; Hebrews 1:3; 9:14; Colossians 2:13; 1 John 3:5; 1:7; and 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 6:6-7, 22). We derive our New Testament word for “forgiveness” from the Greek word ‘aphesis’ which translates the Old Testament word ‘yovel’ (Jubilee). On the Day of Jubilee, every debt was forgiven and every slave was released, and everyone was returned to their original inheritance in the land. The Day of Jubilee was announced on Yom Kippur, which was the day that a goat would carry away the sins of Israel into the wilderness. In similar fashion and for this reason, Christ Jesus was put to death at Calvary to carry away our sins, “Who Himself carried our sins in His Own body, that the sins being removed, we might live righteously, by Whose wound we were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Because both the sins and the power of sin have been removed from those who have been born of God and made partakers of the divine nature, they should be walking in the nature and Spirit of God outlined in the preceding verses (2 Peter 1:3-8). If they are not walking in faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, then they have forgotten they were transformed by the power of God through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
Daily Bread 8/26/2023
