The work of Christ is infinitely greater than the greatest depth of our sin.

We are free from both the guilt and the reigning power or dominion of sin in our lives. The place to begin in dealing with sin in your life is to count on the fact that you died to its guilt through your union with Christ in His death.

We are to come to the Word in a spirit of humility and contrition because we recognize that we are sinful, that we are often blind to our sinfulness, and that we need the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

We are united to Christ by faith—that is, by trusting in Him as our Savior. But the moment we trust in Christ, we become partakers of and beneficiaries of all that He did in both His life and death.

Christ’s entire work in His life and death becomes effective for us. It is the sole basis upon which He becomes our substitute and upon which we become entitled to those unsearchable riches in Him.

It is this legal union that the apostle Paul had in view when he wrote that we were crucified with Christ, that we died with Him, were buried with Him, were made spiritually alive with Him, and will ultimately be united with Him in His resurrection.

All that Christ did in His life and death is effective for us because we are legally united to Him. Therefore, we can accurately say that when Jesus lived a perfect life, we lived a perfect life. When He died on the cross to suffer the penalty of sin, we died on the cross.

Jesus was born under the Law because He came to perfectly obey it in our place. He came to do what we, because of our sinful nature, could not do. It is this perfect obedience to the moral will of God that constitutes His active obedience.

It’s a continuing sense of the imperfection of our obedience, arising from the constant presence and remaining power of indwelling sin, that drives us more and more as believers to an absolute dependence on the grace of God given to us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Why the cross?” We must say God’s holiness demanded it as punishment for our sins, and God’s love provided it to save us from our sins. We can’t begin to understand the true significance of the cross unless we understand something of the holiness of God and the depth of our sin.

The gospel tells us that Jesus Christ paid our debt, but it also tells us far more. It tells us that we are no longer enemies and objects of His wrath. We are now His sons and daughters, heirs with Jesus Christ of all His unsearchable riches. This is the good news of the gospel.

We can begin each day with the deeply encouraging realization that I am accepted by God, not on the basis of my personal performance, but on the basis of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

'You have nothing that did not come to you as a gift from God. Our intellect, our natural skills and talents, our health, and our opportunities to succeed all come from God. We have nothing that will enable us to achieve success that we did not receive from God.'
- Jerry Bridges

“For Christ’s love compels us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). To be compelled is to be highly motivated. That is, we are to be motivated by Christ’s love for us. And where do we learn of His love? Where do we hear Him say, “I love you”? It is in the gospel.

It is the assurance in the gospel that we have indeed died to the guilt of sin; that there is no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus; that the Lord will never count our sins against us.

To remember no more is God’s way of expressing absolute forgiveness.
— Jerry Bridges

“...Jesus not only died for us, He also lived for us. That is, all that Christ did in both His life and death, He did in our place as our substitute” Jerry Bridges

@Pactum approved

God intends that the struggles of this life wean us from our attachments to this present world.

God never wastes pain. He always causes it to work together for our ultimate good, the good of conforming us more to the likeness of His Son.