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DECEMBER: The Victory of Faith

December 13

DELIVERANCE

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.
1 John 5:6

The great business of the Messiah who was to come was to deliver the people from the thralldom and bondage of sin and its consequences. Men and women, as a result of their sin, were under the wrath of God. They needed to be delivered from the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil—the power of sin both inside and outside. So the Messiah, the Savior, had to make expiation for our sin and set us free from its power. This was His great task. And John tells us that Jesus Christ came as the Messiah and has done that, and we see Him doing it as we look at His baptism and as we see His death on the cross. His baptism, in a sense, is the beginning of His power as the Messiah—He came as the Messiah by “water.” Through that He identifies Himself with our sin, and it is upon the cross that He deals with it, expiates it, and delivers us from the wrath of God and therefore from the power of sin and the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Now I think we see why John does not refer to Christ’s birth in his Gospel. He has been pointing to Christ as the Messiah, fixing his attention upon that, that Jesus is the Son of God. So he does not refer to the birth; but he does refer to the baptism. And so I think we see very clearly why it is that we have this phrase “not by water only, but by water and blood.” The Lord Jesus Christ did not merely identify Himself with us and our sins—He went further. He dealt with it not in water only, but also in blood. His death is an absolute essential in addition to the baptism.

A Thought to Ponder
Through His baptism Christ identifies Himself with our sin, and it is upon the cross that He deals with it.

From Life in God, pp. 78-79.




Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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