CWV-101 Topic 5

No one is justified before God through the works of the law or through obeying God's commands. There is a way to righteousness before God; it is through faith in Jesus who fulfilled God's law or commands on humanity's behalf. The way of salvation is the same for every person, both Jews and Gentiles alike. Through Christ's death and resurrection, God is both just and the Justifier of those who trust in Jesus.

Love your enemies, and pray for the persecutors.

There is a strong claim that those who do not forgive will not be forgiven; however, in this parable, Jesus illustrated the cost of forgiveness in the context of being released from financial debt. In the case of this parable, it literally cost the person offering forgiveness monetarily. It costs something because one has to commit to the notion that a person who is dragging him or her down, as it were, is more important than any kind of self-preservation.

The Christian view of salvation focuses on the idea that we mus have faith in order to truly be saved, we cannot attain salvation through our good works as they will never truly be enough to get us to Heaven. This view differs greatly from the views of other religions in that almost all other religions say that good works are required for salvation in some way, they do not believe that faith is good enough for one to be saved.

Rescue, redemption, and renewal.

Jesus came to Earth as the perfect sacrifice for our sins (the lamb). It should have been us (humanity) who died this death, but that wasn't the plan. We could not do this on our own, we had to have perfect, innocent blood shed, and this is only possible through the perfect sinless blood of Christ. Jesus bore our sin and suffering and humanity largely rejected Christ during his first coming. Jesus' suffering bring salvation to those who trust in him.

Love

Christ only need to die once for our sins, he did not need to die repeatedly like in the old testament, his sacrifice was once and for all. Man will die once and they will be judged. Those who trust in Christ as the sacrifice for their sin are saved and free from judgement.

Thomas said he wouldn't believe Jesus was alive until he saw for himself. Jesus then appeared to the disciples while Thomas was present, causing him to declare that he believed. This passage is significant for Christians today because it shows us that we should not have to prove right in front of our faces for us to believe. We should have faith and that should be enough.