OCTOBER 6, 2025 ~ FROM A PASTOR'S HEART

OCTOBER 6 DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READING: Isaiah 53:4-6

There is nothing new about false teaching and apostate movements in the church. One that is gaining in popularity today is the teaching that Jesus did not die in our place on the cross...that there is no such thing as the "substitutionary atonement" of Christ. Those who put forth this heresy say that God is only "love" (as they define it) and that the thought that the Father would punish the Son is cruel and makes God into a monster. They say, "no loving father would do that to his son." They declare that those who teach the substitutionary atonement are putting forth a God of vengeance and hate, that God never works like that, but only through love (as they define it). In order to do this these people have to correct the Bible...they deny every passage that speaks of God as a God of judgment. That includes the passages where God told Israel to destroy...the passages in Isaiah (particularly chapter 53)... and Jesus' own statements on why He came.

This new movement into heresy is extremely dangerous, for if it is true, it leaves us without a Savior. If Jesus did not pay for our sin...then it is still on us and we are condemned in our sin. The price for our sin is extremely high and only one could possibly pay it. Only Jesus could suffer and die for our sins in order to ransom us. Without His substitutionary atonement we would be eternally separated from God. Paul tells us, "He who knew no sin, became sin (the sin offering), that we might become the righteousness of God in Him..." Jesus said it was this very reason He came into the world to "give His life as a ransom." The Bible makes it clear that it was not because of cruelty or hate that Jesus came to die for our sin, but because of the love (as God defines it) of God. I for one am so grateful for a loving God and for a Savior who was willing to go to the cross and face the judgment for my sin. I sincerely hope you have trusted Him to do that for you. 

Please share your thoughts.