Our ability to serve the Lord in unity is dependent upon our status before God. As we have been those justified by God's grace, we become those who can advance His work of reconciliation together.

Our culture has distorted the image of God's church to blind us in dividing between the bubble of God's blessings and the hurt in the world in and around us. The family of God has been tasked with bringing restorative justice to those "least of these" our brothers and sisters, and then to extend this influence of life to the rest of the world through the message of the gospel.

The kindness of God is core feature of His definition of Justice. When we act, serve, and live like God we will draw from His own dealings with us, for He has again and again showed us what He requires from His followers.

The Justice of God is good, because it flows from His character. Any expression of Biblical Justice in our world that is displayed by Christians must also extend His character. Our "good" must be motivated from Godly compassion.

Jesus is the light of the world and the one who brings God and mankind together. If we truly believe what He says and what God has revealed we will reflect God's light to carry on Jesus' illumination into the world.

Jesus' role in our salvation is from start to finish. Unless we embrace that He has done it all, we will be left with an impossible task of maintaining our faith. Praise the Lord - we are saved by His faithfulness!

Observations: Problem #1 – We don’t see the need Problem #2 – We don’t want the gift Problem #3 – We want Jesus on our own terms Conclusions:  Jesus is God’s gift Given to you That changes your identity Application:  Let the gift of Jesus CHANGE your life

We need a high priest - One who can stand in our place in the presence of God. Because of the incarnation, Jesus not only fulfills the representative aspect of a priest, but He is also able to deal mercifully with us - as one who has been through and experienced the difficulties of earth.

Where Jesus leads, we are to follow. This is often a challenge for the church, but perhaps most so where we must learn to trust in Jesus that is accompanied by the brokenness of this world, in its pain and suffering.

The necessity of Jesus' body as a sacrifice is a humbling truth. However, there's even more that God has done in the incarnation of Jesus. Not only is he an appropriate sacrifice as living fully human, but Jesus is also the only one who truly does the "will of God" - and by this will, He establishes for us the New Covenant.