Redemption Calvary Podcast

Pastor Cody reminds us today about what the Bible makes clear regarding the human condition: we are all sinful. Without divine intervention, none of us are good; in fact, we all deserve God’s wrath. But Jesus willingly took on the wrath of God for us, that we may be saved from God’s judgment if we place our faith in Him. And as Pastor Cody points out, Jesus died for us while we were still enemies of God, openly rebelling against Him. But now that we are redeemed to Him, we can rest in His goodness to us.

We live in a culture that deeply misunderstands love. In his message today, Pastor Cody responds to those who believe that love is just a feeling that we act on. While we do feel love, it doesn’t mean we only act based on feelings. Pastor Cody argues that feelings of love often come afteracting out of love – in other words, we shouldn’t act unlovingly towards people because we feela lack of love. But if we treat people lovingly even when we don’t feel like it, those feelings will generally come to us eventually.

The purpose of Christianity is not to pretend that we are righteous. On the contrary, Jesus came to save sinners. Pastor Cody reminds us today of this crucial fact. If we deny that we are sinful, then we are lying to ourselves and to others. But if we humbly acknowledge our sin and our need for a savior, Jesus is willing to step in and forgives us. And, as Pastor Cody points out, once we have received the grace of Christ we are no longer subject to condemnation from God – in this life, or the next.

While the tribulations we experience in our walk with Jesus are never pleasant, they can all be worked for good. And today, Pastor Cody argues that our attitude affects whether we will grow from our pain, or come away from it worse off than before. He shows how pain is actually an essential ingredient in growth – just like lifting weights is painful, but ultimately makes us stronger. When we know that good will come out of our suffering, we can rejoice when we are faced with life’s challenges.

While the tribulations we experience in our walk with Jesus are never pleasant, they can all be worked for good. And today, Pastor Cody argues that our attitude affects whether we will grow from our pain, or come away from it worse off than before. He shows how pain is actually an essential ingredient in growth – just like lifting weights is painful, but ultimately makes us stronger. When we know that good will come out of our suffering, we can rejoice when we are faced with life’s challenges.

Nobody likes to go through tribulations. We would all avoid them if we could. We want our lives to be absent of pain. But that’s not the world we live in. Today, Pastor Cody reminds us that Jesus promised we would experience tribulations as we follow Him. But, as Pastor Cody explains, the suffering we endure as we follow Christ is not in vain. In fact, God allows us to experience this suffering for a purpose – He doesn’t let it go to waste. Instead, He uses our tribulations to build us up for our own good.

Today, Pastor Cody explains how we all have an intrinsic understanding of our need for justification. When we do something that we know is wrong, we tend to make excuses for ourselves and explain why our wrongdoing actually wasn’t wrong. While these attempts may make us feel better about ourselves, ultimately they don’t actually do us any good. The only way we can truly be justified is through the sacrifice of Jesus. Any other attempts to justify ourselves are futile.

The life of Abraham is a remarkable showcase of God’s grace. This story is brought up in the New Testament as an example of the grace of God and the importance of faith. And today, Pastor Cody unpacks some of the things we can learn from Abraham’s story. While Abraham was by no means a perfect man, his life was marked by continuous faith. Although he made mistakes along the way, Abraham never stopped believing that God would fulfill His promise, and because of this God regarded him as righteous.

Parts of the Bible speak very highly about Abraham, known as “the father of the faith.” Today, Pastor Cody teaches through one of these passages. But he points out that Abraham was a fallen human, just like the rest of us. He made some big mistakes in his life – mistakes that were documented in Scripture. But despite the sin in his life, God in His abundant grace chose to bless Abraham. And when Abraham had faith in God, God counted it as righteousness – just as our righteousness comes only through faith.

Despite all our sinful rebellion against God, He still holds incredible value on us – so much so that He sent His own Son to die in our place. Today, Pastor Cody reminds us of the love of our Father, who gives us grace that we don’t deserve. Jesus was willing to go to the cross for our sake. Even if no one else in our life sees us as valuable, we can rest assured that our Creator – the God of the universe – values us. And because of His sacrifice, we can be redeemed to Him through faith in Jesus.