Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.
Was I responsible for that? Some of the voices in our society push us to take responsibility for something done or not done by others. The sins of the fathers, or some distantly related group of people with ancestry on the same continent, come back to roost. Is this biblical?
In one sense it is. Peter, speaking to a crowd in Acts, blames the people for denying Christ, even though as a group they personally didn't do it. Yet it was precisely the kind of thing they would have done.
As a people, we humans are just the kind of people who would reject Jesus and put the Author of Life to death. Even though our hands were not involved, given the same circumstances, plenty of us would cooperate.
In the instance of Christ, God took what was evil and used it for good. Christ having been put to death, our sins were put to death as well. Christ being raised from the dead, we are raised to new life.
What's our response? The same as that of the crowd in Acts three. We repent. We turn to God. We find our sins wiped out. As Christ rose from the dead, we are raised to new life. This is the good news of God in Christ.
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