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The Bible Study – Our texts for Friday, March 8 are Genesis 40:1-23 & Mark 10:32-52. Again, we see God’s hand in enabling Joseph to interpret two prisoner’s dreams. God will empower Joseph to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, and thereby secure his freedom and rise to power. God’s people vastly increase in number while in Egypt. Eventually they’ll leave in the Exodus to receive the Law through Moses and journey towards the Promised Land. Through the fulfillment of God’s prophetic promise of a Messiah, Christians are allowed entry into the eternal Promised Land of Heaven. In our passage from Mark, Jesus again foretells of His death and resurrection. Christ tells the Twelve: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.” Jesus is walking on to suffer the punishment and die the sinner’s death we deserve. The sinless Lamb of God will fulfill God’s plan of salvation, and be the substitutionary atonement for our transgressions. As the Apostle John explained, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) Further in our passage, blind Bartimaeus calls out to Christ, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus restores his sight and says to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” We’re also healed, cleansed from sin, by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto http://christlutherantoronto.org/sermons/bible-verses-showing-justification-by-faith-alone