We were created for fellowship with a God whose presence we cannot endure. How can we — who are unholy because of sin — enter into the presence of a holy God? We’ll need a Mediator, who can represent God to us, and us to God; a Mediator who can make us fit for his presence.

Israel’s battle with Amalek shows that the Christian life is a real fight, where our enemy targets us in our weakness and isolation. But this passage also reveals the heart of God—He opposes those who prey on the weak and has decisively confronted our enemy in Christ. Like Israel, we must fight, but never in our own strength; our victory comes through prayerful dependence on the Lord. And our hope is this: Jesus, our risen High Priest, is even now interceding for us, ensuring that our faith will not fail.

Ephesians 2 shows that apart from Christ we are spiritually dead—enslaved to sin and separated from God—but in his great mercy, God has made us alive together with Christ. Through union with the risen Jesus, his death becomes our death and his life becomes our life, restoring us to God and securing an eternal future of his love. This salvation is entirely by grace: not something we earn but a gift we receive by faith. Because we are now alive in Christ, we don’t live for love anymore—we live from love, walking in the new life God has given us.