Previous Section (Can religion help?)
Next Section (Why the cross?)
Table of Contents
Yes there is! and God has provided it. The central message of the Bible is summed up in these words: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
We saw earlier that a just and holy God must punish sin. But the Bible also tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). While God hates sin he loves sinners and longs to forgive them. But how can a sinner be justly pardoned when God’s law demands his spiritual and physical death? Only God could solve that problem, and he did so in the person of Jesus Christ. The Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world (1 John 4:14).
God the Son became a man by taking upon himself human nature. Although Jesus became fully man, he remained fully God: the Bible says that in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Colossians 2:9). He remained as completely God as if he had not become man; he became as completely man as if he were not God. Jesus Christ is therefore unique and the Bible confirms this in many ways. His conception was unique; he had no human father but was conceived in a virgin’s womb by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. His words were unique: people were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority (Luke 4:32). His miracles were unique: he went about healing every sickness and disease among the people (Matthew 4:23), and on several occasions even raised the dead. His character was unique: he was tempted in every way just as we are — yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15) so that God the Father could say of him, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:17).
Notice that last sentence! This means that as a man Jesus kept the law of God in every part and therefore was not subject to sin’s double death penalty. Yet he was arrested on a trumped up charge, sentenced on false evidence, and eventually crucified at Jerusalem. But his death was not a ‘freak’ or an unavoidable accident. It was all part of God’s set purpose and foreknowledge (Acts 2:23). The Father sent the Son for the very purpose of paying sin’s death penalty, and Jesus willingly came. In his own words, the purpose of his coming into the world was to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). His death, like his life, was unique.
This makes it vital that you understand what happened when Jesus died, and what his death can mean to you.
Previous Section (Can religion help?)
Next Section (Why the cross?)
Table of Contents