by Melissa Manning

Created on: February 27, 2009

One of the great truths of Christianity is that Jesus came to earth to die. Jesus was God manifested to mankind, but He did not come to show God to men. He came to justify men to God. Only a blood sacrifice could pay the sin debt of mankind and allow a human being to be acceptable to a holy god. Jesus was that sacrifice.

Without understanding why Jesus had to die, no one can understand the depths of God's love or the nature of man's relationship to God. There was a great gulf between man and God caused by sin. The sin had to be not only forgiven but paid for, to make the forgiveness of some possible and the condemnation of others a just punishment.

Consider how God has loved you. He created you to be His child. Because man sinned (Adam) and all mankind has continued to sin, God cannot have the relationship with you that He longs for. His answer was to send His son, Jesus, to pay for your sin. God was willing to see Jesus die, in extreme agony, even though He could have stopped it at at any moment. Why? Because if Jesus had not died, you would have. You would have died to the relationship with your heavenly Father and spent eternity in agony in Hell.

Can you understand what that means? God put you on an equal basis with Jesus. He was willing to sacrifice His son to save you, His son or daughter. This is not because of any good thing in you, or me, or anyone. It is because God loves you. He truly does love you as much as He loves Jesus.

That awesome love is what God is. God is love. He is also a just judge. Remember when Jesus said that He had come into the world, not to abolish the law, but to fulfil it? God cannot justify one sinful person and condemn another. There must be an atoning sacrifice that one person accepts and the other denies. Accepting the gift that Jesus extended to all by dying on the cross allows a person to be cleansed and forgiven for all sin. For the rest of earthly life, that person is covered by the blood of Jesus. When God looks at that person, He sees a person endowed with the righteousness of Jesus.

This wonderful gift is available to all mankind simply for the asking and receiving. To receive this gift, one must understand that sin is unforgivable by any other means. There is only one name under heaven by which men may be saved, and that is the name of Jesus. A person must realize that sin will cause a fatal separation from God unless that sin is paid for and forgiven. The next step is to accept the redeeming act of sacrifice and to renounce any other life but the new life God gives.

In order to accept this new life, we must die to ourselves. We give up our life, which leads to death, in exchange for our new life which leads to eternal fellowship with God. We give up the right to sin, the right to human weakness, the right to make our own decisions without acknowledging God. We agree to live by God's laws, to deal with sin by confession and repentance, and to live our life for God.

We acknowledge that we are saved by grace and sustained by the Holy Spirit, who will 'lead us into all righteousness.' We know we cannot do this alone, but we also know we will never have to. God will never leave us or forsake us.

The awesome truth is that because of Jesus's death we live, and by our dying to ourselves we enter into a new life, an eternal life, as part of God's family. Jesus truly did defeat death by dying, and through Him we can do the same. Praise the Lord.

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