God requires us to be holy so that we can be restored back to Him. God tells us through the Bible - ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ ( 1 Pet. 1:16). No man on the face of the earth is holy, and sin keeps us apart from God. Yet, in and of ourselves we cannot rid ourselves of sin and therefore please God. It is impossible to save ourselves and we are in a helpless and condemned state. There is no way that we can generate peace with God.
This is what God did for all of us - ‘But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8).
Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the most influential and well known name in history. Even when Jesus was here on earth there was some confusion and misunderstanding of who He really was.
Some thought He was a great prophet, a wise man, a great moral teacher, others thought He was an up and coming political ruler, some even thought He was a madman. Yet the Bible is clear that He is the Son of God (John 20:31). We find Jesus and His claims revealed to us in the Bible. The greatest claim that He ever made was that He is God - Jesus said - ‘I and the Father are one’ (Jn. 10:30), thereby declaring His Deity.
We also find in the opening verses of the Gospel of John these revelations of truth - ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men’ (John 1:1-4). This passage should bring to mind Genesis 1:1 which was cited earlier - ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’
Another important truth about Jesus is that - ‘in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, … and He is the head over all rule and authority‘ (Colossians 2:9-10). Therefore what is important to understand is that Jesus, who is the Word is eternal, He is eternally God, He is the creator of all things, and that He is the source of life. As such we are subject to Him because He has divine authority over us - Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all (Acts 10:36).
Philippians 2:6-7 tells us this about Jesus - ‘although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’ What this tells us is that the eternal Word, God the Son, became fully man.
Jesus' birth was in the ordinary fashion as we were all born, but His conception was unique. This what took place: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit…. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us." And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25).
Jesus was conceived in a virgin’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill God’s promise of the One who would be our Saviour. In God’s infinite wisdom Jesus was born this way in order that He would be free from sin. Therefore His nature and character was also unique in that - He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5).
There were times as found in the Scriptures that we find Jesus reflecting His humanity such as He slept, got hungry, and wept. He was so much a man that He was - One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). At other times we see Jesus reflecting His Deity in that He did miracles, healed people of physical ailments, and He even raised the dead. In this we know that Jesus is fully a perfect human being, yet He also is fully God (theologically we express that Jesus Christ remains forever undiminished Deity and true humanity united in one person forever - 100% Man and 100% God).
Jesus is absolutely pure and sinless. No other person in history can make this claim no matter how spiritual or morally upright that they may have appeared. And because of this Jesus Christ is the only One who can forgive us of our sin and change us, thereby delivering us from our sin and guilt, and God’s wrath.
The perfect solution to take away sin had to be perfectly sinless. Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Krishna, and other leaders of religions or spiritual movements cannot save you from your sin and eternal separation from the one true God (these figures are men who are not sinless). Adherence and affiliation with any religious system cannot save you; religious groups like Jehovah Witness, Mormon, Zen Buddhist, Baha’i, Unitarian, Scientology, Catholicism, Islam, and even "institutional" Christianity, and many others cannot grant you a right relationship with God. True salvation is found only in a personal relationship with our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus (Titus 2:13) for - ‘There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).
The Bible repeatedly, from cover to cover, points to the coming of Jesus Christ who would die for our sins. Why is His death so important? It is utterly important because Jesus became the sinless sacrifice for our sins - ‘Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God’ (1 Peter 3:18). This was God’s foreordained plan so at the precise time - He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus was not a victim at the hands of vicious men, but - We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16). Jesus voluntarily - gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deed (Titus 2:14).
Jesus willingly took the place of sinners and bore upon Himself the wrath of God for their sins, so that we could be forgiven. Upon the cross Jesus’ blood was shed which served as
an atonement for sin. Those who believe in Christ - In Him we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him (Ephesians 1:7-9). This is the divine purpose of the cross. 1 Peter 2:24 tells us that - He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Earlier we noted that it is impossible to save ourselves, we are condemned, with no way to generate peace with God. But in Christ’s death, God through Christ reconciles - all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). Only if we are found in Christ, will we have peace with God, because our sins were fully paid for by Christ.
As Jesus lay dying on the cross every and all sin was laid upon Him as if He were accountable for all of them, despite His sinlessness. In this, those who are saved by Christ receive the righteousness of Christ. God therefore no longer sees the sinner, but instead He sees the perfection of His Son credited to the saved. The saved are reconciled to God, eternally forgiven of their sins, never to be punished, receiving a full pardon - whereas they would have been doomed wretched sinners condemned to an eternity in hell.
Equally important is that Christ was - declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness (Romans 1:4). Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scripture (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). No other person in history, except for Christ, has been bodily resurrected, never to die again - all people who have died still remain in their graves. Jesus Christ not only died but He rose from the dead. This is the resurrection of the Man Jesus Christ from the dead, demonstrating that He was victorious over death. Therefore the saved can echo these words of Scripture - "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). Through the resurrection of Christ, God demonstrated powerfully that He accepted Christ’s death in the place of the sinner.
Why did all this take place? Because ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). Jesus Christ ‘loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood’ (Rev. 1:5). Jesus alone is ‘our great God and Savior ’ (Titus 2:13).
In Christ, we have eternal life that begins at the moment that He saves you, and though we die physically, we will be with God - spending an eternity with Him in heaven. For more please see Post 5.