Photo by Samuel McGarrigle on Unsplash
As human beings living under the Fall, each one of us is under the curse of sin. That is why Jesus, the Son of GOD, had to come to earth to provide a way of redemption for mankind. We are totally unable to fix this problem of sin and our need for permanent forgiveness and a good standing before GOD. He is too holy. He cannot coexist with sin and allow the sinner to survive. Here are the reasons why we needed Him
Our natural sinful nature inherited from Adam
Apart from conscious sin that we are aware of, we are also affected by the natural sinful, fallen nature that we have inherited from Adam that causes us to naturally turn away from GOD toward our own way. We don’t naturally seek after GOD and His ways. Our thoughts and motives are all affected by this sinful, self-seeking desire.
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”Romans 3:10-12 ESV
The sins we have committed or omitted doing that we should have done, is too long to count. Something needed to be done to atone (pay for) for these sins
The sins of both omission and commission that we commit daily. They are not just committed in our deeds, but in our thoughts and words as well. We love to think of our sin in small terms, forgetting that GOD knows the totality of what we are doing. He knows and understands all our motives behind what we are doing. He always understands our motives better than we do. We often want to see them as better than they are. The thing about GOD is that He knows us to the core…yet He loves us deeply. That is why He came to bring redemption to us. He knew better than we did, how much we needed it. That list of sins we had committed would fill a book to big to carry.
Blood had to be shed to pay for sin.
The payment for sin is the shedding of blood and death. Someone has to die to pay for the sin of one person. Normally, that would mean that for one person’s sin to be forgiven, he would have to die for his sin to pay for it. Nothing would be gained by this.
How would it be possible for the sin of all those who would receive this gift, be paid for so they could have their sin fully paid for, a free conscience and eternal life? Their sin would have to be paid for by someone who could live a perfect life, that never, ever sinned AND be able to pay for an infinite number of peoples’ sins. How would that be possible?
The only way it would be possible would be for someone who is 100% GOD and 100% man to live here on earth his full life, be tempted in the ways we are, resist those temptations and at some point die as a sacrifice for the sin and in the end show that He had somehow been victorious over that death.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood,
and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.Hebrews 9:22 ESV
GOD’s plan to bring redemption to the world
How could that happen? Long before Adam and Eve were even created, much less sinned, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit planned out redemption. Jesus, the Son, would come to earth in human form. He would be fully GOD, yet also fully human. During his entire life of 33 years on earth, He did not sin in thought, word or deed. He always obeyed the Father’s will.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
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 making known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christas a plan for the fullness of time,
to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.Ephesians 1:3-10 ESV
When Jesus died on the cross, He took on Himself all our sin, failure, those things we failed to do that we should have done, those things we did wrong in disobedience to what we knew to be right. He took all of it on Himself for each of us. In exchange, He gave us His record while here on earth, that of a perfect life of doing the will of the Father each and every day. That is the record He gave us when we came to Him to forgive us and take over the direction of our lives.
Are we willing to trust that what He did was effective to forgive our sin, past, present and future? Because at the cross, it was all future. This is what Jesus did for us. There is not one thing we were able to contribute to this gift He gave us. We had absolutely nothing to offer. We were a mess. In many ways, we still are. Apart from Him, we have nothing to offer anyone, certainly not GOD!
As a result, we can now stand before GOD the Father when he judges us. When He asks, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” We can say with certainty, “Because of Jesus’ righteousness and what He accomplished for me on the cross.”
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.Hebrews 10:11-14 ESV
Our sin is completely paid for and dealt with by Jesus’ death on the cross. His resurrection told the world that He was victorious over sin and death. If He hadn’t risen from the dead, no one would have known if He won the victory over death and sin.
We are thoroughly and completely forgiven once we come to Jesus with hearts that recognize they are spiritually bankrupt and have nothing to offer GOD. Of course, we still need to go to Him over everyday sin, for forgiveness even though it was already paid for at the cross. That is more for our benefit than for GOD’s. It is also to restore the relationship as well. But once we are in Christ, we have new life and a new heart. A New Spirit lives in us as well. We are now able to choose to turn toward GOD. We are alive to His Spirit where we weren’t before. He guides us, convicts us of sin, and leads us.
Yes, GOD is with us. He came long ago in Bethlehem to make clear through His life, that we needed the truth of His message as well as to complete this mission.
He is with us even in our sin and darkness. Not so we can stay there, but He is with us to bring us redemption! He went so far as to go to Hell for us as He paid for our sin. As God, He was able to pay the infinite penalty for sin for an infinite number of people. As simply a human, He would only have been able to pay for His own sin. As God, He had no sin to be paid for.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV
Here is the whole story in one place. As you can see, it describes Christ, His beloved Son, and what He did, in most of the passage.
Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death,
in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast,
not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard,
which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Colossians 1:12-23 ESV
