The real reason Jesus died for your sins

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

I find it incredible that Jesus, the Son of God left his home in Heaven and came to live on earth with sinful men and women. What is more marvelous is why He did it.

Ask the average Christian why Jesus traded his heavenly home for an earthly one and most people will tell you it is so that he could tell the world about His Father’s love for them and how He sent His son to die for their sins. But even this question begs the question, why? Why would our Heavenly Father send His son to die for the sins of the world?

Contrary to what is often taught in Sunday school, Jesus’ life on earth, and his subsequent death on the cross, was less about the salvation of mankind, and more about restoring things to their rightful order. Allow me to explain.

To understand why Jesus died for our sins one must first look back to the beginning of the Bible to the book of Genesis. There God planted a garden called Eden, made man, Adam, from the dust of the earth, and placed the man in the garden where the two of them lived together for several years (Genesis 2:4-20). Sadly, the man fell out of favor with God through disobedience and was banished from the Garden along with his wife. Fast forward a few hundred years and the earth is now filled with people, to include the descendant of Adam and his wife. These people are called Hebrews and God has chosen them as his own children. He wants a relationship with them, so much so that He wants to live with them like he did with Adam in the Garden. So, He gives them specific instructions to build a tent called a Tabernacle which will be placed in the midst of His people. Again, God wants to live in the presence of His people (Exodus 25:8-9).

Fast forward a few hundred more years. The Tabernacle has been replaced with a lavish temple in the city of Jerusalem in Israel. However the Hebrews continued to rebel against God. This does not dissuade God in any way, though, who still wants to dwell with is children. Once again God makes a radical move. Bent on having a face to face relationship with His children, God decides to send His son to earth in the form of a baby, a savior who is going to grow up and eventually remove the sinfulness from the lives His rebellious children. Here we encounter John 1:14 where Jesus is described as the Word of God (see John 1:1). What is exciting about the John 1:14, though is the word dwell. Jesus came to dwell with mankind. In the original language of the Bible that word dwell means to tabernacle or live in the midst of the people. In other words, God sent His son to the earth to have a face to face relationship with His children, AND to die for the sins!

From these examples it is plain to see that from the beginning of time God has wanted to dwell with His children. It was that way in Genesis when he made man. It was that way when He gave Moses the Law and commanded the Tabernacle to be built, and it was that way when He sent His only begotten Son into the World to die for the sins of the world (John 3:16). It will also be that way when the children of God go to live with Him in Heaven.

The truth is that God, from the beginning of time, has wanted a face to face relationship with His children. When you and I ask Jesus to be our Savior, we become God’s children. We are adopted into His family. But more glorious is the fact that when we die our souls will live with God forever in Heaven where we will have a face to face relationship with our Creator, our Lord, and our Savior for ever and ever unto eternity. And that it why Jesus died for your sins.

I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (John 14:2b-3).

You can not fail

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).

You and God make a majority; you can not fail.

From the moment I realized the truth of this statement my life began to change.

I grew up in the church, and knew the power of God to be real, but knew also that to trust His power and to allow it to live in and through me meant experiencing it for myself. With God on my side, I began to look for spiritual challenges. It did not take long to find them.

For me those challenges came in the form of wanting to live. Raised by a father and mother who excessively disciplined me to the point of abuse, finding the desire to live was very difficult. I was suicidal until I was thirty, was verbally abusive to my wife, and at one point lost everything I had.

Alone, one Christmas, I stared at the veins in my arms and wondered if my children would find my body should I finally decide to end my life. But, instead of reaching for a knife, I reached out to Christ and began to read my Bible.

As I read, the Lord guided me to Ephesians 4:30-31: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”

In an instant, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me, and revealed to me that for years I had been carrying the pain and hurt of my past. I sobbed uncontrollably. I needed to forgive my parents, especially my dad, for the pain that had been inflicted upon me. But how could I when spiritually I was so weak, and so broken?

Armed with the revelation of my need to forgive, I sought out the comfort of some close friends. Together, over the course of the next year, I prayed, soaked up the wisdom of God’s word, and began to find the strength to forgive my parents. In time I put my past behind me, and left it there.

Today I serve as a pastor, and help people who sometimes find themselves weak and without hope. In Christ I have found not only the strength to forgive, but the strength to live life each and everyday by the might and the power of God.

By accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, believing that he died for your sins, you too can find strength in Christ to overcome all things. In Jesus there is life, and hope, and a reason to live. God has made you for a purpose, and with Him you are in the majority. You can not fail.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us (Romans 5:5).

Election Day Decision

And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king (1 Samuel 8:7).

Today Americans will elect the men and women they want to lead their nation.

But when they cast their, will the American people remember that there remains One who still desires to be their Leader, their Lord, their Sovereign? Or will they forget, as the nation of Israel forgot so many years ago, that only God can rule with righteousness and justice?

If Americans are not satisfied first with the leading of God to rule and reign in their hearts as Sovereign Lord, then no amount of partisan politics will compensate for what they perceived as an inadequacy.

Though the world does not share this opinion, submission to God must always come before submission to our elected leaders. Submission shows allegiance. Today’s elected officials are often viewed as disposable; therefore allegiance among voters is rare. If the people do not like what a politician says, or the work he has performed, someone else can always be elected.

Thankfully, God is not running for political office. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He was, and is, and evermore shall be! His love for you and me, is not contingent upon and our vote, and never once has He made a promise that has not been kept.

This election year the American people will choose a new President to lead their nation. However, the question that must first be decided is, who will you choose to lead your life? If Americans are not content with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, then in no way will they be content with John McCain or Barack Obama as their President.

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).

Through the Eyes of a Child

Psalm 19:1
The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

My wife had a meeting at church tonight so it was Daddy’s night with the kids. After dinner my two year old wanted to go outside and look for Mommy, and so we did.

The weather in North Carolina is forever strange, and tonight was no exception as we stepped outside into a balmy sixty-degree night. We first looked for Mommy, but of course she was not yet home. Then my son noticed all of the lights in the cloudless sky. The stars were out by the billions. ‘Look Daddy”, he said, “the moon.”

The moon was not yet visible, and so I explained to him that what he was looking at was the stars that God had made. Almost is if he had been given the most amazing revelation he looked up and saw the whole entire sky. His eyes filled with the wonder that only a child’s eyes can have when he sees something for the very first time. He ran over to the steps and took a seat on the bottom one, and then patted it with his hand. “Sit Daddy”, he said. I sat down beside him and we looked up into the heavens, and watched the twinkling of God’s handiwork.

In my opinion there is only one thing more wonderful than watching the stars at night, and that is watching them through the eyes of a two year old for the very first time. For several minutes we sat on the steps and stared into the sky, sharing together an intimate moment with God.

I reveled in the truth of God’s word as my two-year-old son basked the glory of his Heavenly Father knowing without a doubt that the scriptures are indeed true; the heavens do really tell of the glory of God, and their expanse really is declaring the work of His hands. Praise the Lord!

“Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3

A Natural Progression

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1-2)

Few stories in the Bible show the supernatural progression of saving faith better than the story of the man born blind in John 9.

The story begins with a presumption that is common even today. That is, God uses sickness as a punishment for sin. The man who was born blind is believed to have been afflicted by God because of the sins of one or both of his parents. But which one, asks Jesus’ disciples?

But Jesus tells his disciples that what has happened to the blind man is not punishment from God, but the means by which the Creator of Heaven and Earth will bring glory to Himself.

Having removed a false presumption about God, faith begins its journey.

First, a seed of faith is planted in the blind man as Jesus demonstrates his power to heal and gives him sight. But when asked how he received his sight, the man who was blind, even with restored vision, only recognizes Jesus as another man.

Second, when the religious leaders hear about the man’s healing, which took place on the Sabbath (a day when no work should be done), the seed of faith grows, and begins to take root. Now, being questioned by religious types, the man’s faith allows him to recognize Jesus as a prophet. But his zeal only leads to trouble he is kicked out of the temple.

Third and last, separated from his tradition, the man is alone with only his faith. Something about the person who healed him is connected to God, but exactly what remains unclear.

Then Jesus finds the man, who now seeing with his physical eyes, is beginning to see with his spiritual eyes. Jesus asks him if he knows the Son of Man, the Messiah, the one sent by God to heal the lame, and give sight to the blind. “No,” replies the man. “Who is he?”

“I am He,” said Jesus.

Immediately the man bows down and worships Jesus. Once thought to be just a man, then considered perhaps to be a prophet, Jesus is now affirmed as Lord. Faith, having taken its first steps toward righteousness, now rests fully in the heart of the man born blind, who now sees Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:15-16)

A Lesson on Giving

But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” (Mark 6:37)

While the story of the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four Gospels, only Mark tells the complete story.

Unlike Matthew and John, Mark and Luke let their readers know that just prior to the feeding of the five thousand Jesus’ twelve disciples have returned from a season of training. However, only Mark, whose story is believed to be told from the perspective of the Apostle Peter, reveals that upon their return, the disciples are quite hungry.

One can easily infer from this inside information that as the evening draws to a close, the disciples’ encouragement to Jesus to disperse the crowd away is not because of their concern for the tired, hungry masses. The disciples’ real desire is to find a meal for themselves. It is a desire that Jesus seems to already know.

But instead of dismissing the crowd so everyone can go and find food, Jesus commands his disciples to feed the crowd. A quick search reveals that one little boy has brought a lunch of two fish and five small loaves of bread. But it is hardly enough to feed two people, much less such an enormous crowd.

Nevertheless, Jesus takes the fish and the bread, prays over it, and then gives it to his disciples to pass out among the people. One by one each person breaks off a piece of bread and takes a portion of the fish and begins to eat.

After everyone has eaten, Jesus commands the disciples to collect the leftovers in one of twelve baskets. As they do, what Jesus has done becomes plain to see. Not only has Jesus provided food for five thousand men, plus women and children, he has recognized the hunger of his disciples and provided for them as well.

Many lessons can be learned from this story. For me, the one that stands out is the lesson to give and it shall be given. It is a lesson about priorities where love for others supersedes the love of self. It is a lesson about seeking the well being of others without fear, knowing that as you and I seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, our Heavenly Father has already made away to provide for our needs.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38)