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).

It is nothing short of amazing that the Son of God left his home in Heaven and came to live on earth with sinful men and women. What is often overlooked, however, is why He did it.

To those people who know the story, the obvious answer to why Jesus lived on earth is so that he could tell the world about His Father’s love for them by sending His son to die for their sins. But even this question asks the question why? Why would the 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. An explanation is in order.

To make man the focal point of Jesus’ mission would be to violate the first commandment to have no other God’s before the God of Heaven. But it’s not about you and me. The focal point of Jesus’ mission was, and still is to this day, to bring glory to his Father by taking away the sins of mankind, thus restoring the relationship that his Father had with his creation at the beginning of time.

So why was it important for Jesus to dwell with man before dying on the cross for their sins?

In the original language of John 1:14 the word dwell also meant tabernacle. While John uses the word as a verb, the Tabernacle was originally a large portable tent that God instructed the nation of Israel to build as a place for Him to dwell among the people.

John’s use of this word as a verb places an emphasis on the fact that God wants to live in the presence of His people and wants His people to see Him. One of Jesus’ many titles is Immanuel, which means God with us.

From these examples it is plain to see that from the beginning of time God has wanted you and me to live in His presence, and bring glory to His name. 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. It will also be that way when the children of God go live with Him in Heaven. Only then it will be face to face, and eternal.

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 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 us 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

Unconditional Love

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

I remember the first time my mind grasped the concept of unconditional love. The day was September 14, 1991, the day my oldest daughter was born. Barely a minute old, I remember the nurse asking me if I wanted to hold her.

Gripped with fear, I took my baby girl’s tiny life into my arms, and held her close to me. Immediately all my fears left, and were replaced with an overwhelming sense of love.

As a child, I never knew unconditional love. For years, I suffered emotional and sometimes physical abuse at the hands of my father. Now standing with my first born child in my arms, I could not imagine what this little girl could possibly do to keep me from loving her.

As the nurse took her from me, I looked at the face of the most beautiful child I had ever seen. It was then that a thought occurred to me. If I as a fractured, flawed human being was capable of loving my child with an unconditional love, how much more can the God of Heaven, whose love is perfect, love me?

Growing up at the hands of an abusive earthly father has made it difficult for me to grasp the unconditional love of my Heavenly Father. However, I have come to learn that when God says His grace for me is sufficient, it means that His love for me is perfect.

In my humanity, both as a child of God and as a parent, I will make mistakes. I will do things this will dishonor my Father in Heaven. Thankfully, His love for me is not based on what I do. It is based on the fact that the nature and character of God is perfected love capable of seeing past my flaws, and into my broken heart.

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)