What it means to be a Christian (Part 2 of 3)
There is a problem in the world as a result of Adam and Eve going wrong. When God created the heavens and the earth, everything was perfect. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the only rule was that they could not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was perfectly clear. They had the choice to obey or disobey, and unfortunately they disobeyed. As a result of that, you and I have a problem when we are born into this world.
If you are honest, about the way you think, you know that you try to live a good life, but there’s something inside you which makes you automatically go wrong. It is sin. You vow to do this or that in a particular way, but it always goes wrong. From birth you have sin in you; that’s why we don’t have to teach a child to go wrong, they automatically know how to go wrong. You can put a veneer on it but underneath the sin problem remains.
This didn’t catch God out. God is holy and He can’t stand sin. God is also a God of love; it was always in His heart to rememdy the situation. He sorted out a way so that we can go back to that position where we don’t have that default option that takes us away from Him. God has provided a way to make us clean on the inside.
The only way He could do it was to have someone who had no sin nature, to take away our sin nature. Jesus was that person. It is historically proven that he lived on this earth. The time frame of the whole world revolves around His life.
1 John 3:5
It sounds incredible. For the thirty-three years that Jesus Christ was alive on this earth he didn’t sin; He lived a perfect life. He was born from heaven so He didn’t have a sin nature. Jesus was the son of man, and God. He was the bridge between heaven and earth. He had the choice to sin, but He didn’t. Unlike Adam, who chose wrong, Jesus always chose right. He endured all the temptations that we have but never succumbed. He was someone, who God could lay the sins of our lives upon.
The consequence of sin has always been death. In the Old Testament a lamb had to be killed for the sins of the people. The solution then was the death of an animal. Yet, there were people in the Old Testament that foretold that a man would come who would break the power of sin once and for all. They prophesied that a time would come when we would be able to place our trust in a man who gave His life for us. By rights, God could kill us off eternally. But He loved the world so much, that He gave His only son, who voluntered to take the sin of the whole world into Himself when he died on the cross.
There are five main things that Jesus did when he died on the cross:
1) He was our Redeemer.
1 Peter 1:18
He died to redeem us from the penalty and consequence of sin. He gave His life to save us from death. He broke the power of that default option in our life. We can be clean because we can have Him inside instead.
2) He brought us near to God.
Ephesians 2:13
3) He brought peace inside and reconciled us to God.
Colossians 1:20
Reconciliation is to bring together. Before Jesus came there was an automatic separation between God and man, we were sinners. Jesus Christ reconciled us to God. He made peace through reconcilation.
4) He justified us.
Romans 5:9
It is just as if I never sinned.
5) He cleaned us up on the inside.
1 John 1:7
Guilt destroys an individual. There’s an enemy of mankind that always points to things that you’ve done wrong in your life but the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. When you’re sin nature changes, it is as if you start again in life. Elsewhere in the Bible, it says you’re born all over again.
If you accept this message about Jesus you can exercise your faith and ask Jesus Christ to change you on the inside. Your life from the first birth just can’t get it right; you try but you don’t get it right. Jesus will give you His life instead which is eternal - not death, not destruction, not filth, not decay. It is life which is clean and wholesome, the way you really want to go.
Philippians 2:5-11
At the end of your life when Jesus meets you face to face, what are you going to say to Him? Are you going to say, “I know what you’ve done in my life because of what you did for me on the cross at Calvary when you gave your life for me. I know what that means because you came within me and cleaned me. I know I didn’t deserve it.” Everyone must be clear of their standing before God. What does Jesus Christ mean to you?
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