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The bible and
the life of Jesus makes it clear that there is something wrong with
mankind that needs fixing.
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The need is not
always apparent
We live in a
society that is desensitised to deep thinking about life and meaning.
Society moves at such a pace, it’s all we can do to keep up with work,
paying the mortgage, furnishing and decorating, and raising a family. If
there is a problem anywhere we’re just too busy and consumed by life
that it’s too difficult to spot it. Like the woman in the advert who is
rushing so much to get out in the morning that she runs out of the house
oblivious to the fact that her skirt is tucked up in her ‘undies’.
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The need? – For
mankind to be forgiven and to know God
The bible also
makes it clear that you and I were created by God and that the reason
God made us was to have a relationship with him. In order for us to
really know what our lives are all about we need to be in a relationship
with him. The problem that we all have is that none of us is perfect, in
fact far from it. The bad things we do stop us from knowing God in our
lives and that means we have to be forgiven before that relationship can
start and we are able to eventually go to heaven. Many of us get an
‘inkling’ that there has to be more to life, that something isn’t quite
right, in a similar way to Mel Gibson. The problem that most people have
is that they go about sorting the problem out in the wrong way.
Utterly
Helpless
A
popular misconception is that we have a good chance of pleasing God and
getting into heaven providing that the good things we do outweigh the
bad. Another popular feeling is that God will give us the benefit of the
doubt at the end of the day because we sincerely tried our best.
What I
think we fail to realise sometimes is how high God’s standards are and
how bad our hearts can be. In the film you may well have been both
outraged and sickened by the actions of some of the Romans and religious
leaders, now I’m not suggesting that we’re quite in that league but we
can be capable of some pretty awful thoughts if not always actions.
The verses here say utterly
helpless. Not just struggling, in need of a lift up, not even helpless,
but to get the point across forcibly it says ‘utterly helpless’ - in
other words, more weak and incapable of pleasing God than you could
imagine.
“All
have sinned and fall short of God’s standard”
Romans 3:23
Have
you ever tried to do something in your life and got to the point where
you’ve said to yourself “I just can’t do it?” Well remember that
feeling, multiply it a few hundred times and you’ll start to get close
to what the bible is telling us about our inability to get to heaven or
to please God ourselves. It is an utter impossibility. We can’t do it.
Nobody can.
There lies the problem
Forgiveness costs us nothing but cost Him everything
I
mentioned earlier that the one thing we need, more than anything else is
forgiveness. It seems such an easy thing to get – “God, will you forgive
me?” and that’s it. We don’t have to do anything and it doesn’t cost us
anything. So why did Jesus die? Forgiveness costs us nothing but cost
Him everything.
Forgiveness in not getting what we deserve.
Forgiveness costs us nothing, but it cost Jesus Christ everything –
that’s where God gets his justice.
You
see, God can’t just sweep sin under the carpet, it has to be dealt with.
Deep down, you and I have a sense that when they do some bad things we
deserve punishment for them.
5But
he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might
have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!
The deal
The Bible explains
it this way. “God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our
sins. Then in exchange He poured God’s goodness into us.” What a
deal! The word for this is called, by the way, grace. When God gives
you what you need, not what you deserve. So here’s the deal. God says
I’m going to take all of Neil Tallamy’s wrong things he has done in his
life and I’m going to put them on My Son Jesus Christ, and He’s going to
pay for them on the cross. Then I’m going to take all the good things
Jesus has done and put them on Neil so he can get into heaven. What a
deal! What a deal!
There can be so
many questions and difficulties that people have which prevent them from
accepting that God loves them, but I think that when you understand what
Jesus was doing in his death you can dispel many of the doubts that
trouble you.
Often, people
cannot get over the fact that there is suffering in the world, and the
fact that we ourselves are part of that suffering. Does God care? Why
doesn’t he do something? He doesn’t seem to care about me when I go
through difficult times, what about the rest of the world, or is it just
Christians he cares about?
7Now,
no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be
willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8But God
showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we
were still sinners.
Jesus Christ died
for you and me. How spectacular is that – to know that someone didn’t
just say they would die for us if need be, but someone actually went
through all that and died for us.
It wasn’t just an
ordinary guy who died for us either; it was the son of God!
Illustration
– The Silent Preaching Monk
A certain medieval
monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on "The Love of
God." As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the
cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the
altar, the monk lighted a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First
of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands,
then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out
the candle and left. There was nothing else to say.
Does God love
this world? Look at the cross. Does God care for this world? Look at the
cross. Does God love you, care for you, want to come into your life and
give you joy and hope forever? Look at the cross.
“He is so rich
in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son,
and our sins are forgiven.” Eph 1:7
“I love you this much!” So
much it hurts!
The main thing
that should hit us when we see the Passion or read the bible accounts is
not who’s fault was it, or why so much violence but rather see the
extent of God’s love for you and me.
Can I know
God in my Life?
11So
now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with
God--all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making
us friends of God.
Jesus makes us
friends of God
I am the good
shepherd and I lay down my life for the sheep. No-one can take my life
away from me but I lay it down of my own accord.
Jesus’ death was
not a disaster but part of the pre-ordained plan of God
When Jesus was
hanging on the cross, leaders mocked “If
you’re really God, come down...”
But Jesus
planned something far more spectacular!
Jesus is alive now
and looking down from heaven. There is nothing he wants more than to see
someone here benefit from what he went
through.
When you ask for
forgiveness and choose to follow Jesus God comes into your life. You
become aware that God is real and that he actually is very happy to be
close to you and that nothing you do will ever change that.
God, through
Jesus, offers us his friendship, his life and his forgiveness, and we
receive it by faith.
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