WHAT NOW? Day 3 – “DO I BELIEVE WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT JESUS?”
“DO I BELIEVE WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT JESUS?”
Yesterday, we saw how sin shattered man’s perfect relationship with God. Like Adam, each day we believe the same lies of the serpent that promise that we are better off with out God, that God does not truly love us, or God is holding back on us, and that we can be better rulers of our life that God. This is the result of sin for each of us.
Also, we learned that God never intended for us to live in isolation from Him forever.
In Genesis 3:15 God tells the serpent:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
God promises that even though the sting of sin would felt by Eve and all her offspring, there would be one in her line who would come and put at end of sin’s curse on mankind and crush the head of the serpent.
This serpent crusher is Jesus!
This is not the only place the Old Testament foretells the coming of Jesus to destroy sin. Consider the words of the Prophet Isaiah
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
(Isaiah 53:10-11)
God reaffirms his promise that he declared in the Garden to send perfect redeemer. Jesus would suffer and die offering his life for the guilt of mankind. He would be our substitute. 1st Corinthians 5:21 says,
“For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In the Gospel of John, we see Jesus refer to himself several time as “I am.”(John 8:58) He is demonstrating that He is the same God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush who freed His people from the bondage of their slavery in Egypt. In the same way, Jesus has come to free us from the slavery from our sin.
Jesus says of Himself:
“I am the light of the world.” – (8:12)
“I am the bread of life.” (6:48)
“I am He who will dies for your sins.” (8:25)
“I am the door of the sheep.” (10:7)
“I am the good shepherd” (10:11)
“I am the resurrection and the life.” (11:25)
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (14:6)
All of these “I am” statements show how Jesus meets every need we have to be reconciled to God. In 1 Peter 2:24 we find these words: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
This is JESUS…This is the GOSPEL!
Questions to Ponder:
Why is it important that Jesus committed no sin?
Did Jesus deserve to die?
What was accomplished by Jesus’ death?
What does Jesus’ death mean for your life?
Is Jesus who the Bible says He is?
