Around 30 AD, Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of God, was crucified. According to the Bible, He was raised from the dead three days later. He then appeared on many occasions to His disciples for forty days and ascended to heaven in glory. His resurrection confirmed that He is indeed the Son of God.
JESUS was crucified for the sins of the WORLD in order that all who BELIEVE IN HIM will have ETERNAL LIFE.
There is one God, who is revealed in the Bible as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the beginning, this almighty God created all things good (Genesis 1).
However, mankind disobeyed and rebelled against God their Creator and His commandments. Our disobedience and rebellion towards God is called “sin”. We all inherit a sinful nature from our ancestors Adam and Eve and are “spiritually dead” in sin (Ephesians 2). Rather than glorifying God, we are human-centred and self-seeking (Romans 1). God commands us to love Him with all our heart, all our mind and all our strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves. But we transgress against God’s commandments in thought, word and deed. As a result, the world is filled with hatred, wars, famines, deaths and all kinds of sufferings. We cannot, by our own effort, save ourselves from sin.
God is perfectly holy and righteous and cannot tolerate sin. So, our rebel lion brings God’s wrath upon the world. At the appointed time, Jesus, the Son of God, will return again to judge the whole world according to what we deserve. People who are self-seeking and ignore God will be sent into eternal fire.
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
Isaiah 64:6
God is also compassionate, merciful and abounding in love. He made a provision to save mankind from the beginning. He so loved the world that He sent His only Son to this world to die on the cross as a ransom for many (John 3:16). The Son was called Jesus after He took on our human nature. Jesus lived a perfect life on earth (I Peter 2:22) and bore the punishment for the sins of His people on the cross as their substitute. His perfect righteousness is credited to His people - those who are convicted of their sinful ways, repent of their sins and trust in Him alone for salvation. Although undeserving, they will be saved from God’s wrath and eternal condemnation and have peace with God (Romans 5). God also gives His people the Holy Spirit as the seal of salvation to enable them to live according to His will.
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.”
I Peter 2:24a
Isaiah 45:22
Let us REPENT of our sins, look to Jesus and pray for His mercy so that our sins might be cleansed away. Let us follow His command and publicly confess His name by baptism.
Because of our unbelief and self-centredness, we too are rebelling against God and storing up God’s wrath. Let us examine ourselves to see our rebellious nature and how we have been an enemy of God.