IS THERE AN ANSWER ?

We saw earlier that a just and holy God must punish sin. But the Bible tells us that ²God is love. While God hates sin He loves sinners and longs to forgive them. But how can a sinner be justly pardoned when God's law demands his spiritual and physical death? Only God could solve that problem, and He did so in the person of Jesus Christ. ³The Father has sent His Son to be Saviour of the world.

God the Son became a man by taking upon Himself human nature. Although Jesus became fully man, He remained fully God: the Bible says that in ⁴Christ all the fulness of the Diety lives in bodily form. He remained as completely God as if He had no become man; He became completely man as if He were not God. Jesus Christ is therefore unique and the Bible confirms this in many ways. His conception was unique; He had no human father but was conceived in a virgin's womb by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. His words were unique: people were ⁵amazed at His teaching, because His message had authority. His miracles were unique: He went about ⁶healing every sickness and disease among the people, and on several occasions even raised the dead. His character was unique: He was ⁷tempted in every way just as we are - yet without sin so that God the Father could say of Him, ⁸'This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.'

Notice the last sentence! This means that Jesus kept the law of God in every part and therefore was not subject to sin's double death penalty. Yet He was arrested on a trumped-up charge, sentenced on false evidence, and eventually crucified at Jerusalem. But His death was not a 'freak' or an unavoidable accident. It was all part of ⁹God's set purpose and foreknowledge. The Father sent the Son for the very purpose of paying sin's death penalty, and Jesus willingly came. In His own words, the purpose of His coming into the world was ¹⁰to give his life as a ransom for many. His death, like His life, was unique.

This makes it vital that you understand what happened when Jesus died, and what His death can mean to you.

¹ John 3:16,  ² 1 John 4:8,  ³ 1 John 4:14,   ⁴ Colossians 2:9,  ⁵ Luke 4:32,  ⁶ Matthew 4:23, ⁷ Hebrews 4:15, ⁸ Matthew 3:17, ⁹ Acts 2:23,  ¹⁰ Matthew 20:28.