The Gospel (Part 3 of 5)

GOD chose to rescue

MAN out of his sinful rebellion through...

JESUS...

Part 3 in this series focuses on Jesus as the means of our rescue or salvation.  So much could be said about the work of Jesus on our behalf. As I sit here at my keyboard I have a sense of woeful inadequacy to even attempt to capture the scope and wonder of the sacrifice of Jesus toward us.  Yet it is with that acknowledgment I will attempt to provide a sliver of the glory of Jesus Christ.

But first let's review:

GOD is creator. He is our creator. We answer to Him. We are accountable to Him.  

MAN has sinned.  We have gone our own way, turning our back on God. We reject the accountability. We are indebted to, enemies with, and separated from GOD our creator. "But God..."   GOD rescued.

This is how God rescued us...

God entered into our humanity (the same way you and I entered humanity).  He was born. We celebrate this at Christmas.  God entered the world though the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus was fully God and equally fully human.  Jesus lived our life--yet he lived it the way that we were intended to live it--without sin. Then he died our death.  Jesus died on a Roman cross.  But why did Jesus have to die?  How was that the plan?

To answer this question we need to look at the character of God.  God is a God of love, mercy and kindness.  We all know this. But God is also a God of justice, righteousness, and holiness.  God cannot violate one aspect of His character in favor of another.   So, as God saw man suffering and dead in their sins, in love and mercy God may have wanted to just excuse our sin, overlook it, ignore it.  But as a God of justice, righteousness, and holiness He could not.  In the same way a Court Judge can not let the guilty just go free--fines will be paid, sentences will be served. Enter JESUS. Jesus became the solution to that problem.  The Bible explains this in Romans 3, God presented Christ [JESUS] as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness [character] at the present time, so as to be just [a God of justice] and the one who justifies [a God of love and mercy] those who have faith in Jesus (to justify means to forgive and be made righteous).

You see, in JESUS, God Himself entered into our world and lived a human life.  In his humanity, Jesus could be our substitute--taking our place, serving our sentence.  Yet in his divinity, he was able to pay the penalty for all.  Jesus, being God, has an equally eternal depth of holiness.  When he died he paid the penalty for the sins of all who would believe.

As sinners we have committed treason against God--against our King. In doing so we have received the sentence of death.  So here we stand on the hangman's gallows with the rope tight around our neck.  The executioner steps up to the platform, places his hand on the lever and asks for any last words.  Just then you hear a voice, but it's not coming from the onlooking crowd. It's coming from the balcony. It's the King.  

"Executioner, stay your hand!"

Then he comes down from his throne, walks up the steps to the platform and stands right in front of you.  Then he takes the rope off of your neck and puts it on his own. And says

"You are free."

As you begin to walk away, he hands you the keys to the castle.

GOD rescued MAN through JESUS.