The Great Answer

God alone could provide the answer to my desperate problem. Out of deep love for me, he sent His own Son, Jesus, into this world. Why? Because the solution is for someone to live the perfect life I cannot live. Then, He can give me the eternal life He deserves, and He can take on Himself the condemnation and punishment I deserve.

The Bible puts it this way:

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Think of it this way. If I have lived a life as a major felon, I stand to be punished for my crime. But if someone else stood in my place, was condemned as guilty in my place, was punished in my place, I would go free. Who would do that? Only someone who loves the guilty person in a way they don’t deserve. This is what God Himself did for me!

700 years before Jesus died, the Bible said this about what Jesus would do for me when He died on the cross on that first Easter:

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6

Jesus, the Saviour

God is a God of love and a God of justice. If He just forgave me, then what about all the wrong I have done? If He gave me all I deserve for the wrong I have done, how could He show His love? But by Jesus taking my sin and dying in my place God’s justice is fully met, and through Jesus giving me His perfection, God’s love is fully shown.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

1 Peter 3:18

The gap bridged

Now, because of all Jesus has done, my wrong is wiped away. In fact, the Bible says that when I turn to God, trusting in the fact that Jesus has died for me, and accepting His death in my place, I am made clean. The old life I had, with all it’s guilt, is taken away. I am given a new start, a new heart, new desires, and new power to be the person I always should have been – I have a new life!

But more than that, there is no longer the big canyon that separates me from God. I come to know Him as my true King, as my friend, as my guide, and as my hope. I discover my true identity, I find my real satisfaction and I know eternal security. I am given a life that has value, that is no longer stained by ceaseless failures and frustrations. I find real, deep peace, joy and love.

So, how should I respond?