Our understanding of Jesus Christ – who he is and what he did – comes from the Bible.  In short, Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on a cross for the sins of the world, so that we might be forgiven for our sins and be reconciled to God, who is perfect and holy. He was proven to be the Son of God when God’s power raised him from the dead after three days. He ascended back to heaven, where He waits with God until the day he will return. Until then, repentance and forgiveness of sins is preached in his name.

However, to fully understand what God has offered us through Christ, we must go back to the beginning, when God first made the heavens and the earth and created mankind. God made Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden, where they were to live in harmony with God as they exercised stewardship over God’s creation. This peaceful existence was based on one rule only – they were not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Most of us know the story. They ate of it, and when they did, something very bad happened. They were no longer strangers to sin, or disobedience. They had asserted their own desires over God and, in a very real way, rebelled against their Creator.

This sinful rebellion of mankind is known as the Fall, and its consequences persist to the present time. One result of the Fall was death, just as God said it would be. Every culture and person on earth faces death, and they deal with it in various ways. Death is a reality that none of us can escape, and it came as a result of sin. The Bible also shows us that Adam and Eve were not the only ones affected, but so were all their offspring. Every one of us is born into the sin of our forefather, Adam. He became a slave, being ruled by sin and death, and all his children are under their power as well. Each generation has proven this as mankind continues to sin and do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.

There are, however, rays of hope all through the Bible, for God’s plan to redeem mankind from their sin was already in effect. As early as the third chapter of Genesis, we see God’s promise of the woman’s “seed,” who will crush the head of the serpent. Later on, God promises to bless all the nations of the world through Abraham’s “seed.” God established a covenant with Abraham that hinged on the promise of an heir, Isaac, whom God allowed Abraham and Sarah to conceive at a very old age. The promised seemed threatened when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, but then, just as he was about to do it, an angel stopped him, and God provided a ram to take his place.

This picture of substitution is continued throughout the Old Testament as God has the children of Israel slay a “passover” lamb. Thus, those with the blood of the lamb were passed over as the angel of death wreaked havoc in all of Egypt. The sacrifices made in the temple at Jerusalem were all based on the idea of God passing over the sins of the people as those sins were transferred to an animal “without blemish.”

All of the animal sacrifices, however, were not good enough to permanently deal with the sins of mankind. They were merely a shadow, a picture of the greater sacrifice to come – the perfect Lamb that God Himself would provide – His own Son, Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah foretold of Jesus’ suffering when he said, “he was led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Is. 53;7).  John the Baptist also recognized Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

Jesus was in fact both fully God and fully human, since he was born to a virgin through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. This alone qualified him to be God’s perfect lamb. His divine nature enabled him to live a life without sin, while his humanity enabled him to identify with us completely and be offered in our place (not like animals, but as one of us).

When Christ died on the cross, the Bible is clear, God placed our sins on him. He took the curse of our disobedience and the punishment we deserved. He gave his righteous life for our sinful lives. But here is the GOOD NEWS – because he did that, if we believe in Him and confess our sins, turning to him in repentance, God will place the righteousness of Christ on us. That is, our sins will be forgiven, and we will receive new life, even eternal life.

The picture of being born again is perfect. Just as Jesus died and was raised by God’s power, so we die to ourselves and to our former ways of life (to our sins), and new life is born within us through God’s Holy Spirit. This is why we are baptized – to symbolize our death with Christ as well as our resurrection into new life. Do you want eternal life today? You can have it. Confess your sins and have them forgiven in the name of Jesus Christ. This is the only way to find salvation and eternal life. Follow Jesus, for only he knows the way – in fact, HE IS THE WAY!