|
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son... (John 3:16)
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His
life. (Romans 5:6-10)
Amazing words, amazing love.
Search the Talmud, the Quran and the Hadith, the Bhagavad Gita, the Communist and Humanist Manifestos, the works of Plato and Aristotle, and everywhere else.
Do any have a message like this? That God would Himself reconcile His enemies, the ungodly and the sinners, to Himself by taking on human nature and flesh and dying not for the godly, but for the ungodly!
This is the Gospel, the Good News! That Christ died for our sins, as the prophets had fortold.
(1 Corinthians 15:3)
He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised,
and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His
scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:3-6 prophesied 600 years before the crucifixion of Christ)
At the Cross
Alas! and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head for sinners such as I?
Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown! And love beyond degree!
(1st two verses of hymn by Isaac Watts)
Although He [Jesus] existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be held on to, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippines 2:6-8)
When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax-gatherers, they began saying to His disciples, "Why is He
eating and drinking with tax-gatherers and sinners?
Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to
call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:16,17)
The Apostle Paul reminds the church at Corinth of this:
Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor transvestites, nor homosexuals,
nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
But immediately in the next verse he adds:
And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the
Spirit of our God.
(1 Corinthians 6:11)
Amazing love! Jesus did not come for the righteous, but for sinners! Jesus came to save fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,
transvestites, homosexuals,
thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers! You will not find this revealed anywhere but in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mohammed gives no the hope to sinners. Krishna gives no hope hope to sinners. Moses gives no hope to sinners. Nor does Buddha, Joseph Smith, and the Watchtower.
Jesus and Jesus alone is the hope of sinners!
please read Why Christ had to Die
|