1 Tim 1:15-16
15 It
is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of
all. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy,
so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect
patience as an example for those [l]who would believe in Him for eternal
life.
Amazing Grace how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me wrote the former slave ship captain, a
person we now recognise has the Anglican Vicar and Hymn Writer John Newton.
Some 2,000 years ago, a man
was lead to his death by an occupying army to die a death that was both
humiliating and agonising, both the political and religious authorities had
conspired to end the live of this one man because they felt threated by his
message and popularity his friends had run away from him and where now in
hiding, one of his friends had betrayed him and one of his closest friends had
denied him, he was beaten and bloodied, and was led to certain death by public
execution, of all the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands who shared
his fate or will share his fate including some of his latter disciples, this
one death out of thousands of similar deaths of those who had been crucified on
a cross of wood, this one death was and is of eternal significance, this death
bought God’s Gift of Salvation, the forgiveness of sins, The Redemption of
Mankind.
When our Lord Jesus came, He
had one mission in mind, he voluntary laid aside his divine attributes and was
born by a woman, he lived a normal life in seeming obscurity, he launched his
mission by these words The Spirit of the Lord is upon me see Luke 4:18-19, he
had been tempted to sin by the deceiver and accuser Satan, yet had not sinned,
indeed there was no sin found in Him, his mission then and now is to save
sinners. John the Baptist said these words when Jesus came to him to be
baptised in Water, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,
and see John 1:28-30.
What do we mean by the Word, sin?
Sin means missing the mark,
failure, offense, taking the wrong course, sin, guilt, it’s also used in the
New Testament in a generic sense of concrete wrongdoing, a principle and
quality of action, and as a sinful deed this includes acts/desires/passions.
Sin separates us from God the father because of sin we are unable to have a
relationship with Him, Man has tried to find a way to have a relationship with
God, and because of our sinful nature we have failed, yet God has provided us
the way to Him , see John 14:6.
Let us look now, how Sin came
into a perfect World, we all know that when Adam & Eve sinned in the Garden
of Eden, they were deceived by satan, see Romans 5:6-21 that because of the
fall, sin entered a perfect world, we have inherited sin because we come from
Adam & Eve and because of this we have a sinful nature and the desire and
inclination to sin, see Romans 3:21-26.
Because no man is
born without sin, and we have sinful
desires and inclinations, it is impossible for a man to die in our place for
our sins, God sent his Son Jesus, who
voluntary died in our place for our sins, He died as our substitute he took the
place we deserve, paid the price that we should really pay, he surrendered his
life that we may live, he laid aside his relationship to his father, so that
through him and his sacrifice we can enter into a relationship with His Father,
and our Father see 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
2
Corinthians 5:14-21 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
14
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for
all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no
longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their
behalf.
16
Therefore from now on we recognize no one [a]according to the flesh; even
though we have known Christ [b]according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in
this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [c]he is a new
creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all
these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave
us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
and [d]He has [e]committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal
through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made
Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.
