Articles
"but God" !
Whether we like it or not, sin cuts us off from God, making us spiritually dead, destined for eternal punishment, short of something to fix our problem.
We sometimes say Jesus Christ as if Christ were His last name. No, I know we don’t believe that, but Jesus is THE Christ, the Messiah. He is the one and only, none before and none to come after Him. Hundreds of Bible prophesies all point to this one person, to be born a human with one purpose, to save us. In doing so, He came to teach us how to be more like the God whose image we are created in and how to re-connect to the God we sinned against. He knew all along that He would have to die for the plan to be complete. His life and His mission was all about us. He is our Savior, the promised deliverer who came to rescue us from God’s wrath that we actually deserve, but that He chooses not to deal out for those who are in Christ.
In the following passage, Paul explains all that, and two very important little words are the transition from our lost helpless situation, to what Gods did to fix it all.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:1-7 ESV
“But God!”
That’s why it was so necessary for Jesus to come into the world, to open the door to God’s answer to our sin problem, His Grace, made available because Jesus paid the price for our sins with His own life. God chose to rescue us, He had no obligation to. He loves us, and wants us to live eternally with Him.
As a nation and in many places around the world, we celebrate Jesus’ birth on Dec 25, and that’s wonderful. Those striving to be His disciples celebrate His death every first day of the week. He tells us that by doing so, we proclaim His death until He comes back to take His children home. So as you ponder the wonderful birth of the Messiah, also ponder His free gift of salvation that cost Him His life.
Jesus THE Christ, our wonderful savior.
