John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Seem strange to you? Well, it does to most people when they first find it out. There is a God, only ONE God, and He created this world and everything and everyone in it. People are special to Him because He created us to be like Him. Not the way we look, as some would say, but in the way we were intended to be by our nature. We were intended to be perfect like He is, but because that very nature meant we had to have free-will, it meant we also had the ability to choose right from wrong. God could have created us to be like robots and just do everything He told us to, but He didn't want that!
You see, God loves us! When you love someone, you want them to love you in return. You want them to love you because they WANT to love you, not because they HAVE to love you! Free-will insured that any love God got from mankind would be real and from the heart!
But, as we know, too many times when you love someone, they don't love you. Sometimes they even hate you. Parents find that with their children so many times. They give a child life. They bring them up the best they can, but at some point that child has the ability to choose whether or not to love their parent and whether or not to do right.
God gave mankind life. Then He taught them the right way to live. They had a choice. Adam and Eve chose the way of selfishness. Instead of doing what they knew their Heavenly Father wanted them to do, they chose something that brought them pleasure. Something that they thought would be good, but it wasn't. It was against what God taught, so it was sin. It gave them pleasure at that moment, but in the long run it brought them pain, loss, and death. Sin never affects only the person that commits it, it effects everyone in your life in some way. The sin they did, which was rebelling against God, and not loving Him, caused problems in their family. Their son in turn sinned and killed his brother.
That very nature that God gave us changed and became soiled with the bad things we did. It got passed on to each generation. On and on down the line, sin multiplied and grew. Man grew further and further from God. God gave them chances time and time again to change. He even wiped out everyone but Noah and his family at one point, and started all over! It didn't take long before the sin started again.
He gave rites and sacrifices for man to perform to purify them, but those required something called repentance. Repentance means you turn away from the bad things you are doing and come back to loving God. People still didn't learn that the rituals didn't do the cleansing. It was the turning away from the old bad things, and the LOVE! That was what really did it. There were always some people who loved God, but not enough of them.
Mankind made things complicated. They took God's laws and rituals He gave, and added things to them. They added other gods too! Things they made with their own hands, or simply animals, trees, rocks, the sky! Things that had no power. They weren't content with a God they couldn't see with their eyes. The sin made them blind to the things He did for them every day. They went further and further from Him and the way to salvation became a bigger and more tangled mess all the time! It was always supposed to be simple!
Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
That was all anyone ever really needed. Yet they didn't do it. They didn't do anything right. God always had a plan though. He knew what mankind needed even when they didn't. All through the Bible He promised a Messiah! A savior! Someone who would come and show us how to live. Someone who would teach us what God wanted us to do. Someone who would say to us that THIS is how you get to Heaven! THIS is the REAL Way to Eternal Life! His name is Jesus!
John 3:17-18 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
You see, Jesus didn't come here to condemn us (mankind). He didn't come to show us hatred for what we had been doing to God, His Father. He came as the Son of God to SHOW US just how much God STILL loves us, even though we fail Him, even though we hurt Him, even though we haven't loved Him in return. Without Him coming and making Himself the final sacrifice that would ever be needed for sin, there wouldn't be any chance of anyone ever getting to Heaven. We had gotten too far from God. There was a wall of sin between us and Him.
Jesus came and taught people. He came and gave them another chance. Some believed Him and learned True Love from Him. Others hated Him and they were the ones that had Him crucified, nailed to a cross to die. The final sacrifice, the cleansing Blood we needed for our sin to be washed away. Part of the plan that God had all along. Could anyone less than God give His only Son to be treated the way Jesus was? Rejected, despised, beaten, tortured, mocked and then killed? That is LOVE!
The best thing about it, the key to the whole thing is that He didn't stay dead! People of every nation, almost, have a "prophet" that they claim is the equal of Jesus. The big difference is the fact that everyone of them has a grave with a body still in it! Jesus died, then He took the victory over death and the grave! He rose up out of the grave on the third day (EASTER) and by doing so, defeated the devil!
Jesus appeared many times after this to His followers and gave them further instruction on what to do and what to expect. Then He ascended into Heaven to be with His Father, God, and reign at His side. When He did, He opened the gates of Heaven so that we could enter in! The only real requirement is that we BELIEVE in Him with our whole heart. Without that belief, without Jesus, the penalty for sin and not loving God remains the same. Death.
John 3:19-20 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
You see, mankind still hates Jesus. Jesus is the Light that exposes the evil in the world. Nobody likes to admit they are wrong. Nobody wants to think they are a bad person. That is called Pride and Selfishness. It's another way of saying that you are more important that God. Society today manages to do away with sin, or tries to anyhow! However, pretending there is no such thing as sin is like pretending you won't fall if you step off of a cliff. It's still there. It's still true. You'll still die from it.
John 3:21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Jesus is the Truth. He is the Way. He is the Light. He is LIFE! You have to make a choice. Do you want the Truth? Do you really? Then come into the Light and let the Light come into you!
John 3:33-36 "The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
John 5:21-24 "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."
If you believe that Jesus is God's Son, that He died and rose again, and that He is coming again to bring His people Home to Heaven. If you pray and tell God that you know you are a sinner, that you are ashamed of your sins and sorry for them, that you DO believe in Jesus and that He was the sacrifice for your sin, that you want Him to send His Spirit to live in your heart to guide you and be with you always...then God will honor that prayer! He will take away all of that sin. He will cleanse you and fill you with His Light and His Love! He will always be with you and never leave you!
If you stay true to Him and do as Moses said to do, as Jesus said to do, as GOD said to do, and LOVE Him, then He will help you to stay free from sin. He will provide for all your needs, He will LOVE you, and when this world ends, or Jesus comes back for His people, (which ever comes first) then you will go to live with Him forever. Heaven is going to be better than anyone can possibly imagine. The Bible says that there will be no more pain, no more tears, only everlasting joy!
Will you do it? Will you do it today?