I was once speaking with my mom about some of the basics of Christianity. She is a Christian but she didn’t seem to be able to grasp the idea that Jesus took the penalty for the sins of mankind on Himself as He went to the cross. I’m certain this is a difficult concept for many so let’s examine the idea briefly.
You’ll probably notice a common theme on the majority of the articles on this website. That theme is “every human has a huge sin accountability problem” and “Jesus is the answer to our sin accountability problem.” Jesus makes it as clear as possible that apart from Him no one is going to heaven. There is one way for us to go to the Father in heaven after we die and that way is through Jesus. Jesus tells us that His words are the truth. It is not possible for Jesus to lie or to be misinformed because He is God. And eternal life will only be had through Jesus and His method of redeeming us from our sin debt.
Islam is a path to hell. Hinduism is a path to hell. Atheism is a path to hell. Being a good person, and thinking that makes you right with God, is a path to hell. There is one way to heaven and that is through Jesus. You must understand that sin is the equivalent to breaking the law. If you break the law of God you must pay for that sin in a place called hell. Hell is an awful, and eternal, place but I will not go in to that in this article. BUT, Jesus tells us that if we believe in Him and the plan of redemption that He carried out, that He would pay our debt. And that’s what He did when He went to the cross 2000+ years ago. No one is going to heaven apart from Jesus.
The other day, as I was out for a long walk in solitude, I was contemplating how Jesus took our sins upon Himself. Envision this – I would say most people don’t believe in the Big Bang theory. At least not people that have really thought it through. The universe was not created on a Tuesday afternoon when the singularity exploded. Most reasonable people understand that we are in a universe that was created by God. When God created the universe it was an event unique to the ability of God. It’s hard for us to fathom “creation” because humans cannot create anything. It required a power and ability that is unique to God. And Redemption is likewise unique to the ability of God. We can’t fathom the power that redeeming millions, maybe billions, of people from their sin required. But we don’t need to be able to fathom it. God carried out His plan and He told us about it in the Bible.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live.” –John 11:25
God told us that our life here “is but a vapor” – meaning it’s very short. But when we die we will exist somewhere, hell of heaven, forever. No one has assurance they will be alive tomorrow. Not even teenage athletes. There is nothing in our life more important than preparing for eternity. Nothing. Jesus took the penalty for the sins of mankind. Our eternal life depends on this.
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