IT IS FINISHED - Easter Sunday

For the Cross- Bethel Music, Tides

Falling in Love

I have yet to be in love, but I think I can safely say what it is to be loved.

Often I wonder if that may be the reason I'm still single. When you know what real love is, it's hard to settle for anything less, and so it should be.

When I first began to understand what true love was I was fourteen. I'd had my first sexual experience with a boy who had been pestering me for a year or so. I'd said no several times over but on this particular evening he said all the right things, and surprising even myself, I gave in.

Young, naive fourteen year old me thought sexual intimacy was true intimacy. That the only way to be loved and show love was through baring and sharing yourself physically to and with another person.

Conversely, I felt very alone. The act itself, that physical show we had put on, had in fact changed nothing in reality. Instead of feeling closer to him, I felt we were miles apart, and all I wanted him to do was hold me. This wasn't what being loved was supposed to feel like. Being loved was supposed to make you feel special, intimately known; not a baring of the flesh but a baring of the soul, real, raw intimacy rather than an elaborate ceremony of make-believe.

Real love was romantic.

There was someone I hadn't paid much attention to those fourteen years. He'd always been around, and although I'd seen and heard a lot about him I'd never really taken the time to know him. In the days following he was with me, holding my hand, telling me he didn't think any less of me, that conversely he wanted me to be his more than ever before, so that he could protect me and love me and know me and be loved and known by me in return.

You see whilst I had barely taken notice of him those fourteen years; busy being caught up in my own superficialities, he'd been at work loving me from the very beginning. All this time he'd been putting himself in my way,  getting himself talked up by my friends, working tirelessly to make me notice him, and I'd ignored him at every turn. He'd pursued me passionately and relentlessly, never giving up, not caring if in the end all his love was unrequited, and instead had just loved me and loved me and loved me unceasingly; like a parent loves a child.

And now here we were; me at my worst and him the same as he'd always been; waiting patiently, loving and loving and loving me, looking out for me.

And this time, I looked at my situation; my experience of love, how I saw myself, how I felt, and I realised I needed that radical love in my life, I needed him.

He loved me the right way; not doing so because he would gain anything from it but because he couldn't help it. Loving me came as naturally to him as breathing came to me.

So I said yes to loving him. I made a decision that I'd be his as he had always been mine.

Like any other relationship, it requires work, but nine years on we're still together; him loving me in the same relentless, passionate and purposeful way he always did, and me trying to love him right back.

You see when I realised the lengths God had gone to get my attention and to steal my heart, I had no choice but to accept him, no other decision made sense. God was a romantic; paying attention to every detail so that it was just right, chasing me down at every turn, even at the risk of me rejecting Him.

And so maybe my expectations of love are too high, but now that I have experienced, raw, unselfish, devoted, kind, forgiving and generous love, nothing less will ever suffice.

Personal: Trusting God

Life is fairly testing at the moment...awesome but testing. I'm finishing my current job at the end of July with the plan to start studying mid-August. It's a huge step for several reasons because:

1. I have quit my job not yet knowing if I have been accepted onto the course I plan to do.
2. I am supposed to hear back about the course this week but haven't heard anything.
3. Living arrangements whilst I study are foggy to say the least.

All that being what it is, I know that I know that I know that God has a plan for my life and I am in it right at this moment. I know He has everything figured out and it will all work out for my good because that is what He promises.

Now...as I'm sure many of you know, trusting God when you can't see how things are going to come together can be rather difficult. We are so used to relying on what we see or what we know that we find it difficult to envision things coming together, but thank God, He both sees and knows more than we do.

This morning as doubts crept in I encouraged myself in God and asked Him to strengthen my faith. Immediately after praying the song Oceans (below) dropped into my heart and I just started singing it. It reminded me that despite the darkness of the great unknown and all that it holds that I cannot see, I can still see Jesus, and He knows and sees everything.

Right and Wrong vs Sin and Righteousness (The Need for Jesus)

I think a lot of people (non-christian) get offended and dislike Christians because they believe that all we do is go around telling people what is right or wrong, judging, and I think a lot of us do.

What we Christians need to remind ourselves about is the fact that the bible talks about sin, not right and wrong, and sin has nothing to do with what is right or wrong. Right and wrong can vary. They depend a lot on circumstance. For example, the vast majority of people would say that killing a person is wrong, but if you say to them 'What if someone came into your house and was about to kill you, would you kill them if you had the chance?' and they would say of course!

For right and wrong there is a scale. You can be partially wrong or right. It could be wrong to steal today and perfectly fine to steal tomorrow; in other words right and wrong are relative.

Sin is a completely different issue. It isn't about right or wrong, it has no scale. Sin either is or isn't. You can either sin or not sin. And this is because isn't about us or our circumstance or anything else, sin is about God Himself.

With sin, we only have two choices; God's standard or sin, and God's standard cannot change, it is a fixed point, which can be likened to the bar on the High Jump in athletics. You either clear the bar or you don't.

Understand then, that anything even a little less than God's standard is NOT God's standard, and therefore it is sin.

And this is exactly why we need Jesus. No amount of doing the right thing can bring you to God's standard, because it is not the doing of the right thing that takes you up to God's standard, it is BEING God's standard, being inherently righteous, being right.

Think this way about it, if someone has even one percent out of one hundred wrong, they can NEVER attain to God's standard, because 99% percent pure is not 100% pure, and you can add as much pure as you want, but that impurity remains.

So because only God Himself is inherently pure, without even a hint of impurity, He sacrificed Himself, sending us His 100% purity in exchange for our impurities, so that in this way we could attain the otherwise unattainable purity that is required to be with Him.

That is why Jesus was born of a virgin. He had to be. The bible says that from day one we are born with the desire to sin (be dishonest, take what isn't ours, put ourselves first etc.), in other words we are born impure. It's in our genes. In the same way that a drug addicted mother can give birth to a child with an addiction, or a mother with AIDS can give birth to a child with AIDS, sin is a generational defect that no amount of chemistry can do away with. So God sent Jesus into Mary, to be born in human form without the sin defect, so that He could be God's perfect standard in human form, the perfect sacrifice, the perfect exchange.

So Jesus came here perfect. He gave us His inherent righteousness, and took all our impurities away, separating us from them for eternity (should we want Him to) so that we can finally be accepted, having His inherent righteousness, and thus attain to God's standard.

This means that whether we have always done the 'right' thing or 'wrong' thing, God, in Jesus, has given us the key to become inherently right, through and through righteous, which means we are above judgement (I don't mean in a Worldly sense; if you break the law you go to jail end of)  meaning that we are now above the scale of right and wrong and we are a part of Him, with Him, in Him, RIGHTEOUS.

Mark 10.24-27: Jesus Makes It Possible

We tend to have a scale...as if goodness can be measured, but God has no scale. God says that He is goodness. The only way we can ever be the standard of goodness He can accept is if we are in Him. Anything less than God isn't good enough.

Thankfully, this is not something we need to be disheartened about, rather we should be encouraged. God gave us His goodness in Jesus Christ, so that by taking Him on board, by giving ourselves to Him, we would be good enough to be in relationship with Him, which has been His desire since before the world began.

Sin separates us from God because it is unacceptable to Him, but Jesus reconciles us to God, because He was and still is and will forever be perfect and acceptable.

Put simply, Jesus makes it possible for us to be with God.

Welcome Jesus into your life and watch His goodness permeate through all your sin, so that you blossom, and reach and become all that God wants you to be.

Psalm 103.1-5

Yesterday...exhausted after work, and irritated by delayed and cancelled trains on my way to church, I was feeling less than ecstatic...and then I re-stumbled upon Psalm 103... a Psalm so beautiful that reminds us about who and what really counts. The passage reminded me about how much I have to be thankful for and the cause I have to celebrate. Just wanted to encourage and bless you all with it too. He is the hope that anchors us, He is what it's all about. Thank God for God.

The Proof is in The Pudding

2 Peter 1:16 NKJV

"For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty."

If you are a Brit, or friends with one, you probably know and understand the title of this post. If not... a quick explanation..the saying comes from the original saying 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating' which means that the quality of something is unsure until it has been tested (or in the case of pudding tasted!)

I love this verse in 2 Peter (in the picture it is written from the Message in Swedish) because it says that what the disciples are talking about they didn't just make up, they experienced it for themselves.

In much the same way...all of us as Christians, all of us who have caught a glimpse of God and felt Him touch and change our lives are also talking from experience. It happened to us, that's how we know.

I have not to this day met a Christian who doesn't want to tell you how they met God and He changed them. We call this testimony, because as 'eyewitnesses of His majesty' we are able to stand up and testify that He is for real.

If you are a Christian reading this, never stop sharing with others how you got to know God. If you aren't a Christian (yet) and you're reading this, ask someone who is how they got to be.

One more thing to say on this...no matter what your testimony is, whether you grew up with Christian parents like I did, or you grew up in completely different circumstances, your testimony is important and of equal importance.

I used to think that because I grew up in a Christian home my testimony about finding God was redundant, but it isn't. The fact that I grew up in a Christian home meant I was exposed to my parent's faith a lot and that they did their best to encourage me to have a relationship with God but the truth is...I know the day when I finally encountered God and He changed me so that I began to live out of that...and THAT is my testimony, and it can and will bless others just as much as the testimony of a former atheist can.

P. S. I'll share it another time. x

The Gospel : In Bullet Points

First things first, my intention is not to offend anyone with this short summary of what Christianity is all about...my intention is to simply put it out there in a straightforward way as a starting point for people who have not got a clue what it's about.

The reason being..I wonder if people don't like the gospel (good news) because they don't hear or see it. If all they hear and see is judgement, hate and a list of rules... they are not going to want to know more, they're going to run in the opposite direction, and so they should...none of that sounds like good news to me either.

So, for those of you reading this that have never really heard what Christianity is all about, this is for you.

Here goes:

• Christianity in one word is probably best described as forgiveness. We believe that Jesus died for us, thereby paying the price for the sins of each and every one of us (past, present and future) and in exchange giving us His perfection and righteousness (lack of sin). 《1 Peter 2.24》
• We believe that in dying for us Jesus, opened up the way for us to have a purposeful, loving relationship with God the father and therefore live life through Him, and as a result live better.

That's pretty much it. The bible is all about the situation we were in before Christ came to earth (in need of forgiveness), what happened when He came to earth (paid the penalty for our sin and brought forgiveness), and the new situation we can be in if we choose to accept Him in our lives (living a supernatural life -beyond natural, realer, deeper and more vibrant than what we see and do day-to-day).

I could go on..but I wanted to keep this short and sweet. The gospel is that Jesus died to set us free from lives full of sin and all that go with them and enable us to live a life of righteousness with Him, our closest, most trustworthy and faithful friend; leading the way.

Faith

I'm reading through Hebrews at the moment and just hit Hebrews 11 which has to be probably my favourite chapter in the whole bible (I say probably because there are so many awesome chapters that that is likely inaccurate!).

Hebrews 11 begins with an amazing explanation of what faith is...

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11.1)

It is a beautiful verse even before you grasp all that it means...but I'll do my best to explain.

Faith comes from trust, and trust comes from knowing someone really well.

Think about it like this...you wouldn't tell your secrets to just anyone. You would wait to get to know someone, see them actively demonstrate an ability to keep schtum when it comes to important information, and then when you'd seen it enough times, you would entrust them with your secret, having faith that they will keep their word to you and not tell anyone.

It's the same in faith with God. God is personal; as in He knows us inside and out and wants us to know Him and have a relationship with Him and be ourselves with Him. As with any relationship, it takes time to build up that kind of familiarity and trust and such a deep friendship only comes from spending time with Him; reading His word (the bible) and talking to Him (prayer) and hearing what others who know Him personally have to say about Him and what He's done in their lives (the testimonies of other Christians). The more you hear and see of Him the more you trust Him!

That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. It's about what happens when you take the leap of faith and get to know God and trust Him with your heart and hopes and future. Hebrews 11 is all about the amazing miracles that happened when people took the step of faith to trust God.

The thing about a relationship with God is that the faith it produces is extraordinary. It starts small. Maybe you trust God with something you feel you have no real control over anyway, like friends at a new school...and then when God blesses you with good friends you trust Him with something bigger, and so on until you're trusting God with everything, you put all your eggs in His hand and wait to see what He does with them.

What makes trusting God even better than just empty hope is the fact that in a world where nothing is certain - people are corrupt, sickness and death are everywhere, wars and famines abound everywhere - God is certain.

He is the same yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13.8). He never leaves us (Deuteronomy 31.6). He always holds our hands (Psalm 37.24). He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29.11). He is not a man that He could lie (Numbers 23.19). He promises that even though we see trouble in this life He has overcome and we are with Him (John 16.33).

So our hope for the future isn't an empty one. It's not this empty wish we have that maybe if we are good people, or maybe if we work hard,or maybe if we are lucky, maybe everything will work out.

The hope we have anchors us because it is certain. It is rooted in something, in someone; Jesus Christ; the author and finisher of our faith, the Saviour, the Messiah, the King, God's final word, Emmanuel - God with us!

Faith in God and His word saved the human race when the earth flooded, faith in God and His word led Abraham into the promise land, faith in God and His word gave the Israelites Jericho and that isn't even all of it, there is so much more!

Faith requires nothing more than trusting God. You don't have to be sure of yourself, you just have to be sure of Him.

If I'd moved to this country just because it's nice, the moment it got tough (a week in) I would have packed up and gone back home. BUT because I knew without a shadow of doubt that Stockholm was where God wanted me right now, even after three months of unemployment, I knew I'd made the right decision and I was in the right place.

Our feelings and emotions are about as certain and sure as on-time buses or hospital waiting times...they aren't at all!!! But God is certain. You know that if He says He'll do something He will for sure do it, and not only will He do it, He'll do it better than you could have ever imagined, over and above your expectation (Isaiah 55.9, Ephesians 3.20).

Such is the God of the bible. If you put your life in His hands, He will do far better things with it than you EVER could have.

"Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37.5

Hope in Jesus Christ, the Cornerstone

"...God did this so that we would be encouraged. God cannot lie when He takes an oath or makes a promise. These two things can never be changed. Those of us who have taken refuge in Him hold on to the hope we have been given. We have this hope as a sure and strong anchor for our lives. This hope goes into the holy place behind the curtain where Jesus went before us on our behalf. He has become the chief priest forever in the way Melchizedek was a priest."

Hebrews 6.18-20 NKJV/God's Word Translation

Jesus opened the way for us to take refuge and have hope when He became the High Priest (the one who pleaded to God on behalf of the people for their sin) forever in the same way as Melchizedek. Jesus is the last intermediary. We no longer need anyone to talk to God for us, as we talk to Jesus, who is God the son, and He pleads our case, being the final atonement for all our sins because He paid the penalty for sin (those committed and those yet to be committed) in dying on the cross (Romans 6.23).

The hope we now have in Jesus Christ is an anchor for our souls. All our hope is in Him.

♪My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness...♪

Why there is power in the name of Jesus

If you are a Christian, you have probably heard the phrase 'there is power in the name of Jesus' many times. As a non-christian, this probably makes no sense. I think I finally understood it a bit more today, and I wanted to try to explain to you why Christians say there is power in the name of Jesus.

In the old testament of the bible (the first half of the bible if you will, before Jesus coming to earth as a man), we read in Genesis (or 1 Moseböken, if you're Swedish) that God created the heavens and the earth. If you read the first chapter, you'll see that God created through His word. He spoke things into being and they happened. The power of His word brought things into being.

In the Old Testament you see many times that God spoke to people, sometimes directly, other times through prophets, or happenings, such as the burning bush.

In the New Testament, the phrase 'God said' appears only once, in a parable Jesus uses to simplify a lesson He is teaching. Aside from that, the phrase never appears, quite strange compared to the forty-five times it appears in the Old Testament.

You have to wonder why after speaking so much to people in the time before Jesus came to earth, God suddenly seems to stop communicating with them. Or does He stop?

In John 1 (New Testament) verses 1-14 we have an another, slightly brief note on creation. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of all men.'

The Word being spoken about is the powerful word that God used to create the world in the beginning. The word God used brought the earth into existence and created life simply by saying so.

The writer continues in verse 14, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...' This verse says that the powerful word God used that created life itself in the beginning, became human just as we are, and lived humanly like the rest of us.

The Word is Jesus. And when Jesus came to earth, He said all that God had been saying in the Old Testament simply by living and dying and rising again as He did.

Jesus is all God has ever said and will ever say. He is the the final word. The curtain closer if you will. So that, where in the Old Testament God spoke, as it says in Hebrews chapter 1 (New Testament) 'by the prophets' (verse 1), He has 'spoken to us by His son...through whom also He made all the worlds.' (Verse 2).

Now try to understand all of this. The power that God used to create the world was harnessed if you will, in Jesus, who was sent to the earth, being life itself, and that life being a light which was so powerful that darkness could not overcome it (John 1.5), which is why when life (=Light=Jesus) was crucified on the cross and put to death (=darkness), death couldn't overcome it.

You see the life and light that Jesus is, is so powerful that no death, no darkness, no sin, no curse, no emotion or situation of any kind, is any match for it.

When we say Jesus name, we aren't just saying a name, we're declaring power over all things. There is power in the name of Jesus because Jesus is power itself. He is the very Word by which all things came into being.

A beautiful an amazing force to be reckoned with.

Once foolish...but...God our Saviour...appeared

My all time favourite verses in the bible are in Titus 3.3-7.

"For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

The verses give in basic, easy to understand language, the condition of humanity before God, and shows us the greatness of the salvation given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Before Christ, we were typical humans.

1. Foolish - Constantly making stupid decisions and choices,
2. Disobedient - Rebellious (come on, none of us can deny that when we're told not to do something we want to do it even more!)
3. Deceived - Believing every negative untruth ever said about us (you know the type; you're so ugly, you're not good enough, you're a failure, nobody wants you around etc.)
4. Serving various lusts and pleasures - Being addicted and trapped by things (thinking we know true freedom because we do 'what we like'; think about some typical addictions and the sentences that follow them, 'I couldn't help myself', 'then I just thought, one more won't hurt', 'I mean who's going to know anyway?', 'I had an itch I needed to scratch, so I itched it' - any of these sounding familiar?)
5. Living in malice and envy - Being full of unhelpful intentions and selfish desires, getting jealous when others do better or have more
6. Being hated and hating others - This is pretty self-explanatory.

This is the picture of humanity that is painted in the New Testament, and if we look at the world around us I'd say it is startlingly accurate. By nature, this is human.

"But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us..."

But when you grasp even a little of what God is and what He has done for you, when you begin to understand what it is to live in true freedom, with God the Holy Spirit as your guide through life, you no longer find yourself acting the way you did before. Knowing God transforms you. As you understand more and more of who God is, as you see how much He loves you, not because you deserve it but because it's His nature, you become more and more like Him. It's not a conscious thing, you aren't 'trying to be Christ like' but in knowing God more and more, you find your human nature no longer dictates how you work, it's as if you've thrown it off and taken on the nature of God, and you can't help but live in a way that says, 'I've finally found God and He has changed me'.

Salvation is so beautiful because it's not about us trying to be better, it 's not about us doing things in order to make us good, it's about letting go of everything we cannot control (this means us ourselves too!!) and letting God lead and guide us, and ultimately transform us.

Try it, I PROMISE you won't be disappointed. If you think life is great now, in the words of Eliza Dolittle from My Fair Lady, 'just you wait'.

Getting to know this person will change your life

This evening at church I saw a bunch of people, most of whom I don't know personally, get baptised. I cried with joy for every one of them.

One of the greatest testimonies to the death, and more importantly the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is that to this day, everyday, people are still having life changing encounters with Jesus, drastically reconsidering the way in which they see the world, and choosing to live life anew for Him.

For some, they aren't necessarily looking for God. Others are sure they know what they are doing already. Others entertained the idea of God but were never dedicated to seeking Him out.

But when you feel God touch you, and let me tell you that you KNOW when God has spoken to you personally...you can't simply deny His existence.

Of those that got baptised this evening, one gave their life to God last week. Another had waited seven years to do it. Another had been raised in a religion, but finally found relationship with God personally.

You can't argue that these people became Christians because they were really looking for 'something' and this seemed to fit. You can't argue that these people became Christians because they were forced to. You can't argue that these people became Christians because they were desperate for some semblance of hope.

What you can say, is that something supernatural, someone supranatural, touched these people and opened their eyes to something more real and more relevant than life itself.

These people had life-changing encounters with the one, true and living God.

Get to know Him. It will change your life for the better.

The Privilege of Prayer

If we were still living in the OT and saw Jesus' birth, death and resurrection with our own eyes I think we would be a whole lot more appreciative of what He did for us.

When Jesus died, the curtain separating the most holy place (where only the High Priests could go) from the rest of the temple was torn in two. He took away the need for a middle man in order for us to communicate with God and made it possible for us to have direct dialogue with God. To be able to simply open our mouths and talk to God is such a massive privilege, and definitely not one to be taken for granted.

I was having a really difficult time a few days ago, feeling stressed and worried, and to be able in that moment to take all my anxiety and stress to God was incredibly freeing.

To know that He was listening and that He cared, was such a blessing.

I have to add though, prayer is not a one way street. When Jesus died and the curtain was torn in two, it didn't just clear the way for us to speak to God, it meant God could communicate directly with us.

It's so important when we pray that we incorporate listening prayer too, so that God can speak to us, encourage us, challenge us and bless us with what He has to say.

x

Agape: A Poem

He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds;

To those who are hurting, He says 'Come and know relief'

To those who have been betrayed, He says, 'I too have been betrayed, but I'll never turn my back on you'

To those who have never known love, He says 'Get to know me, I loved you so much that I gave myself for you'.

To those who have never had a home, He says 'My father's house has many rooms'

To those who have only known death, He says 'Come and know me, I am the way to the eternal life'

To those who have no hope, He says 'I am hope, and I have good plans for you'

To those who can't forgive themselves, He says 'I forgive you'

To those who have sinned, He says 'I took your sin, have my righteousness'

To those who are lost, He says 'I am the way'

To those who are orphans, He says 'I am your father'

To those who are lonely, He says 'I'll never leave you or forsake you'

To those who are disillusioned, He says 'There's more than this, come back to me and know real life'

To those who are sad, He says 'Let me turn your tears into ones of joy'

To those who are unfulfilled, He says 'Let me give you purpose'

To those who have only ever known neglect, He shows affection.

He came for us because we were broken and needed Him. He came to show us love, to heal us, to encourage us, to save us.

We laughed at Him. We belittled Him because His ways weren't our ways. What kind of person sends a baby to save the world?

And yet when the nails pierced His hands as He bled to death on the cross for OUR sins, He did not curse us in His anguish, or pray that God strike us, He asked God to forgive us.

Agape

"Agape" - unconditional, wide-open love, as demonstrated in Jesus. Love that is fiercely passionate without being erotic, love that endures, love that sacrifices - Jesus

"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed..." - Romans 3.21

When Jesus Christ came to earth, it was the culmination of years of planning and hard work. The Jewish people up until then had been governed by law (See Exodus 20). Law that told them not to take God's name in vain, not to covet, to rest on the Sabbath, to honour their parents and so on. The ultimate purpose of the law was to show the Jews what was right in the eyes of God, and how to live in a way pleasing to Him.

The problem with the law was that it made it impossible for the Jews to live in a way pleasing to God. No matter how carefully they watched themselves and tried to do no wrong. All it took was one sin...and they'd stepped out of God's will and into judgement.

To escape the judgement that resulted from sin, sin offerings were given to God to make atonement. God would look at the offering and not make them pay the penalty for the sin, but it still didn't really deal with the problem. The offerings didn't deal with the sin, they covered it. On the outside, it looked as if there had been a change, but the real root of the sin, originating in mankind's heart remained.


Paul talked about the strange condition of the human heart in Romans 7.15, saying 'that I will to do, that I do not practise; but what I hate, that I do.'


So there were two problems that needed to be resolved;

1. No matter how hard everyone tried to do the right thing, they couldn't.
2. Even though God forgave the sins, the root of the problem remained; the sinful nature of man's heart.

So God created Jesus; fully God and fully man.When God created Jesus, He created Him to be the final sin offering. This meant that after Him, no-one, ever, would have to offer a sin offering. Jesus came to earth, blameless and sinless; perfect.


You see Jesus role as the final sin offering was to personally take on all the sins ever committed and ever to be committed and call them His own (2 Corinthians 5.21). Taking them on, Jesus would have to pay the penalty for sin that was not his own. Romans 6.23 tells us what the penalty for sin is; it's death.


Death in the physical sense, (if you look at Genesis and the record of the fall, it tells us that as a result of the fall sin and thus death entered the world), but not only that, death to God, and separation from all that pertains from Him, all that is good, all that is love, all that is hope, all that is faith; Hell, in short.


So when Jesus cried out on the cross ' elohi elohi, lama shavakhtani?' (Mark 15.34 - HNIV) He was experiencing Hell.


On our behalf.


But it was not the end. Jesus had been a willing sacrifice, fully God and fully man. He had descended into the very depths of Hell to account for all our sins, committed and to be committed, and then He rose again to overcome death, and show that the power that was in Him was stronger than sin, and stronger than death.


He did it so that every time we sin, we are rescued from our rightful punishment; eternal separation from God. So when God looks at us, where he should see sin, darkness, and evil, He sees the face of His son, who took all our punishment on His own back so that we would no longer have to be enslaved by sin, always doing the wrong thing and constantly falling short of God's standard, but instead could be righteous, relying on a power greater than our own.


God sent Jesus so that we would be free to achieve our full potential.

This was problem one dealt with, but God was still not finished.

Romans 10.9 tells us that everyone who believes God loves them and as a result sent His son to die for them is saved. When Jesus was on earth He spent time talking to people, He spent time showing them His character; what was important to Him and good in His sight. He spent time with all kinds of people, tax collectors, women that were having affairs...nobody was too low for Him. You see in doing this, Jesus was tapping in to people's hearts.

By nature, God is relational. He loves us, He talks to us. When Jesus was on earth He wanted us to get to know Him, so that we would in turn tell others about Him. He wanted us to get to know Him so that the more we got to know Him, the more we wanted to be like Him. He wanted to instigate a change of heart, so that instead of our inclination being to do things our way, and therefore sin against Him, our most earnest desire would be to behave in a way that would please Him.


And of course, even if our desire was to please Him, He knew, as I mentioned earlier, how hard it was for us to do the right thing without help from someone outside of us and more powerful than us to do so. So when Jesus left earth for heaven, He left us the Spirit of God (sometimes called the Holy Spirit), the third member of the trinity, so that we would be able to call out to God and receive help in time of need (Hebrews 4.16) and be able to do God's will.

'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.' - Romans 8.14

Allow yourself to get to know Jesus, fall in love with Him and He will transform your life. It won't happen overnight, but you'll notice it. You'll no longer measure yourself by what you have done, can do, or what others tell you that you are, but instead will see yourself as God sees you; perfect and blameless in His sight. Your outlook on the world will change; you'll understand more clearly God's grace and what it means to be forgiven and forgive others. You'll be able to discern between what is good (of God) and evil (not of God), and you'll be able to love others as Christ has loved you.

God bless x