Okay, I admit it; there is evil in me. While I am not a bad person by peoples’ standards, I have evil thoughts, I lose my temper and kick the cat, and I do other things I really don’t want people to see. I know many of the things I think and do are not pleasing to God; He tells me so in His word. And since He tells me I am a sinner and have fallen short of His glorious standard, how can I get on His good side? After this life, I want to live forever in a good place. Even the Apostle Paul says “If we have hope only in this life, we are a miserable bunch of people. Let’s eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” (paraphrase) I think that is why so many people turn to drugs, sex, and violence; they have no hope beyond this life.
Well, the Bible gives me a different outlook on life. The Bible says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17 (NLT). Okay, but that is just two verses out of the Bible you might say. Yes, but that is the central message of the Bible, God’s love letter to us. It all began when Adam and Eve wanted to be like God and did what God told them not to do.
The Bible says that the day Adam and Eve sinned God came to them in the cool of the evening and cried out “Adam, where are you?” God knew where they were; they had hidden themselves in a thicket because of what they had done. But God drew them out and questioned them giving them a chance to confess what they had done and to tell them how they could be forgiven. Then God went right to the source of the problem. Satan, in the form of a serpent had deceived them. And God gave a great promise to both Satan and Adam and Eve when He said, “Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel”. Gen 3:14-15 (NLT). And then God did a marvelous thing, “And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.” Gen 3:21 (NLT). God slaughtered animals to make clothes for them. Now, this may seem like a terrible thing to do looking on the natural thing; couldn’t God find something else to clothe them with?
By doing this, God explained how He would solve man’s problem with personal evil (sin). God was saying there would come a time when a child would be born of a woman who would solve the issue; Satan would work his best to destroy God’s plan and have the child (now a man) killed, but, in dying, the man would destroy the power of sin forever. All of this came to pass during the Roman Empire through a man named Jesus, the Christ.
Jesus, God’s son, was born of a young virgin named Mary. At a certain age, probable in His 30’s, He began a ministry that involved teaching about the Kingdom of God, healing the sick, and raising the dead. Satan created in people a great hatred for Jesus and finally got them to kill Him by impaling Him to a cross, the Roman’s most severe form of capital punishment. Jesus died on a Friday afternoon but rose again on Sunday morning. The Apostle Paul tells us why God did it when he said “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes – the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life’.” Romans 1:16-17 (NLT)