Forgiveness through Jesus
<< The Barrier of SinAccepting Jesus >>Does God care about me?
As a human being like me, you have probably asked the same questions that have puzzled me... "Does my life have any importance?" "Does anyone care about me?" "Why does something seem to be missing in life?" The great news is that regardless of what other people think about you, God cares about you! And he loves you, not just with some wishy-washy sentimental love, but with real, powerful, earth-shaking love. How do we know this? Because you and I were so precious to God that he let his only son (Jesus) die for us, so that we could have never ending life (John 3:16)! God's purpose for every person in this world is for them to have a deep, personal relationship with him! With the God of the universe! Now that is something worth living for!
So why has everything gone wrong?
Sadly, it is all too obvious today that things are not as wonderful as this. The idea of being at peace with God and each other, of living a perfect existence, seems like a distant farytale. We constantly hear about the catastrophes in the world, the acts of wicked terrorism, brutal murder, and tragic disasters. We are surrounded by people who lie to each other, who value their money more than their friends, and who are, like us, hurting from all this pain that bombards us. Would such a loving God really allow so much trouble in the world as we experiance each day?
The problem originates from deep within each person. Although we might like to say that we try to do things God's way, that we try to respect and follow God, the truth is that none of us achieve this goal! We might try to some extent to be 'good' people, or to go to church and be 'religious'. But this is not the solution - you don't have a divine credit card, which gets credit for every good thing you do in life, and then get into heaven if you have enough credit at the end. This is because the human way of doing things, however well-intentioned, falls far below the perfection that God requires of us. Even the 'best' people who ever lived never got into heaven through their 'credit'. It is easy to say that we are 'good' compared to someone who is 'worse' than us, but try comparing yourself to God... where do you stand in comparison to him?
The greatest of our evils is not the injustice, anger, hatred, jealousy, dishonesty, and immorality which we call sin, but rather, a rebellious attitude towards God, which is the root of all sin if you like, and produces all the sins mentioned above. It is like a diseise, which produces its symptoms - but the symptoms are not the cause of the sickness - the deseise is! When we reject God and elevate ourselves above him, our relationship is broken, and we lose all the goodness that originates from him, and the 'deseise' of sin has control of us. It is sin that is responsible for causing so much chaos and hurt in this world. And it is sin that separates us from God. The Bible says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23).
God is the source of all goodness, and he is utterly opposed to evil. Therefore he cannot have a relationship with someone who practices evil. Since God cares about right and wrong, he rewards right with heaven (heaven is not just pearly gates amongst white clouds - it is literally to be with God forever), and punishes wrong with death and hell. (Many people think of hell as a fiery sulphur pit, but that is a metaphor for the reality: complete and final separation from God). But if God cares about us so much, he can't just sit back and watch us all go to hell, can he? Of course not!
The Fantastic News!
God knew right from the start that we would rebel against him, so he formulated a solution, a means for us to get right with him. And that is where Jesus comes into play.
God sent his Son, Jesus, into the world in human form. Jesus lived his entire life for a special purpose - to free us from sin, and bring us back to God! Jesus was condemmned by his own people and brutally executed by the Roman method of 'crucifixion'. But the death of Jesus was not in vain, rather it was what God planned all along! You see, death is the punishment for sin, and although we all deserve to die, Jesus was the only human who has never sinned, and thus he didn't deserve to die. Instead Jesus chose to die - in order to pay the penalty for our sins! Jesus voluntarily swapped places with us, to pay for our sin, once and for all. The Bible says "God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
God accepts Jesus' death as payment for the sins of everyone who has accepted Jesus as their friend and guide. What is more, with sin out of the way, we are able to have a living relationship with God, starting right now in this life, and continued in heaven in the next life! If you want to be free of the burden of sin through the death of Jesus, and you want to start a dynamic relationship with the God of the universe, then see the page about how to accept Jesus into your life. If you're not sure yet then you can find out more about why we should believe what Jesus said.
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