Quote - John 3:16 records, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." but what does that mean, and why was it necessary for God to 'give' his only son.

Today, I'd like to share In my own words my understanding of what gods promise is to us, and how we can claim his amazing gift of everlasting life!

A Brief History

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. On the sixth Day of creation, God Sat back and declared that that it was very good (Gen. 1:31). With our creation, God desired for us to love him unconditionally and be willing to partake in his life in unity in a world that is 'very good'. Unconditional love requires Free will as unconditional love cannot be truly unconditional without.

God's power knows no limits and he knows all things "from the beginning from the end" (Isaiah 46:10). How does he know this? because God exists outside the limitations of the boundaries of our reality of space and time. To him, Our entire existence is available to view in any order at any point time across the expanse of our universes entire existence. Imagine being able to do that!

We all have Free will which means we all have the individual choice of how we live our lives, and whether we want to seek truth and justice, or lies and corruption. Unfortunately, Human Kind chose the latter over the former. We chose to deny God's existence, we broke his laws, and we chose to follow our own desires over acceptance of Gods will. In a nutshell, we took something that was 'very good' and turned it into something really bad. Through these actions we have created separation between ourselves and God. God is righteous and perfect. Nothing can be 'Very Good' in his eyes unless it is truly perfection in all facets. Our free will decisions and actions has created the world we live in, which is imperfect, cruel, and sinful. Through our decisions we have condemned ourselves to eternal separation from God and signed our own permanent death warrant. Wow, "that’s pretty dark" I hear you say. Well yes. It's as bad as it can possibly get for all of humanity. We had it all, and then we chose to throw it all away because we thought we knew better than the one that created us.

The Good News

Fortunately for us, even before the earth was formed, God knew that we would choose to follow our own path and become separated from him, and so he made a plan for the redemption of all of human kind. What was his plan for salvation of the entire human race? Sending his one and only Son, Jesus Christ who was brought into existence for the sole purpose of giving us a 'get out of jail free' card and saving us from ourselves so that we might be forgiven for our Sin, be seen faultless & blameless in Gods eyes, regardless of the fact that we do not deserve it.

How does Jesus Accomplish this?

Jesus Christ was sent to this earth to show humanity what 'good' really is, to be our source of light in an otherwise dark world. Jesus was, and will be the only human ever made that is perfect in Gods eye as he was, and is God made manifest in the form of a human. He took it upon himself to come in human form and sacrifice himself on our behalf. What did the sacrifice accomplish? Jesus Christ took on the sum of all debt for every persons sin that has ever existed, and ever will exist on the planet earth. Christ took on the full pain, anguish, and wrath of God all at once, in our place so that we wouldn't individually have to experience it, which would see us die a final death. I can't even begin to imagine what Christ experienced during that time and I suspect we'll never truly know the extent of the damage caused to him by our sinful nature but as pointed out in scripture, after his resurrection from the grave, Christ bore the scars from his execution and I suspect that he will bare these as a permanent reminder of his sacrifice for all of eternity.

What do I have to do to claim his gift?

Christ's sacrifice has paid off your debt IN FULL, in advance. He offers the gift of ever-lasting life and salvation for FREE with no interest charged - it’s the best offer you'll ever receive in your life! All that is left to do to get your debt paid off in full is to put your name against as the recipient of the payment. To do that all you need to do is pray for forgiveness for your sinful nature, and accept Christ as your lord and literal saviour. A Job already done!

If you are ready to receive Christ as your saviour

As shown through his actions, he truly loves you and wants you to be saved. We all have the Free Will to choose life over death, or death over life. If you want to choose life it is a freely offered gift but but to do so requires you to accept Christ as your lord and saviour.

Pray with me; Lord god I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, my lord and saviour that you would forgive me for all of my sins. I thank you God for your Gift of Salvation that I am able to have through the sacrifice of your Son who died for our sin so that one day I can be found without guilt. I praise you lord God, in the name of Jesus, Amen I