We all appreciate Franklin Graham. He’s so like his father. He leads the powerful and good Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse. Every time he is on television for a 60 second speech, I know he will tell people that God loves them and Jesus died for them.
But I want to coach him to add one additional feature to his finely spoken summary of the Good News. I want to say to him, “Mr. Graham, oh please add an explanation of why Jesus Christ, the God-Man had to die.
Why my concern? Because I believe people hear the positive side of the Gospel and think it is all sunny and bright, easy and painless. It was not. There was an excruciating death involved.
The reason the God-Man had to die was because sin had to be paid for. God hates sin. Sin is abhorrent to Him. Look at what happened when Adam and Eve sinned just once! The world was plunged into misery, wars, hatred and emptiness. One sin! That’s how serious God is about sin. While modern life makes light of sin—even mocking sin, God does not.
Humanity does not have a flattering portrait—we are hopelessly corrupt and lost and needy. Here’s an example: If we are starving and there is only one quart of water and one sandwich, the strongest person is going to get both because we are all by nature selfish. We are greedy. We have a sin nature that continues to pump out selfishness, dominance, greed, anger, lustfulness and resentful thoughts and action. Through and through. Totally corrupt. No matter how much lipstick we put on this pig.
And no amount of good works (spiritual lipstick) can deliver us from the awful prophecy of Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death.” What we produce in life is sin and the “wage” God will pay us for our productive lives is death (which is unawareness of God’s love now and spiritual death—Hell—after we physically die).
It is a spiritual law of God’s world that sin brings death, so someone had to die. Jesus was willing to die, which means that God Himself atoned for our sin (1) to keep God’s high standard of righteousness operational yet (2) to still make a way for people to be redeemed.
Since we are far from perfect, God Himself—Jesus Christ—came to this earth to live a perfect life and offer Himself as payment to satisfy the righteous standards of the Living God.
He took the bullet (of God’s wrath) that we deserve.
Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” because God had forsaken Him since He was carrying, wearing and being sin (Matthew 27:46). God the Father can’t stand sin, so He turned away from God the Son as He wore our sin, like we wear jeans.
Even more amazing He became sin for us.
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him
we might become the righteousness of God.” II Corinthians 5:21
What does “He became sin for us” mean? It means that when I got angry, God looked at Jesus and charged Him as being angry. It means when we were selfish, God saw it as though Jesus was selfish. It means when we were greedy, God put it down in His books as Jesus Christ being greedy. He became the sin that we do and therefore God the Father charged Jesus His life to pay for it. Sin is serious.
He wore it like we wear clothing, and became it. Hallelujah! Oh, sweet truth!
Oh, please Mr. Graham, somehow in those 60 seconds say some of that if at all possible.
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