Reflection: Why did Jesus need to come to earth? (Sin… and God’s solution)

The answer to the question ‘why did Jesus need to come to earth?’ lies in Jesus’ love for us. It is what motivated him to come to us in order to deal with the intractable problem of human sinfulness.

So, what do I mean by sin? Sins are the things we do that offend God. It is not acknowledging the one true God and responding to his love with our own. The Bible makes it very clear that no one is completely perfect and without sin. It says: ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). So, it does not matter how many pious religious acts we do, how many good deeds we do, or how much learning we have; none of these things can make us holy enough to be with God. God’s standard is perfection… and none of us can ever claim to be perfect. If God’s standard was anything less than perfection, God would not be perfectly holy. Because God is perfectly holy, our sin disqualifies us from his presence. As the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, says: ‘Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so he will not hear’ (Isaiah 59:2).

However, whilst we could not solve our sin problem, God could. God loved us so much that he came to us as a perfectly holy man, Christ Jesus. God came to us:

• to identify with us in the struggles of life
• to show us what God is like
• to die on a cross to pay the price for our sins. (In this way, God’s holiness and justice were both satisfied.)

Jesus was crucified on a cross and died. However, after three days, God the Father raised Jesus from the dead giving us the confidence that if we join ourselves with Christ, God will also raise us to eternal life after we have died.

Therefore, if you put your faith in Jesus and allow him to be the leader of your life, you have eternal life and will escape God’s judgement.

And that’s very good news!

Prayer:

I put my faith in you, Jesus, and ask you to be the leader of my life. Thank you for showing me what God is like, for being with me in the struggles of life, and for dying on the cross to pay the price for my sins.

*Prayers for this series have been written based on Nick Hawkes’ reflections.