John 3: 16-17
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that whoever would believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
I've heard that John three-sixteen is the most quoted passage of literature in the history of Mankind. I can't verify that, but I don't doubt it, either.
This one verse gives us the centerpiece of God's love for each of us. True love is a decision to want the very best for the one loved no matter what it costs us. And God is our Maker, and He loves what He made. He is our standard for what love is, and He gave us His most precious--His only Son. I'm sure it pained the Father as much as it pained the Son to die that horrendous death. That's how much He loves us.
God is holy. He cannot have any kind of sin living with Him, marring His glory. The sacrifices He gave His people in The Law could never take away their sins, just cover them; they were to teach us that sin requires death, and the sacrificed animal died instead of the person. Jesus is the Lamb of God, the perfect Sacrifice. His Blood splashed on the sides of His altar, the Cross, could do more than just cover sins, it could actually wash them away completely!
God's own Blood has unlimited worth to pay off every debt and all debt of sin and sins. When Jesus died our human death, and His Blood poured down the sides of the Cross, He fulfilled all the Old Testament sacrifices, starting with the first--the individual one that Leviticus chapter one begins with. He also was the corporate sacrifice, for the Nation, and even more, enough for the whole World. He also purchased the whole Universe.
When Mankind sinned, God placed a curse not only on this Earth, but the whole Universe this globe is a part of. When Jesus makes "everything new" He will re-make, re-format the whole thing, to remove that curse of death, decay and running down (the Second Law of Thermodynamics: Entropy). That's the culmination of God's Plan of the Ages, to make everything pristine, with no pain, no sorrow, no more tears--perfect. (See "the last chapter" or two!)
But to get there, to be a part of that New Creation, we also must start at the beginning, the most fundamental first step. You and I must realize that you and I deserve death, and that Jesus took our death in our place on that Cross, paying each individual debt, personally. I did that, and when you also come to God, admitting your guilt and culpability, and let Jesus die for you; then God will forgive you, wash away all your sins, and give you a New Life, His own Holy Spirit, to live in your dead spirit making it alive. Then you will be changed, never again the same as you were before your encounter with this Saving Grace.
When God showed me Jesus hanging there on His Cross, I knew that I deserved it, not Him, and that He did that for me. That's how much God loved me, and my heart broke, knowing how I had been living against what I knew to be His ways. But He loved me anyway, and I gave control of my life to Him that day, since I didn't know why He made my life, He knew. So He's been directing my days every day since, more than 46 years so far. And I never did return to those seductive ways, I found so much better in Him.
God doesn't want anybody to be lost, but not everybody wants to come to Him. So if you find that you just don't think you're "that bad" to deserve that death, then I suggest you pray and ask God for Saving Faith to believe Him. He loves you more than you can imagine, and He wants you to live with Him in His glory forever.
All you need is Jesus!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
