I'm sick and tired of hearing:

“Jesus loves you.”

And there's another:

“Jesus saved you.”

What does Jesus who died 2000 years ago have anything to do with me? He's a Jew. And I'm not. He died a long time ago. So, what is that he to me really? Is there any relationship between Jesus and me?

Give me a break!

Oh you seem upset. Hmmm! Let me guess. You might be reading this article on your mobile phone. Mobile phone came to scene about 20 years ago. Before the mobile phone, personal desktop computer was the state-of-the-art technology for the general public. That was back in the 90s. Before that, people like this author had to use yuge mainframe computers that weighed about five tons to do computer programming. It was an overwhelming experience back then.

Where were you?

In the same line of thought, the modern metropolis you were born might have been a village some years ago with a few people living in there. Before it became a village, your ancestors might have migrated to that isolated place in pursuit of gold rush treasures or something. But, about 2000 years ago where would your ancestors be? At that time, human population was about 160 million in the whole world according to some statistics. You can then expect the population to be fewer and fewer as you go back further in time.

Since reliable statistics are hard to come by, let’s just borrow the biblical account to figure out the population of the world around 6000 years ago. Well, around that time, the Bible said there was only one person in the whole wide world. His name was Adam. His wife, Ave, came a wee bit later. So now you see you were practically still inside Adam at that time, waiting almost 6000 years to be born in the big city your parents came to get settled. [a] That was basically a brief history of you, and also mine.

Who came first

Before Adam came to the scene, there were angels. Angels were created by God to be ministering spirits. They were sent to serve those who will inherit salvation." (Hebrews 1:14) “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11) “Angels came and attended him.” (Matthew 4:11) Another reason God created angels might have been to worship God around his throne. (Revelation 5:11-14).

Angel vs man

From the above Bible verses, the angels were created to serve. God then created mankind in his own image. (Genesis 1:27) The Bible does not say that angels were created in the likeness of God. God seemed to create man to have fellowship with Him. “For God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son Christ Jesus.” (1 Corinthian 1:9).  Also, Enoch was “walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.” (Genesis 5:24) The famous Bible verse, “For God so loved the world” of John 3:16 clearly indicates that God loves human beings so much.  We’re not sure the same is true with the angels he created. I would imagine that if the angels were the military personnels, men would just be the odinary people in the grand scheme of things. That means that man was possibly created just to be loved by God.

Operating room

God himself physically created man like a sculptor would his handicraft. So, God put a lot of considerations and efforts in the making of man. Maybe we could call it Project 6 since man has been associated with the number 6. The intricate details are not availble but God might have been very satisfied when the man he created came alive. As a songwriter, I know that kind of feelings like when the song you put together comes alive with bells and whittles in the background. The same cannot be said about the creation of angels. Since angels do not have physical body, the process of creating them might be different. Did God give a command, "Let there be angels?" We don't know for sure. But we know that God loved the man he created from dust. You can imagine God's eyes sparkled and turned watery as he gazed the face of Adam who had now been breathing in and out with his eyes still closed. God might have been startled when Adam opened his eyes and stood up from deep sleep. That would have caused God to burst out laughing, "Ha ha ha ha!"

All these seem to suggest that God loved the man so much, and wanted to have fellowship with him at all time. And had fellowship they did. God used to visit the man and the woman at the Garden until great grandpa and grandma, Adam and Eve, ignored what God had forbidden Adam earlier not to do a particular thing.

People get confused

Some people are confused about what it was that Adam and Eve did against God's will. God did not ask them not to have intimate relationship since God already commanded them to multiply. "Be fruitful and increase in number." (Genesis 1:28) Many people actually think that having sexual activity was the forbidden fruit. But that's not so. It has to do with going against the command not to eat a particular fruit. God forbade Adam and Eve from eating fruits from a certain tree from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve went ahead and ate the fruit because they fell for the deception of a smooth talker, Satan. Ignoring God's command to refrain from eating the fruit was a huge issue for God. From then on, the relationship between God and man went downhill. It was impossible to have a normal fellowship between them. You might say that in our days, everyone does whatever they want. They disobey parents all the time. In reality, the reason you think the way you do is the result of the disobedience of Adam. We inherited the bad nature from him. It's in our DNA. That disobedience is also formally known as sin.

The price tag

Before he committed sin, God explicitly told Adam that on the day you eat the fruit you will surely die. That means that the price of eating the fruit, in other words, disobeying God, is death.(Romans 6:23) Ever since the relationship became sour, God had been trying to repair the broken relationship between Him and the man. If Adam and Eve were to actually pay the price for their sin, they would have been dead and it would have been the end of human race.

God cannot let the man die because he loved him so much. It is said that life is in the blood because when blood is sucked out of a man, he will die. So, God allowed the man to spill the blood of animals in his place to atone for his sin. 

But sadly,  it's too late. Sin has already entered the life of man. That means sinful nature of man was passed down from generation to generation. That is the reason why we human beings are sinners from birth. Even though certain animals had been sacrificed so that he could resume fellowshipping with God, man cannot help but kept committing sins again and again. Because of his sinful nature, streams of deathly sins keep bubbling up from within him. That's why he needed to sacrifice animals after animals as prescribed by God. Thus, it was impossible to completely wipe out the man's sins. That went on for a few thousands of years.

The solution

To make a long story short, God finally sent his son Jesus to die in the place of the animals. Actually, Jesus volunteered to come down to earth and pay the penalty of man's sin once and for all so that the debt of man's sin may be paid in full. God was satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus because he was a perfect 'lamb' without blemish. After all, God was the one who set the rule that the penalty must be paid with the blood. If God is satisfied, then, that settles it. It's a good thing that Jesus came back to life after he had died. That means he only had to die once and came back alive so that he could go back to heaven, and remind the Father his blood and scars, which were evidences that he did pay the penalty. Hence, perpetual animal sacrifice ritual  came to a halt.

From this we learned that firstly, Jesus died for you so that you can have fellowship with God once again. Secondly, Jesus loved you so much so that he came down from his heavenly palace to pay the debt of your sin in full that satisfied God the Father.

So, by believing Jesus died for you, you become sinless in the eyes of God. You have enter the teritory of having life because the Bible said, "Whoever has the Son has life." (1 John 5:12) If you truly believe that, you will have eternal fellowship with God. That means you are eligible to migrate to the land where God resides. This is a very good news, is it not?

If you are touched by this message, tell Jesus, "Thank you Jesus for dying for me. I believe in you."

Bonus lesson

Do you realize that Jesus himself is God? For example, there is a man name Mr. Smith who has a son named Smith Jr. It also is reasonable to assume that since Mr. Smith is a man, and his son Smith Jr. is also a man. So, it's understandable that God the Father has a son whose name is Jesus. Since the father is God, the Son is also God. Hmmm! Let's say this is a bonus lesson for reading this article.

Bonus two

The second bonus is this: When God created the man, he said, let us make man in our image. That means that when God made you, Jesus was part of the team who was also in the operating room, taking part in creating you. That means the very Jesus who died for you was and is God, and He was one of the surgeons or the scientists who made you. Doesn't he deserve your trust in him?

Those who believe vs. those who don't

The notion of "The wages of sin is death" from Romans 6:23 is a lot more than physical death. We know that because the Bible said,  "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:12)

"Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'" (Matthew 25:41)

"And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15) 

"Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:18)

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[a] Heb 7:10:  Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.

 

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