Following JesusSample

This is Jesus

To understand how to follow Jesus, we first have to understand what makes Jesus’ birth so important. In Genesis 3, humans turned away from God. Adam and Eve decided to do what they wanted rather than trust and submit to God. Their rebellion is called sin, and it’s been passed down to every human since. 

That sin separates us from God, our perfect Father who loves us. "Perfect" and "sin" don’t mix in the same way that eating McDonald’s and a healthy diet don’t mix. 

Because God is perfect, He is also just. He can’t look past sin and pretend it isn’t there. God must punish sin, and the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). 

In the garden, God killed an animal to make a covering for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). That animal’s death was the first of many deaths to pay the penalty for humans’ sin. This is the way things were done for generations as rebellion separated humanity from God. 

Sin, separation, sacrifice. Sin, separation, sacrifice.

God loved us too much to remain separated from us by our sin. So He sent His Son, Jesus, to deal with humanity’s sin problem once and for all. “God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, MSG).

Jesus was God and human at the same time. That made Him the perfect person for the job. Because Jesus was God, He could live a perfect life. And because Jesus was human, He could present Himself to God on our behalf. To break the sin cycle, we needed a perfect human to take the punishment for us all, and Jesus was it (Hebrews 2:17-18). 

Jesus sacrificed for us because He loves us. But His death is not where the story ends. 

Reflect: 

• Where are you in your relationship with Jesus? On a scale of 1-10, would you say you’re a 1 (“I’m really not sure”) or closer to a 10 (“I’m walking on water”)? 
• What do you hope to get out of this reading plan? 
• Who is Jesus to you? If He were standing next to you, how would you introduce Him to a friend?