Over two thousand years ago an uncommon man with the rather common name of Jesus (common for that time) was born in the small village of Bethlehem in the Roman province of Judea. He grew up in Nazareth, a town in the district of Galilee north of Judea. Since he was a faithful Jew he always attended the weekly Sabbath meeting at the synagogue. Each week at synagogue the Scriptures were read aloud to the people. One day when Jesus was about thirty years old he took a turn and read a prophecy from the prophet Isaiah. He spoke, reading,
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." [Luke 4:18-19 New International Version (NIV)]
Having read this he rolled up the scroll gave it to the synagogue attendant and sat down. To the astonishment of all he announced, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." In the following days the sick and the lame began flocking to Jesus to be healed. People in Israel during that ancient era were mostly impoverished and, of course, there was no available modern medicine that we take for granted in our day. It is not difficult to imagine that such people would eagerly seek anyone who might be able and willing to help them. Jesus was both willing and able. The people came to him in droves. Everyone who came to him for healing he healed and afterward he would say to them, “Your faith has made you well.” He healed people with all sorts of diseases and physical defects including the blind, deaf, and the lame. Though Jesus healed the maladies of all who came, he claimed to able to heal people the greatest malady of all: death. He claimed to be both willing and able to heal every person who came to him and believed in him that he would deliver them from this greatest of maladies.
Have you ever considered the question: why do people die? Is death just a natural fact of life? Consider this: does it not follow that the same Creator who gives life to all creatures also has the power to take it away? Death is not merely natural, normal, and fine. Death is truly tragic. It is a great loss that people die, and yet there is a specific reason why they do. In the beginning God created man: Adam and Eve. He gave them freedom and life, but also a single command that came with a warning. The warning was that if they disobeyed the command they would die. Tragically they did disobey and the result was a great loss for the whole human race. The Apostle Paul put it like this: “…sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” [Romans 5:12 NIV] Death, then, is not natural – it is a man-made tragedy. Humanity brought death upon itself because all mankind has sinned against God. Again Paul states, “The wages of sin is death.” [Romans 6:23 NIV] So, it is the sinfulness of mankind, not mere natural causes that brought death in the world. But, if death is caused by sin, what exactly is "sin"?
Sin is any offense or transgression against God, our maker. God is holy, which among other things means that he is morally perfect. Contrary to popular belief, he never grades on a curve. He hates and condemns all transgressions, even what might be thought of as the very slightest of infractions. When Adam and Eve disobeyed it was an offense to God, and for that reason they suffered the greatest loss: they died. They did not physically die on the very day they sinned, but they died a more terrible kind of death – they died inwardly. Or to put it another way, they died spiritually. They died to God. This inward spiritual state of death removed them from God's care and their bodies began to decay, so that eventully they died physically too. When they began having children that inward state of death was passed on to their children and even unto the whole human race.
The situation appeared completely hopeless, but God loved the world he made, so he sent his own Son to save it. This Son of God did not come into the world in the ordinary way, but was rather supernaturally conceived in his mother's womb by the Spirit of God. Since he was conceived supernaturally, and not naturally, he did not inherit the inward state of death from the forefather of the whole human race: Adam. Jesus was a new Adam.
Undoubtedly you have seen how brilliant students are treated by their peers in school. They are not well-received because their brilliance irritates their fellow classmembers with a feeling of inferiority. Teachers often grade on a curve, but "smarty pants" brilliant students have a way of smashing the curve, making it difficult for the rest of the class to measure up to their high marks. But, if imperfect brilliant students are despised by their classmates how would a completely perfect man be received by the rest of humanity?!
Many assume that God will judge them on a curve. They are confident that God will accept them because they are not as bad as their neighbor or those really awful people they see on television. "No one is perfect," so the self-vindicating saying goes. But, the problem is that Jesus was perfect, and his perfection annoyed his self-righteous peers. Jesus, who was the perfect new Adam, lived a life quite different from the rest of mankind. Instead of succumbing to a world of temptations, he never sinned like the first Adam. He never failed to do what God commanded and never did what God forbade. He never sinned, which made him the first and only perfect man. His perfection predictably enraged his fellow countrymen. He was so despised that they conspired to take him to highest court in the land where he was found guilty of false charges and was sentenced to death by crucifixion on a cross.
Astonishingly, though, the vicious conspiracy and betrayal of Jesus by his own countrymen was central to God’s plan all along. The very same prophet Isaiah from whom Jesus had read in the synagogue also said this about the perfect man:
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. [Isaiah 53:3-5 NIV]
Isaiah wrote this prophecy some 700 years before the birth of Jesus, yet his words perfectly explain the purpose of the perfect man’s suffering and death: it served as a substitution. God never judges on curve and he judges and condemns everyone who is guilty of sin. His own Son, however, was perfect. But, as his perfect Son hung dying on the cross, the judgment, condemnation, and death that sinners deserved was laid upon him, and by his wounds we (who believe in him) are healed. The death he died and the punishment he endured was in place of all those who would believe in him.
The Apostle Paul contrasts the first Adam with the last Adam (Jesus) saying, “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man [Adam], how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” [Romans 5:15-17 NIV].
The death of Jesus, then, is the gift of life for sinners. But, is this life given to all sinners? No, it is accessible only by faith in Jesus. Jesus himself said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16 NIV] Notice that the life he gives is available only to “whoever believes in him.” The apostle Paul also indicates that the substitution is accessible only by faith, saying, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” [Galatians 5:20 NIV].
When sick, lame, and suffering people were coming to Jesus two thousand years ago to be healed by him, he healed them and sent them on their way saying, “Your faith has made you well.” In the same way anyone today may also come to him and be healed of their greatest malady: sin and death. This is not to suggest that physical death can be avoided, but for those who believe in Jesus there is the sure promise of resurrection and a new life. Jesus promised, “"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” [John 5:24 NIV]. If you believe, you too will have crossed over from death to life.
However, if you refuse the good gift of life that comes by faith in Jesus of Nazareth, you have no such hope of life to come, but only judgment and wrath. There is no other way of salvation than by faith in Jesus. There is no hope in Mohammed, nor in Buddha, nor in any other name. There is most certainly no hope in self. Speaking of Jesus the Apostle Peter stated, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:12 NIV] God does not grade on a curve, but if anyone believes in Jesus Christ all their sins are accounted for in his substitutionary death. And if anyone believes in Jesus Christ his perfect sinless righteousness is accredited to them. Jesus suffered the condemnation that sinners desevered in order that he would be the gift of life to all who believe.