“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” ~John 14:1
If you believe in God, you must understand that Jesus is this same God—this same all mighty, powerful God—only in human form. Jesus is the part of God that helps us understand who God really is.
God knew that we would sin. In other words, if God makes the laws and we disobey Him and rebel, we break His laws. 1 John 3:4 If we ignore the promptings of God, we then separate and cut ourself off from Him. Isaiah 59:2
He also knew we’d need a way out of this mess, a way to reconnect to Him so we wouldn't be eternally separated, and that’s why He came to earth and died for us. He said from the very beginning if we disobeyed Him, we’d die! Death is the result or consequence of sin.
But why would God come to earth to die in our place? And, moreover, why would He ever want to spend all of eternity with a bunch of sinners like us? As is the whole premise of this blog, we must always allow the Bible to define the Bible—we must always turn to the holy word of God for the answer.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” ~John 3:16
So then, the answer is this—this one thing—love. God loves us so much that He would literally die for us. He wants us with Him for all eternity so much that He chose to take our death penalty.
If we believe in God, and Jesus is the human form of God on earth/the God-man better known as the Son of God, we must understand why He came—why God sent Him. So again I pose the question . . .
God knew we were all doomed to die and be dead forever, and He just couldn't bear the thought of that . . .
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~Romans 6:23
That’s why He had a plan right from the very beginning, a way to allow us to still be able to live forever even though we had sinned. He would send His sinless Son to earth to die in our place, to take our death penalty, so we could then become the sinless image of Jesus.
The next three verses give us a biblical explanation of God’s big plan. This first verse is Jesus talking, He is telling us that there was a plan—a will from God.
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” ~John 6:38
This next one goes deeper into this plan for achieving our eternal life.
“This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should loose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” ~John 6:39
And the last verse explains God’s will for everyone, specifically what we have to do to take Him up on His offer—just one thing—believe!
“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” ~John 6:40
So now, according to our only source of truth (the Bible), we must accept that there is but one way to get to heaven—to live eternally—one way to meet our heavenly Father, one way to be pardoned, and that is through believing in His only son, Jesus, and what He did for us.
“Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” ~John 14:6
This is really easy to accept as truth simply by knowing that God can not lie!
“In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” ~Titus 1:2
That didn't say, will not lie—nor, doesn’t like to lie—but, can not lie!
Again, notice when this plan was conceive . . . before time began. God knew we’d mess up, He knew we’d need a way out, and He had it all in place even before He created us. Now that’s what I call a plan.
Who did Jesus die for?
“And He died for all…” ~2 Corinthians 5:15
“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all . . .” ~Romans 6:10
“And He Himself the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours alone but also for the whole world.” ~1 John 2:2
God wants us. He wants us eternally. He also wants us in the here and now. We must choose to stay connected to Him in every step we take in this walk of life. We must consciously choose to not separate from Him. After all . . . He paid the ultimate price to save every single on of us. But it's still our freewill choice to accept His offer or not, after all it is a gift—no one will be dragged into heaven against their will.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.” ~1 Peter 3:18
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Regrettably, this writer falls into the devil’s trap and attempts to intellectualize Scripture in the flesh and depends on one’s native language. Throughout His teachings and parables, and frequently presented in Scripture, is Christ’s very own revelation of who He died for. While the common “christian” can recite John 3:16 backwards and forwards in their sleep, they pay no mind to John 3:3, 3:5, 3:8,3:11, 3:21, and 3:36 which commands “pistis” obedience. In the verse, the common “christian” fails to understand that there is a Giver, the Father, a Gift, His only begotten Son, and receivers of the Gift, which English bibles poorly translate as “whosoever”. In the original manuscripts the word Jesus uses is not “whosoever”, He uses the word “PAS”- pas does not mean every person who waves a white flag “PAS” means all those God determined in eternity past to receive His Gift. This is God’s sovereignty in the doctrine of election, what many “christians” reject about God the most. Christ’s truth, is consistent with Sovereign God. It is the exact point Jesus makes. To put it into perspective; all (Greek poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles. It may be comforting to believe Jesus means “every single person”, but comfort rarely, if ever, contains any truth. Only those enabled to follow and obey Jesus Christ are the “whosoever”. This is consistent with Christ’s teachings in John 6- “no man can come unto Me unless GIVEN by the Father”/. Man does not make that decision or determination, God does. When man assumes the responsibility of “making a decision”, his God is a fake because the divine attribute of His sovereignty has been removed by employing human decision. How difficult is it to understand the concept of the Potter and the clay? Human decisions and responsibility negate God’s sovereignty ever time. TRUTH MATTERS.
TRUTH DOES MATTER and this is the primary reason I am reply to your comment rather than just deleting it.
According to your interpretation of Scripture, some people are “pre-destined” to be saved and others are not. This line of thinking would create a situation where the ultimate end of some people would be the lake of fire no matter want they think or do. Some people are pre-destined to eternal salvation and others to eternal hell/eternal separation from God. If this were the case this would make Him a very evil God, to create some people destined to fry in the lake of fire with no chance of God grace and love, no chance for redemption.
This type of pre-destiny theology is simply not Biblical. All have the same opportunity to partake of the tree of life, not all choose to follow the infallible word of God. For all fall short, but all are invited, however all do not accept His invitation on His terms. They want eternity, but on their own terms. The want to attend the the wedding feast but don’t want to change out of their filthy rags and into His robe of righteousness.
Matthew 22:1-14
Isaiah 4:1
Revelation 22:14