Christ Jesus created, owned, and ruled the entire universe (John 1:3), but He humbled Himself and was born in a cattle-shed in Bethlehem-Judah 2,000 years ago. In the stable that night, it was cold, dark, and damp. They were surrounded by the stench of animals and manure. The inn was overcrowded that night; there was no room for Jesus. The hearts of men are still overcrowded today; there is no room for Jesus. Jesus’ first crib was a borrowed feed trough. The animals there in the stable that night loaned their home to their Creator. Jesus stooped very low to die for despicable sinners like us. Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. He humbled Himself and put on the rags of humanity. He lived a life of abject poverty, submission, obscurity, subjection, perfect obedience, and selfless love. He was born to be the final sacrificial Lamb for the sins of the whole world, so He could satisfy Divine Justice on your behalf. Turn your thoughts toward Jesus, your desires toward Him, your trust toward Him. Look to the Lamb of God now and live!
Christ Jesus, The King of Heaven - JEHOVAH manifest in the flesh - left glory and His eternal royal throne and became poor on purpose for your sake (II Corinthians 8:9). He was born to die, so that sinners could be saved from God’s wrath and have eternal life. He came from Heaven to earth, so we could go from earth to Heaven. He was born of a Jewish peasant, a virgin named Mary; He was born so low and destitute. Jesus went from riches to rags, so we could go from rags to riches. The holy child Jesus was nursed by Mary, and baby Jesus learned to walk and talk just like we did. God Himself became a poor man. The Infinite became an infant, The Holy One of Israel became a human, the Most High God became a man, and the Creator became a creature. He was so poor, he had to borrow everything He had throughout His earthly life. Immanuel, God with us, came to this sin-cursed earth to die so we could be with God in Heaven.
Jesus carried the rugged Cross from Pilate’s judgment hall through the streets of Jerusalem as the cruel mob hooted at Him. He was brutally nailed to the Cross; the soldiers nailed Him there in your place, so you could be saved by God’s redeeming grace. There on the dark hill called Calvary, Jesus willingly bled and died for dying sinners. No greater love for mortal man has ever been known. He suffered the wrath of God on the Cross for hours and hours and then at the last, He cried, “It is finished.” Christ on the Cross was the bleeding God dying in the place of sinful man. Jesus satisfied the justice of God and paid your sin-debt in full. Then they took down His broken body from the tree and carried Him away and placed Him in a lonely, stone-cold tomb. The Jewish and Roman authorities thought they done away with Jesus once and for all. But three days later, on the most glorious Sunday morning ever, the stone was rolled away and the Lord Jesus Christ arose victoriously over death and hell. Then forty days later, Jesus ascended into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Turn your thoughts Christ-ward, Cross-ward; there is Free Salvation available now for all penitent sinners.
The Word was God and He was made flesh; the eternal God condescended to earth. (John 1:14) Christ was more than just a baby in a manger that people think about at Christmas and Easter, He was fully God and fully man. Christ is both God and man, and He is the only One able to reconcile your soul to God. Christ represents us as a man and redeems us as God. (See Matthew 1:18,23; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:31-35; I Timothy 3:16). Christ’s sinless obedience to the Law of God and His atoning blood sacrifice as a man was required to redeem sinful, fallen man. Jesus Christ was born sinless and lived a sinless life, and then He suffered the death penalty for the whole world through His bloody death, and then He came back to life and gloriously resurrected. Jesus bore the wrath of God for your human sin. Your sins are infinite, because they were committed against an infinite God and it would take an infinite amount of time to pay the penalty, so God became a man to bear the weight of your sin against an infinite God. Only God could pay this infinite penalty - Christ was fully God and fully man. Turn your back on your sins now, turn your whole attention to the living Savior - for He is your only hope.
Christ Jesus came to earth to bear the sins of the whole world, it pleased the Father to bruise Him. God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. Your sins held Him to the Cross. Christ bore in His human body on the tree your whole weight of sin. He was wounded for your transgressions; He was bruised for your iniquities. Eternal Death was the wages due for your sin, and He paid the death penalty that your sins deserved. He bled and died for you personally. Because Christ is God, He was able to pay the penalty for all your guilt, and then He rose from the dead, and now offers to you the full forgiveness of sins and eternal life freely.
The root cause for any man rejecting Jesus Christ and the Gospel, is because the Gospel comes after your sins in order to save your soul. The Gospel proclaims Jesus Christ who saves sin-enslaved men 'from' their sins, but human nature does not want that. Your love for sin is the one thing that makes it so hard for you to believe the Pure and Plain Gospel of Christ. Personal holiness and private purity frightens every sin-loving man, because if they give up their sins, they will lose their old buddies and companions, and maybe some of their paycheck, or maybe their highest and most prized possession, their reputation among their sin-loving pals.
Human nature loves sin, it refuses to take God at His word, it will not admit its own inability, and it will not stop trusting to its own righteousness. All of your works are evil (John 7:7; John 3:19). You need to Rest completely on what Christ Jesus did for sinners on Calvary's Cross (Matthew 11:28). Leave it all in Christ's hands. You are a sinner, and the only way you will see your Maker's face with favor at death is to renounce what you can do, and trust only what Christ has done. Lean with all your being on the shed blood of God's Son to take away your sins forever. Count on Christ's Finished Blood Atonement alone to keep you out of Hell. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?
All a man can do to stay out of Hell is to forsake his own righteousness, and trust to God's Righteousness, and God's Righteousness is a Person - Jesus Christ Himself. Simply stop trusting your own righteousness right now, and trust God's Righteousness. That's what's needed - It's just that simple. The better you try to live without trusting Christ, the more you'll be deceived and damned. Jesus offers salvation *freely* only to ungodly sinners, to all hopeless wretches that stop trusting themselves and what they are doing, and trust completely in His penalty-paying, sinless Blood Sacrifice (Atonement) to save their guilty soul from the lake of fire (John 3:36; Revelation 20:15).
Christ Jesus willingly came down to earth to bleed for your sins and die the death you deserved for sinning against a holy God. The Lawgiver came to die for the lawbreakers. For God so loved the world of sinful men that He gave His only Son on Calvary’s Cross. He came to bring God’s bleeding love and the new birth to fallen man. Jesus was born to die on Calvary’s Cross for us vile and rebellious sinners, He was born to set sinners free, Jesus was God Himself in human form with God’s blood flowing through His veins. The death of Christ the Lord was for your immortal soul. It took God’s divine love to save helpless and ungodly sinners like us.
Now, Jesus will save all sinners to the uttermost that come unto God through Him. We deserve to be damned; we have willfully and wickedly offended and sinned against God. We cannot help save ourselves. We can only ruin and imprison our souls, but we could never rescue and redeem our souls. Your sins cannot escape unpunished, so let Christ answer for your sins. Christ Jesus is living right now and is seeking you. Most sinners today either hate Christ or ignore Him, but few trust Him. Christ is alive now and sitting at the right hand of God. Turn your thoughts up to Him. The very wisest thing you can do is seek mercy from God through Jesus Christ's Atoning Blood.
Send up an earnest prayer to God - “Great God, I call upon Jesus' name, I need to be saved from my sins, please save me, be merciful to me a guilty sinner, for I'm a self-ruined and self-condemned! I am ungodly, I need your Righteousness. Save my undeserving soul, I'm sick of myself, I am so guilty, I cannot help save myself, I deserve your wrath, forgive all my sins, have mercy upon me, I don't want to go to Hell! I forsake my righteousness, I renounce all my merits, for I have none; I deserve to be lost and damned; but Lord God, I look to you now for mercy and grace, I trust your Promises, your Precious Blood and Righteousness, please save me now, for Jesus' sake alone.”
