You Know the Story

You know the story - Christ Jesus Himself, God manifest in the flesh, came down from Heaven and took our sins upon Himself and paid the consequences due to our sins.  Jesus lived a sinless on your behalf, because you could never do that:  everything Jesus said was True, everything He did was Good, and everything He thought was Pure. When God came forth to smite the guilty sinner, Divine Justice asked, “Where is the guilty one?” and then Christ Jesus came and stood in the sinner’s place, and God’s wrath was poured out on the Savior’s heart. Why? That the wrath to come might never reach those for whom Jesus died. If Christ suffered for your sins, you cannot suffer again for those same sins.  If God punished Christ for your sins and you trust to Jesus, God shall never punish you. If Jesus Christ paid your sin debts, you are free and clear forever before God’s throne.  You are a saved soul right now if your are resting upon the sinless Blood Atonement of Christ.

Remember that the one thing needful for receiving free eternal life is simply trusting to the Atoning Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know you are probably saying that you cannot be perfect. You're right, you cannot be perfect. But Jesus was Perfect in every way.  You may say, “I have many sins; I have done so much that is wrong.” That is true, very true, but whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall have their sins forgiven freely, instantly and eternally.

You know the story - when the fullness of time had come, the officers of justice came in the middle of the night and took Jesus with no warrant, and He was taken from His knees in the garden of Gethsemane away to the religious and civil courtrooms.  They gave Him a phony trial where He was tried and falsely condemned; with no witnesses and defense attorney.  His back was scourged till the white bones showed through His bleeding flesh.  His head was crowned with thorns, and His cheeks were given to those who plucked off the hair.  He was  hounded through the streets of Jerusalem, with the spit of soldiers still upon his unwashed face, and His wounds all open and bleeding.

They hurled the Lamb of God down and nailed him to the accursed tree of Calvary. They lifted up the Cross and dashed it down into its socket in the earth, dislocating His bones, and tearing His nerves and tendons. His soul was filled with awful anguish and agony. Every arrow of Hell was shot at Jesus there that day, and even God the Father forsook Jesus when He became Sin for us. God's vengeance fell upon Him while He was bearing our sins in His own body.  God the Father hid His face from Jesus till He cried out agony, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” So the Lamb of God suffered on, and on, and on there for hours, till at the last, He cried, “It Is Finished!” 

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  God's bleeding love to sinful man led Him to bruise His Son and put Him to grief for our sake. Christ Jesus is the Son of God, and in His divine nature, He was one with God, co-equal and co-eternal with Him. “Unto us a Son is given, and His name shall be called the Mighty God.”  In his human nature Jesus was not spared, but was made to suffer, bleed, and die for our sins. Jesus of Nazareth was God and man in one person, two natures mysteriously combined.  Hee was not spared, but was delivered up for us all.  Behold Him and admire Him! Consider Him and
wonder at His mercy toward His enemies.

You know the story - every man had sinned against God, and God, the Just Creator, must punish every sin that has been committed.  Every man was so enslaved by his sins, he was in such bondage that he could not help himself.  But the Crucified Creator undertook our cause, and God devised a wondrous plan by which His justice could be satisfied, and at the same time He could have mercy on our guilty souls.  In the Gospel, God's eternal wisdom revealed to sinful man the plan by which the Son of God would suffer instead of us, that so divine justice might have its demands met in full, and yet mercy still be bestowed upon whosoever trusts to Jesus' Precious Blood.

Someone had to suffer instead of guilty man, in order that guilty man might escape what was coming to him for sinning against God. The Eternal Son of God undertook for us sinners. Almighty God Himself became a Jewish man, to bleed, to be spit upon, to be scourged, to be crucified. The years roll on,
your hair turns gray, and yet you still do not come to Jesus.

Jesus, the Son of God, came to do what he undertook to do; He came to Bethlehem's manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, there God was born into the world. God became flesh. He, without whom was not anything made that was made, had come down to live among us, that we may behold His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, and yet a man with a mother, like us.

Jesus lived down here on Earth for 33 years during which He was despised and rejected of men; He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus lived a life of a servant and went about doing good; He preached the Gospel, but the religionists hated Him without a cause, and wanted Him dead.  He came here to complete the dreadful task of dying for our sins. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He give his back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that pluck off the hair; He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.  The Lord of life and immortality actually died the death of a criminal, and was buried in a borrowed tomb for my sake.  Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, while He was in Gethsemane covered with a bloody sweat, a sweat caused by your sins and mine. Jesus yielded to them and was led away by those who arrested Him.

The Lord of glory was mocked, flouted, and they set Him at nought; He was made an object of ridicule, the jeer of sarcasm, and the butt of scorn.  He was covered with an old robe, the cloak of some common soldier, and His back was laid bare and His own most precious blood ran down His back and legs as He was scourged mercilessly.  After Pilate's judgment, He bore the weight of that heavy cross, and was hounded and hurried through the streets of Jerusalem.  They flung Him on His back, and stretched out His hands and feet upon the Cross, and then the soldiers drove the cruel nails through His hands and feet. They lifted him up high between Earth and Heaven, and dashed the Cross into its place, dislocating all His bones.  Jesus accomplished all that was required to pay for our sins.  JEHOVAH'S wrath was poured over Jesus, wave after wave, and He meekly bowed His head to it all.  He bowed wounded head, and cried, “It is finished!” and gave up the ghost.  Jesus Christ had shed His own most precious blood especially for you.

Then they took Jesus' mangled corpse down from the Cross, and Joseph and Nicodemus put His body in a borrowed tomb. And then on the third day, the mighty Savior unwound His grave clothes; an angel came from Heaven, rolled away the stone, and then He rose from the dead. After He showed Himself to His disciples, and to others, for forty days, He took them out to Mount Olivet, and as He communed with them and blessed them, He ascended up into Heaven, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. He ascended up to His Father’s throne, and there He sits today making intercession for all those who trust in Him.

Come on now to the Cross, look up and trust Christ Himself to save you.  Say this, “Here I am, Lord Jesus, a poor, guilty sinner, having nothing to trust to of my own, but I know my sins were laid on You, and if they were laid on You, and I trust your Precious Blood as the payment for my sins against God." There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. If you rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, He has paid all your debts; and you are out of debt forever.

Now understand - God became a Jewish man that he might suffer what was due to human sin, and now whosoever trusts in Jesus Christ, the Substitute for sinners, shall be saved freely and eternally.  If you  rely simply and entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ, your soul shall live. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and repent of your love for sin.  You must choose, so make your choice:  it's either sin or Jesus, the Lake of Fire or Heaven.  Now, that is the Gospel in a nutshell.