Nobody’s Perfect

This week’s:

The Old Testament is filled with examples of humanity’s complete and utter inability to keep the Law. The Law is perfectly perfect in every way… and WE are not. And because of Jesus, that’s OK. You see, God loves this world so much that He sent a tiny little baby to save it. Isn’t that just about the strangest way imaginable to save humanity? A baby? Really LORD? What can a baby do to help me, to save me?

Ahhhh, but this was no ordinary baby. This baby, conceived with a divinely royal bloodline on all three sides, was born in a manger right beside all the other sacrifices. This baby didn’t come to live, He came so that He could die the most spectacularly amazing death anyone could ever imagine.

In this time of Christmas we celebrate a baby born to die for us… for YOU. The perfect Law was given to show us our sin. The babe from the manger and perfect fulfillment of the Law was given to show us the Love that erases our sin. His loving act of sacrifice erases our sins so completely that according to the promise of Isaiah 54:9, not only is God finished punishing our vast ocean of iniquity and sin, He’s not even angry about them anymore. In the beginning God gave Abraham His word and He fulfilled it and then some. God has done the very same thing for us. He promised us salvation from our sins, and it came in the most perfect Christmas package of a bouncing baby boy wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger – Jesus. This Christmas, I pray that the first present you open is YOUR gift of salvation from a God who’s not angry with you at all. You can unwrap this gift by simply opening up your heart to receive His love for you. To do that, simply say, “yes” to Him.

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

For everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God’s glorious standard; yet God with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26

Next week’s :