THE PERFECT LIFE
In my last column, we talked about the Ten Commandments and how they are God’s expectations for everyone. However, we also ended by saying it is impossible to keep all those commandments. Obviously, God also knows this.
Romans 3:23 is an acknowledgement of this. “… For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
So, what’s a person to do? Well, since we couldn’t live up to God’s expectations, God had to create another way to get people into heaven after death.
His choice was to come down in human form and live the perfect life for us. In that form, He was known as Jesus Christ. Jesus was born fully human as we are, but also possessed the fullness of God Himself. Because He was human, He was challenged to give into the same sins we do; but, because He was God, He didn’t give in like we do.
Jesus was hated, betrayed, experienced loss and faced all the types of problems we do during life. Despite that, He never gave into to sin, even in His death. He lived the life we are unable to live. God calls this holy.
While dying on the cross, the sins of everyone in the world — past, present and future – were placed on Christ’s shoulders. He took on the punishment we deserved for our sins against God and each other. Why? God is a God of justice. He cannot let sin go unpunished forever. So, someone had to take on our punishment.
It is easy to see ourselves as better than we are. Rarely, are we honest with ourselves. Take a look at the Ten Commandments again. Each of us has broken every one of those in some way, shape or form.
We can say “I’ve never murdered anyone.” But Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca’ (‘You empty-headed idiot’), is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” What names have you called someone? I know I’ve done that.
Jesus tells us even to think of having sex with someone we are not married to is a sin. We don’t have to physically commit an act to be guilty of it in God’s eye.
Have you ever let someone down when they were counting on you to come through? Who hasn’t! Have you ever passed on a story about someone which you weren’t sure was 100 percent true? Happens constantly on social media.
So, Jesus lived His life and never failed at any of those. Wow.
Now, how does Jesus’ life on earth impact us? That is what we will talk about next time.
