Jesus paid the price

It is an incredible concept, that for Christians, our sins no longer count as filthy crimes against God our Heavenly Father. It is as if they weren’t there. There is no guilt at all; there is no condemnation at all; there is no blame at all; there is no shame at all; none of that exists now. All our depravity, evil deeds and transgressions have been removed by God and laid upon his Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus has taken all our sin, our past sin, our present sin and our future sin and he has put it all away for ever. So we are washed; we are clean.

Isaiah 1:18:
‘Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’

The truth constantly repeated in the Bible, is that we are saved by grace alone. Salvation from start to finish is the work of God, and we can add nothing to it. God’s salvation is all about His free gift of grace, which means that it is not of works. You cannot work for a gift. You can only receive it. It is impossible to buy God’s salvation.

Ephesians 2: 8-9:
‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.’

When we were lost in our sin, who did we sin against? God. Who forgave us? God. Who paid for them? God!
How does He do that? Well 2000 years ago on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem Jesus bore our sins in His body and died on the cross. He took our punishment.

It is true that:

We are unworthy of salvation

We are unworthy of God’s love

We are unworthy of mercy

We are fully worthy of the wrath of God.

We all deserve it, we have all sinned and fallen short of what we should be and indeed what God intended us to be when He made us. We have given our love and affection to other gods, money, cars and sex, anything you can think of that you put before attending to the one true God. We all do it and that is why we have all fallen short of the glory of God.

But God loved us so much that He saved us through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. God did so not because of who we are, but because of who He is, not because of what we do, but because of what He did. God is holy and just.

The Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus, who willingly gave His life, that ultimate price, for us, so that we would not have to pay it and to bring us back to Him.

Romans 5:8:
‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’.