The Good News of Jesus Christ

The Messiah

Two thousand years ago, a baby was born and He was named Jesus. But unlike other babies, this baby had books in the Bible that predicted the details of His birth and His life, hundreds of years before He was born. The prophets had a title for Him: the Messiah (in Hebrew) or the Christ (in Greek). Among many things they foretold about the Messiah, they said of what ethnicity He would be (a Hebrew), and from which tribe He would come from among the Jews (the tribe of Judah), and from what family He would come (King David’s), and in what city He would be born (in Bethlehem), and where He would do His ministry (in Galilee). Moreover, they predicted that He, a real human being, would be the Eternal Son of God in human flesh and become fully human. And the baby who was named Jesus was this person. He was a Hebrew, from the tribe of Judah, from the family of David, born in the city of Bethlehem, and His ministry of teaching and healing was in the northern region of Galilee. And He demonstrated that He, a real human being, was the Son of God by rising from the dead on the third day after his death just as He predicted. The eyewitnesses of His resurrection testified of this to their contemporaries in the first century world, and wrote about it. None could refute their testimony, hence, their writings survived—this is the New Testament.

HIS DEATH

There is one more important prediction about the Messiah. The prophets also predicted that He would come into the world on a death mission, and that His death would be very particular. He would be scourged. His hands and His feet would be pierced through. His bones would come out of joint. His death would involve dehydration. And this is exactly how Jesus died. He was crucified. He was first scourged with a whip knotted with bone or metal (the Romans called this pre-crucifixion process the flagrum). Then His hands and feet were nailed to the cross. His body would then hang on the cross by the nailed extremities, and the weight of His body would pull apart His joints—the shoulders, the elbows, and the wrists. The lengthy process of crucifixion and the blood loss from the flagrum would result in dehydration and thus Jesus declared from the cross, “I thirst.” Jesus died the way the prophets predicted the Messiah would.

SUBSTITUTE

But why would the Messiah die like a criminal in this excruciating way? The prophets explain. The Messiah would die not for any sins He’s committed—He would commit no sin. He would die to pay the penalty for the sins of others who deserved this type of punishment. But this seems unjust. Why would God let His Messiah suffer in the place of real sinners? Jesus the Messiah Himself explains why. This was because God loved the world, and as the rest of the New Testament explains, He desired to establish a righteous and a legitimate way for sinners to be forgiven and have peace with Him. You see, God who created this world is a righteous God. And because He is righteous, He always punishes sin. Hence, a full payment for sins would be required for sinners to be forgiven. And according to the prophets, the Messiah would voluntarily lay down His life to pay that penalty for sin of sinners so that they can legitimately be forgiven in the sight of God and that they might have peace with God.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

But we might say: this must be for really terribly criminals. My sins are not that bad. I committed no sin that would deserve execution by crucifixion. But God tells us in the Bible that our sins are really this bad—that we even deserve eternal punishment for our sins. The reason why we don’t think our sins are this serious is because our standards are much lower than God’s standards. We might think we’re morally good because we’re not as bad as someone else. But that bar is pretty low, and this is not the standard by which God evaluates our lives. Well, what are God’s standards like? God’s standards are best seen in the one sinless person who lived up to His standards. This is Jesus. He lived a righteous life. All His life, He loved God the Father with all His heart, soul, mind and strength. He lived His life only doing what was pleasing in the eyes of God. He always obeyed what God the Father said. He always spoke the truth. He always showed compassion to the needy. He was never proud or arrogant. He never acted out of selfishness, but always for the good of others. Jesus Himself explained what this was: to love your neighbor as yourself. Now, fast forward to the end of His life, and we get a picture for what it means to love your neighbor as yourself—just one facet of God’s standard of righteousness. We find Jesus at the end of His life and He willingly gives His own life to pay for the sins of others. He lays it down on His own, no one forces it. His sacrifice would allow people to receive God’s forgiveness and have peace with God, which He first-hand experienced because He never sinned and He was never separated from God as we all are. He would willingly be crucified in the place of sinners so that they might have what He had—that others might come to know the love of God in their hearts as He knew it in His, that others might come to have the privilege of knowing God and fellowshipping with Him as He did, that others might come to have the joy of God in their hearts as He did in His. This is loving your neighbor as yourself.

Sinners

Now, this is God’s standard of righteousness: to live a life that always pleases God and then to pay the ultimate price of self-sacrifice out of love for others. Well, how do you measure up? You don’t. None of us do. We all miserably fall short of God’ standard of righteousness. This is why the Bible says we are all sinners and we are all guilty before the God who created this world, who is righteous. And God is fully aware of our plight. We are guilty and are deserving of His punishment for living a life that spurns His righteous and holy and pure and loving standards. But out of His great love, God sent His Son into the world to be man’s substitute, to live a life that we are too sinful to ever live, and then to pay for our sins so that we might receive God’s forgiveness and enter into peace with Him. This is what the prophets predicted that the Messiah would do. And this is exactly what Jesus did for sinners when He died on the cross.

FAITH

Well, how does someone get in on this? How does one receive this forgiveness of God and have peace with God through Jesus? The Bible’s answer is simple: faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Well, how does one take the first steps of faith? Here are some Scriptures to help you with this: “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13) and “if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Call on the Lord Jesus and ask Him: “Lord Jesus, save me from my sins!” Jesus rose from the dead and is alive and He can hear you. Let Him know that you believe Him for who He is: “Lord Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God who came to save me from my sins. I believe You rose from the dead and that You are alive now. I commit my life to honoring You as the Lord and to serving You and obeying You and living my life to please You only.” If you have come to wholeheartedly believe in the person of Jesus for who He is and you have surrendered your life to Him, you have just entered into eternal life. The Holy Spirit of God will testify with your spirit that you are a child of God (Rom. 8:16) and He will begin to sanctify you (1 Pet. 1:2) by making you loathe sin and turn away from selfishness and pride and immorality, and pursue God’s righteousness, love, holiness and purity. You are now an adopted child of God (Eph. 1:5) and the Spirit of God will begin to conform you into the likeness of the only begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. If God has done this marvelous work of saving you, He has a very particular plan for your future. He wants you to be a part of His church community. There, you will learn more about Him through His Word and you will grow in worshipful obedience to Him and you will get to do so, not in isolation, but alongside other children of God who have also been saved in the same way (Eph. 4:11-16). Be sure to find a church where they uphold the Bible as the Word of God, and you will find that they will warmly embrace you into their community by first baptizing you and formally admitting you into their fellowship. If you are in or around Fremont, CA, please reach out to us (we’re in Fremont’s Irvington District). We would love to find out about what God has done in your life and fold you into the community of believers here.