LESSON 5

GOD TELLS US ABOUT JESUS, PART 1

In the last lesson we saw that all people are sinners who need a savior. Every one of us needs a savior, since we cannot save ourselves. In this lesson, we meet the Savior of the world — Jesus Christ.

It should be obvious by now that we all need a savior from sin. The question is, what kind of a savior do we need?

God says:From this we know:
Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Since God demands that we be perfect, we need a Savior who is able to provide us with the perfection God demands.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.”
Since God requires punishment for every sin, we need a Savior who is able to take away the punishment we deserve.

If someone is going to be our savior, they need to be able to give us the perfection that God demands and to be able to take away the punishment we deserve. If he cannot do that, he cannot be a true savior. We will see that there is someone who meets both of these requirements. His name is Jesus Christ. Who is he?

God says:From this we know:
Matthew 1:21 “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Jesus is our Savior.
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Romans 9:5 “Theirs (the Jews) are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.”
Jesus is truly (100%) God. All things were made by him.
John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
At the same time, Jesus is truly (100%) man.

Jesus Christ is the Savior God promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He is the one God appointed to save people from their sins. He is not half god and half man like the demigods of Greek mythology. Although we cannot understand how, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is at the same time both God and man. He is the God-man. God himself came to earth to save people from their sins. To do this he became a man.

How did God become man?

God says:From this we know:
Luke 1:35 “The angel answered (Mary), “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
Matthew 1:20 “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
By a miracle of the Holy Spirit God’s Son was conceived in the womb of a virgin named Mary.
Luke 2:7 “And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
Matthew 1:23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” —which means, “God with us.”
Mary gave birth to Jesus, God with us.

We can see that God became a man so he could save us from our sins. But why was it necessary for God to become a man in order to be our Savior?

God says:From this we know:
Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”
Romans 5:19 “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
Jesus had to be man in order to be subject to God’s laws for people.
Jesus had to be God in order to keep the law perfectly.
Hebrews 2:14 “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Psalms 49:7-8 “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.”
1 John 2:2 “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Jesus had to be man in order to suffer and die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Jesus had to be God in order for his death to be worth enough to take away the punishment all people deserve.

Who then is Jesus? He is the only person who could perfectly keep God’s commands in our place. He is also the only one who could take away the entire penalty for our sins by suffering the punishment we all deserve. He is the exact Savior that we need.

Jesus came to the earth about 2000 years ago, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross to take away the punishment everyone deserves because of their sins. But how does what Jesus did so long ago help us? Why is it so important to know and trust Jesus?

God says:From this we know:
Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Whoever trusts Jesus to save them from their sins will be saved by him. It does not come from doing good works. Salvation comes by faith (trusting in what Jesus has done) alone.
1 John 2:2 “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Jesus is the Savior everyone needs.
Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Jesus is the only Savior. There is no other way to get to heaven.

God’s love for those he created would not allow him to simply destroy them. Instead, his love moved him to send Jesus, his only Son, to die in their place. This is true love.

QUIZ 5

1. Is Jesus God or is he a man?

Question 1 of 5

2. Why do we need Jesus to save us from our sins?

Question 2 of 5

3. True or False. Jesus had to be both God and man so he could be subject to the law and so he could perfectly obey the law.

Question 3 of 5

4. True or False. Jesus had to be both God and man so his suffering and death would be sufficient payment for the sins of the whole world.

Question 4 of 5

5. What do we have to do to be saved from our sins?

Question 5 of 5


 

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