A most Blessed & Happy Christmas to all!
Jesus came not to condemn us, but to save us (John 3:17). Evil must be judged because God is righteousness, truth and justice one hundred per cent. But He loved us so much that He came. He came to pay the judgment penalty Himself through death on a cross. Only He could pay the price, because He was tested and tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was sinless; and only His shoulders and arms were broad and strong enough to carry the weight of the sins of the whole world.
He came as a baby, lived as a man, and died willingly as a lamb, the Holy Lamb of God, silent before His shearers, says Isaiah, who prophesied hundreds of years before the event.
Only we’re not talking of shearers now: we’re talking of butchers. Jesus willingly suffered the cross and butchery in order to win a way for us to eternal life, absolved from our sins, through faith in Him. What a deal!!! We have only to believe and follow Him. Jesus is truly the greatest gift of all time!
He took our sin-wracked, pain-ridden bodies and gave us a glorious resurrection body to be received when we pass from this life. For our physical death is not final. We live on in the spiritual realm, for we are three-part beings: we are spirit, we have a soul and while on earth we inhabit a body, which decays and dies. Why? Because of the fallout 
from sin. But our spirit and soul (mind, will, emotions, memories, personality) live on. For the believer, however, Jesus took our sins upon Himself and gave us His righteousness in exchange. (2 Cor. 5:21) This is the promise to the Christian believer–eternal life in fellowship with God in a glorious body. The alternative is too dreadful to contemplate. Can you risk that the Bible is really true and that by refusing to believe you will spend eternity in torment? If there’s even a half of one per cent of a chance of your suffering eternal torment, dare you risk it?
Death, sickness and disease are still in the world, as is blindingly obvious. Why? Because God wants everyone to have a chance to be saved through faith in His Son. It must be our freewill choice, not imposed. It must be through faith. But, why doesn’t God simply save everyone regardless? Because He is Light and light cannot fellowship with darkness. He is Holy and Righteous and so cannot fellowship with evil. We can only fellowship with the Holy God through Jesus Christ and Christ’s righteousness. God created us in His own image, which means we have choices that He respects. We are free to choose to reject or deny Him. He put us in charge of the earth, and we continue to be in charge of the earth, and He respects that. So God abides by His choices and so do we. Unfortunately, we chose to go independent of God’s ways, and in so doing we unwittingly became subject to the forces of evil. So we must choose to undo all that by choosing instead to return to Him and His ways, choosing again dependence on Him, not independence from Him, which only leads to eternal damnation.
If we choose Him, He puts His Spirit in us and we are His. We are saved for eternity; and His Spirit works in us to become progressively more like Him. What a deal!!
Do yourself a favor this Christmas. Take up God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. It’s the best and wisest decision of your life. Let us know if you make it. Go to our page Christian Answers and read the answers to questions 1 – 3.
