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The book of Genesis tells us that God created man in His image and likeness to be in fellowship with Him. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve rebelled against God, committing sin which rejected the pure intimate fellowship they had with God and built a barrier between God and them and every other person born after them. Romans 3:23 tells us that”… all have sinned:, then Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.’
But “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Old Testament Solution
Since sin always results in death, God made a way for the remission of sins for the Israelites. Since God’s presence rested in the Most Holy Place (known as the Holy of Holies), the High Priest could enter and only once per year after an elaborate process of purification and blood sacrifice. All through the Old Testament, we see that the only atonement for sin was the blood of a spotless lamb. In the New Testament we read in Hebrews 9:22 that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission”.
His one sacrifice paid for all sin for all time.
New Testament Solution
In the New Testament, we see Jesus come as the spotless and only lamb of God. He would be the final sacrifice that would forever satisfy the need to atone for sin. Everything that the sacrificial lambs accomplished in the Old Testament, Jesus accomplished in the New Testament with one difference. His one sacrifice paid for all sin for all time.
By Jesus’s death, we are delivered from sin, because He forever redeemed the requirement of death. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He provided a perfect spotless lamb to fulfil the sentence of death for all mankind if we call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
Jesus’s payment for our sin not only cleanses us and saves us from death; it redeems us and reconciles us to God so that we can have the intimate fellowship with Him that was lost in the Garden. This intimate fellowship provides the understanding of God’s love for you and me, and the benefit of the complete and total victory Christ paid for by his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.
This is the great news of the celebration of the resurrection that the world calls Easter. Won’t you share this message with someone today, so they can understand the true meaning of this holiday that is recognized as the one act of love that changed the world.
