Understanding Why: Part II

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

-  Luke 24:25-27

In the last post, we examined this verse and saw that unless you understand why Jesus had to come, die, and be resurrected, you are “foolish and slow to believe”. We see from Jesus’ words that it is not a story that begins with Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. The story begins in the Old Testament and is told throughout ALL of scripture.

From beginning the story has always been about God. Humanity is never the focus of the story and if you read through scripture focusing on humanity, then you are going to miss the bigger picture. When you closely examine every ounce of the Old Testament you will find that it is all about God, his faithfulness, his compassion, and his unrelenting love for his people. The Old Testament tells a story of God’s creating man, man’s running from God, and God pursuing man anyway, God loving them anyway. It is one big game of hide and seek that God refuses to quit playing. The OT prophets and teachings all point toward God and the coming of the Savior that all humanity needs because of the sin that is so rampantly displayed by all people, especially God’s chosen.

This Savior was born in Bethlehem. His name was Jesus. His birth and life split history into two parts. He changed everything. He saved everything. Jesus is both fully God and fully human. Because God is a loving God, he must also judge. You cannot have a loving God without a just God. The wages of sin is death and humanity deserves judgment for their sin. Every single person, as highlighted in the Old and New Testaments, deserves judgment and hell. Because God loves humanity, he must also judge humanity. But he God loves humanity SO much that he sent Jesus to take our place, to bear the sin of all history. Jesus came to die. He took the punishment that we deserve. He was beaten, ridiculed, and crucified in your place. Someone had to suffer. We deserve it, and yet Jesus suffered in our place out of inexplicable love for all of humanity. But the story doesn’t end with his death. Jesus comes back to life having conquered death and sin through his resurrection. Not only did he take our punishment, he rose victorious over sin and death and entered into his glory! He defeated the sin of all humanity and made it obsolete through his saving grace. THAT is why the Messiah, Jesus, had to suffer these things and then enter into his glory. And the beautiful part for us is that through Jesus we may also enter into his glory.

Understanding why Jesus came is what the Gospel is all about it. It isn’t about you and it isn’t about me. It isn’t about humans getting to go to heaven or being a good person. It is about God and his incredible love for us in spite of ourselves. God has done everything, but he still requires repentance of humanity. Repentance means turning away from our sin and turning toward God. In order for full reconciliation and restoration to occur, we must acknowledge that we are broken and we cannot fix ourselves. We are completely consumed in and by the sin that Jesus died for until we come running to him confessing that we cannot do it on our own and that we need him to save us. And the beautiful thing is that heaven explodes with celebration when we realize our brokenness and need for a Savior. This is the Gospel story.

This is the shortest possible version of the story. If you want to know the full story then please let me know and I would be glad to do my best help you work through that. If you have any questions or comments or push backs then please feel free to comment or send me a message/email.