Who exactly is Jesus and how can one person really atone for the sins of the world? A lot of people have died for a cause or for people that they love, what make Jesus so much different? Well, Christianity and the Bible teaches that there is a huge difference, and it is that Jesus Christ is fully man and also fully God and thus makes him the only way to enter back into a right relationship with God. I know this sounds crazy, I mean 100% plus 100% equals 200% not one entity, but this is the mystery of the incarnation.
After Adam and Eve sinned and brought death into the world, God had promised to send a way of salvation to us and restore mankind’s relationship with him. This person would be known as the Messiah and would ultimately reconcile God and his people by atoning and bearing their sins. 2,000 years ago, this man was miraculously born of a virgin and grew up just as you or I did, yet without sin. He cried just like us, learned obedience, was a normal guy working a blue collar job, and went through all of the pain and difficulties that we do each and every day.
The difference between Jesus and ourselves is that this person was God incarnate, or literally God in human flesh and was tempted in every way that we are yet he committed no sin or ever did anything wrong. It is extremely important that God became a man, so that he can be our substitute, an example for us to follow in life, and a sympathetic high priest that can mediate between us and God the Father. He can do this because as God he obeyed the law perfectly on our behalf, and when he died on the cross he bore our sins and gave us his perfect righteousness. Theologians call this “substitutionary atonement” and is best summed up in 2 Corinthians 5.21, which states, “For our sake he [God the Father] mad him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we [Christians] might become the righteousness of God.”
This is amazing! The reason why there is grace and forgiveness for Christians today is because Jesus, as a man, lived his life perfectly so that if we place our faith in him we can also have eternal life as we were once created to have so long ago. When you are having difficulties in life and struggling with things, pray and ask Jesus how he conquered the same problems that you have and ask him to give you the strength to do the same. And if you do screw up, (which we all will) there is grace because he lived his life perfectly and to the fullest.
Purposeful Theology 