THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST: JESUS CAME TO PUT AWAY SIN

The Apostle John assures us that we can know "that he was manifested to take away our sins" (1 John 3:5). Jesus was speaking of His crucifixion and death when He said, "For this cause came I into the world" (John 18:37). The Apostle Paul says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief"

(1 Timothy 1:15). Jesus Christ came to Bethlehem primarily to die. He came to earth as the Baby of Bethlehem in order that He might later become the Christ of Calvary.

All humans have sinned. Every one of us has fallen short of the standard which God demands. And our sin places a separation between us and God. The gulf between us and God is so wide, and the separation is so great, that none of us by his own efforts is able to close it.

Many seem to think that the gulf between sinful humans and a holy God can be closed by good works. If you say so many prayers, and give so many alms or make a pilgrimage to some holy place--these things somehow are supposed to erase a sinner's guilt. But this will never do. There is a penalty for disobedience, and no amount of carefulness afterward will atone for the past disobedience. If we fall short of God's standard on Monday, we can never erase that guilt by walking straight on Tuesday. No person can erase his own guilt, and neither can any other human being erase it for him. All persons, no matter how upright and morally clean they are living-still have come short of God's demands and thus need to be saved. Mortal sinful men and women cannot save themselves.

All human beings need a Savior, no matter how upright and sincere they are, and the message of Christmas is this: "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). The brightest message that has ever been delivered to the human family is the glad news that in some mysterious way (which we will never be able to quite fully comprehend), Jesus Christ puts himself underneath our sin, and lifts it off from our souls, and takes it away.

The Apostle John declares that Jesus Christ was manifested "to take away our sins" (1 John 3:5).take away" simply mean that He removes the guilt and punishment of sin by paying the price. The angel said to Joseph, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

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God did not become a man merely to teach us how to live. Christ did not come into the world primarily to perform miracles. Jesus came into the world primarily to journey toward the cross. And Jesus' death on the cross was an act by which He made it possible for us to be delivered from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the beloved Son (Colossians 1:13).