He boldly claimed to have the authority to forgive sins. Rather than coming in judgment, He claimed to be able to restore estranged children to a gracious Father. He said He would do this by suffering and dying in their place and rising again in victory over sin and death. Jesus’ claim to being the Son of God should not have been unexpected, however. For centuries leading up to His birth, Jewish prophets had been delivering promises from God regarding the birth, ministry, and death of a coming Saviour. These predictions are found even in the earliest Old Testament writings – promises that spoke of a Child born of a virgin, of a King born in the town of Bethlehem, of a suffering Servant who, though innocent, would be condemned to die.

Jesus fulfilled all these promises, and in doing so became the Saviour for all those that follow him.

Jesus’ work is all that is necessary to save us from our sins, and in this we find the difference between Christianity and all other religions. Christianity is not a moral code by which we make ourselves better people or earn our own salvation; rather, it is the story of what Jesus Christ has done for us. But Jesus’ message will be unintelligible to us unless we realize that we can never save ourselves. We can never do enough good to earn God’s approval. We can never even begin to pay for the wrong we have done.

All we can do is trust Jesus to save us.

Nevertheless, even though we cannot do anything to save ourselves, Jesus is hard at work transforming the lives of all true believers through His Holy Spirit. Rather than trying to save ourselves, we will begin to humbly and gratefully live for Him. Even though we will still struggle with sin throughout our lives, we do so knowing that the battle is already won!

This struggle with sin will not last forever, though. One day, Jesus will return and completely remove all sin, suffering, and death from our world. Until then we will continue to struggle with sin and temptation, but in the midst our struggle and weakness Jesus will work powerfully in and through us.

If you are not yet trusting in Jesus to save you, we encourage you to read the Bible, as it is through the Bible that God promises to work salvation in everyone who believes. We would love to answer any questions you might have and pray for you during this process, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.