Who is Jesus?
God told Adam that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die physically and spiritually. When he ate of the tree, death entered into the world affecting all of creation leading to the world we see today.
We saw earlier that because of this imputed sin, brought on by Adam’s disobedience, we all became guilty in the eyes of God. God must punish sin because he is holy and just, but because of his love for us, Jesus, the Son of God, took that punishment upon himself because He didn’t want to be eternally separated from us.
This was their plan from the very beginning. “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:17-21).”
Why did Jesus come?
In Genesis Chapter 3:15 we see that God planned a way to redeem those who were under the law of death through a descendant of Eve.
Speaking to Satan God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
This is the first prophecy of the coming Messiah to be mentioned. The offspring mentioned here, that would bruise the head of Satan would later be revealed to be Jesus.
As we discussed previously there are hundreds of prophesies that have come true regarding the man Jesus. That He would be born of a virgin, that He would be born in Bethlehem, and that He would take away the sins of the world. “He is the propitiation (appeasement of God’s wrath) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2).”
So, throughout the Old Testament, there was promised a Messiah that would pay for the sins of humanity. Bringing reconciliation between God and man.
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time (1 Timothy 2:5-6).”
Written long before Jesus was physically born the prophet Isaiah wrote: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).”