What do the following texts tell us about Jesus and how we are to view Him? 1 John 2:6, Gal. 4:19
Without question, Jesus is the model man. His life—His character—is the example that all who follow Him should seek by God’s grace to emulate. Jesus is the only perfect example we have in terms of how to live the kind of life to which God calls us.
Still, Jesus didn’t come to this earth merely to give us an example. Our situation as sinners called for more than just character development, as if reforming our characters and molding us into His image is all that His work as Redeemer required. We need more than that; we need a Substitute, Someone to pay the penalty for our sins. He came not just to live a perfect life as an example to us all; He came also to die the death that we deserve so that His perfect life can be credited to us as our own.
What do the following texts teach about the necessity of Christ’s death for us? Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22, Luke 24:7, Gal. 2:21.
Jesus had to die for us because obedience to the law, though central to the Christian life, is not what saves the fallen. “Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law” (Gal. 3:21, NKJV). If any law could save a sinner, it would be God’s, but even that law can’t save us. Only the perfect life of our perfect Example, Jesus, could save us, and so Christ came to offer Himself as “one sacrifice for sins forever” (Heb. 10:12, NKJV).
| How does your own record of law-keeping show you your need of a Substitute? |
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