God is good! What are you supposed to say?
*All the time!* (no prizes for this one, though)
Recently, it was Good Friday. What is it's purpose? Well, let me start with a story. Here is how it went.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He really did a great job at that. Creating man wasn't an easy job though, but it was a job well done. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
His creation would have been perfect, if not for one thing. Any guesses?
Sin. Slowly creeping in as a stealthy serpent, it went on it's way to deceive. Guess what? Man fell for the trick. (It was something about eating a fruit, but the fruit wasn't an apple) Man sinned.

You heard some evangelist saying that God is all-loving, all-forgiving... ... That's only one side of the coin. God is just. God is pure. God is holy. He's some sort like the ultimate judge. Now, the problem is that man sinned. This is what the first part of Romans 6:23 says.

'For the wages of sin is death...'

Imagine the death penalty. Frightening, isn't it? Well, the death that you are going to experience on this earth is the first death. It is the physical death. Yet is is so frightening. Guess what? The second death is worse. Imagine being in hell. (Bet'ya got an idea of it.) I wouldn't want to describe it, so let's move on. We are talking about the second death here.

'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...' Romans 3:23

Yea, we all have sinned. Don't tell me you didn't. You have certainly lied before, right? You have certainly hurt someone with your words, right? Small deeds of sin is still sin. Imagine a clean white piece of paper. Whether if it is a small dot created by a pencil or a big black line created by a marker, the paper is not white anymore. That's sin on us.

However, our God up there loves us. Of course, if not why would He spend time to create us? He could have just done away with the sixth day of his creation and get one more rest day. He loves us, but he is pure. He HATES sin. That's what we have. Imagine buying a ream of paper and to your horror, discover that each and every piece has a little pencil mark. Even worse, each piece has a big black line drawn in different directions. I bet your first reaction is to send in that pile for a refund, right? But God loves us, it's like us loving that pile of paper and yet detesting those ink marks, so what could God do?

Yea, around 2000 years ago, a great desicion was made. God as a human, as the bible says 'the Word became flesh'. He became a human by the name of 'Jesus'. By the way, sin has been passed down from generation to generation, but Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was born without sin, unlike us. He was the Saviour, and that was what happened 33 years later; God on the cross, dying for our very sins.

You may say, why God? Why can't we just put our sin on some other human who has sinned? Why must we need someone pure? Well, I'll use this story to illustrate.

Once upon a time, there were a group of bandits from a country who plundered. . However, the bandits were the sons of the king. One day, a complaint came from a citizen. The bandits in their fury, had chopped off one of his hands, and that he didn't want any monetary compensation; he wanted justice. However, the king loved his sons very much and did not put to death any of his sons...

Let's pause here. Imagine us, all being like the group of bandits. We all have the death penalty on our very heads. We cannot just pass it to another 'bandit'. All of us are doomed to die for our own sins. So, passing on our death penalty to another person on the death row would mean nothing. However, Jesus did not have the death penalty on his head. He was without sin. On that fateful Friday, history saw it's greatest deed being done.

What did that king do? He took out a sword and cut off his hand in front of that citizen. He provided the pardon for his undeserving sons.

What did Jesus do? He willingly led Himself to the cruel cross and have hinself painfully pierced. As His blood slowly dripped, He took the very sins of us. He provided the pardon for his undeserving people. He provided the pardon for our sins.

Now, it's up to us. We can believe that Jesus died for us, or we can believe that it is just another fable or fairy tale.
Here's the whole verse of Romans 6:23.
'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

Praise the Lord! Trusting Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven. Jesus, not other gods. Not good deeds. Jesus! The moment you trust in Jesus and decide to serve him, you are saved, free from the grasp of sin. Have you made the choice to follow Jesus? Do it today, wait no longer, and you'll be a child of the Most High God!