I like things to be simple. The Bible is complicated sometimes. There are so many stories that it can be overwhelming at time. This blog is my attempt to simplify the story of Jesus in my mind, and hopefully yours as well. If you know Jesus, maybe it will be a good refresher. If you don't....just check it out. At the very least, you'll hear a pretty amazing story. His story.
At first there was nothing. Then God made the world, and He made everything in it too. He made a man. Next, He made a helper for the man, called woman. Their names were Adam and Eve. God put Adam in charge of a very special and beautiful garden called Eden. Adam and Eve could eat anything they wanted to in this fantastic garden, except for one tree. God told them not to eat from this one tree, or they would die. God gave them a choice to obey. They chose to disobey. Satan, the deceiver, tempted Eve to eat fruit from the tree, and she fell into the temptation and sinned. She gave some to her husband, Adam, and he sinned too. It may not seem like such a big deal to you. Yeah, it's just fruit right? See, the problem was that they disobeyed. Anything that we do that disobeys God is sinful. And sin and God don't mix. God is perfect, so sin is just not a part of Him. Sin equals death. Adam and Eve were warned that if they ate that fruit, they would face death. The death was not immediate. They didn't fall flat on their faces dead the moment the fruit touched their mouths. The fruit wasn't poisonous. The disobedience, the sin, was the death factor. They were sent away from the special garden and away from God. At that point, sin became a part of the world. Every one that has lived has sinned. In fact, they were born with a sinful nature. As humans, we desire to do sinful, selfish things. That's where our big problem comes in. The sin problem.
Time passes. Adam and Eve have children. Their children have children. Sin continues to be a big problem. It just gets bigger and bigger. It gets so bad in fact that God decides to destroy the earth by a flood, leaving only a few good people to repopulate the world. I'm sure you've heard that story: Noah and the Ark. So Noah and his family repopulate the world. But remember like I mentioned before, people have a sinful nature so sin was still a problem. But God had a plan.
God had a plan for a man named Abram. (Who his name later gets changed to Abraham.) God promised Abraham that he would make his family into a great nation and that his family would be blessed. Abraham's family's story is very interesting, and if you have never read it I encourage you to check it out, starting in Genesis 12. But for times sake, and for the sake of my fingers who get worn out after too much typing, I'll summarize. God gave Abraham everything He promised. A great big family tree and wonderful blessings. God renamed one of Abraham's grandson's Israel. (His given name was Jacob.) Israel/Jacob had a whole bunch of sons, and they became known as the 12 tribes of Israel aka: the Israelites. Those people were known as God's chosen people. God gave them a special land, called the promised land and they were successful in many ways. However, they went through a lot of struggles. Many of these struggles, they brought on themselves because they still had that sin problem, and a lot of times they were disobedient to God.
Another important man in this story is named Moses. Moses was a leader of the Israelites. He helped lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. God also chose to give Moses commands and laws to share with the people. These laws were given so that the people could deal with their sin problem. The laws would help them be holy. The people were taught how to receive forgiveness from their sin. Remember we said that sin equals death. They had to make sacrifices to atone for their sin.
Many, many years passed. The Israelites were still God's chosen people. They had their glory days when everything was going great. They conquered other nations, they had wealth beyond measure, they had wonderful leaders. Unfortunately, along with the glory days, they had some not-so-fantastic days as well. Evil kings, famine, idol worship, poverty, and a split kingdom. Many more years passed. They were still God's chosen people.
I used to wonder about why the Israelites were God's chosen people. What makes them so special? Why did God give them good land? Why did He allow them to conquer all these nations? I am not biblical scholar, but I think I am beginning to understand. See, remember that guy Abraham? He was promised a great nation and promised to be blessed. I doubt Abraham really understood the blessing that he was going to receive. But a big, huge part of his blessing was to be the great, great, great, great, great, great....great......great......great granddad of the Man who was going to solve the sin problem.
That man was Jesus. I assume that you've heard the Christmas story. You know about the manger, the virgin, the wise men so I won't go into great detail. (If not you can find all about it starting in Luke 1.) Jesus is God's Son. He is also God. So, as we said, God is perfect. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life. Sin equals death. Since He had no sin, He didn't deserve death. However, all of humanity does.
God's plan was this: The perfect Jesus, took our place. He took the punishment for sin, even though He was sinless. Because of Jesus' sacrifice our sins can be forgiven and our hearts can be clean. That is exactly what Jesus did. He was killed by crucifixion, one of the most painful ways to die. If you read the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) you can read all about the events that led up to Jesus' death. His teaching, miracles, and ministry. Then about His friend, Judas, betraying Him and handing Him over to the people who wanted Him dead. It's a really sad story. But, the story gives me hope because it was all in God's plan all along. In fact, if you look back in the Old Testament there were prophets who foretold the events surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
So, Jesus died. Most people's stories end at their death. The cool thing about Jesus' story is that His death was when things really started happening! He was dead. Then he was alive again! Seriously. Literally, alive again. Over 500 people got to see Him, and historical documents besides the Bible tell about His resurrection. People touched Him too. And he ate. So, He was really alive. No ghost or anything weird going on here. Literally alive again. Cool huh? (I realize this is getting long. Sorry, I'm really trying to summarize. There is just so much to tell. Hang in there. we're almost through!)
After spending 40 days hanging out with His disciples and basically letting other people know He was really alive, He goes to heaven. He commands His disciples and followers to tell others about Him, and He explains that He will come back one day. No one really knows when He's going to come back. But, we do know that when He does it will be for judgement. Followers of God will have the reward of eternal life with our perfect God. Those who do not follow Jesus, will face the punishment of death, and eternal separation from God in Hell, a horrible, painful place. Because remember, sin equals death. The only way that followers get out of facing that terrible consequence is because Jesus took away our sin by dying in our place.
I know some people that read my blog, know all this very well. If you do, awesome. But if you are wondering so how do I end up becoming a follower of God, I can simply say: Your relationship with God can start with a prayer and a commitment. You have to tell God that you believe in Him and believe that Jesus is God's son. You have to admit that you have a sin problem, and you need his forgiveness and sacrifice. Then you have to commit your life to Him. This isn't just a quick little prayer that you say and then forget all about it. This is a life commitment. Everything about you will change. You still won't be perfect because remember, humans have that sinful nature. But, you will want to serve Him and follow Him. And most importantly, you will be His child.
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