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<\/a>\u201cDid you shoot that man?\u201d\u00a0 the judge asked the murderer.<\/p>\n\u201cYes, I did,\u201d he admitted.\u00a0 \u201cI never did like him and I was tired of looking at him, so I just got rid of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
What if the judge said, \u201cWell, I\u2019m in an especially good mood today, so we\u2019ll just overlook it.\u00a0 You go on home and we\u2019ll just act like it never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Would you say, \u201cOh, what a good judge.\u00a0 He was so kind and forgiving!\u201d<\/p>\n
No, you would say, \u201cWhat a rotten judge! He let that guy get by with murder. He\u2019s not fair!\u201d<\/p>\n
You probably never shot anyone, but you are still guilty.\u00a0 I am, too. The Bible says that \u201call have sinned and come short of the glory of God\u201d (Romans 3:23).That means that none of us are good enough for God.\u00a0 God is holy.\u00a0 He has never done wrong \u2013 and can\u2019t bear to have the filthiness of sin around Him.<\/p>\n
We might think, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve only done little things wrong.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never murdered anyone or anything really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
To God every sin is a big sin.\u00a0 The Bible says that if we do even one thing wrong, we deserve to be punished forever in hell.If God just said, \u201cThat\u2019s okay, you can come on up into Heaven anyway,\u201d He would be just like that unjust judge.\u00a0 He would be unfair.\u00a0 We deserve to be punished, and if God didn\u2019t give out our punishment, He would be as guilty as we are.\u00a0I\u2019m glad that\u2019s not the end of the story, though!\u00a0 I\u2019m glad that God loved us enough to make a way for us to be forgiven.<\/p>\n
One day a man named Nicodemus came to Jesus and asked him about how to be right with God.\u00a0 Jesus told him a story from the Old Testament to help him understand.\u00a0You see, God\u2019s people, the Israelites, had been disobedient.\u00a0 They\u00a0 complained against God and demanded their own way.\u00a0 They were so wicked that God sent poisonous snakes to bite them.\u00a0 The people who were bitten by snakes became sick and many of them died.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk God to forgive us,\u201d the sick people begged Moses, their leader.\u00a0 \u201cAsk Him to take away the snakes and make us well again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moses did ask God to forgive the foolish people.\u00a0 God told Moses to make a brass snake and put it up on a tall pole.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell the people that if they want to be well, they must look up at the pole,\u201d God told Moses.<\/p>\n
Moses did as God said.<\/p>\n
Can you imagine how surprised the Israelites must have been?\u00a0 Look up at a brass snake!\u00a0 What good would that do?\u00a0 Some of them may have thought, \u201cI\u2019m too sick to go out and look at a snake on a pole.\u00a0 I better just take care of this snakebite the best way I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others may have tried snake bit remedies.\u00a0 Maybe they cut the place where the snake bit them and tried to suck out the poison. Those who didn\u2019t believe God and tried to take care of their sickness themselves all died.\u00a0 Those who trusted God and went out to look at the snake on the pole were made well.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like that snake was lifted up on a pole in the wilderness,\u201d Jesus told Nicodemus.\u00a0 \u201cSo the Son of Man must be lifted up.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was saying that\u00a0 Nicodemus\u00a0 \u2013 and all of us, too \u2013 have a spiritual snake-bite.\u00a0 We are all poisoned with sin.\u00a0 If we try to cure our sinful nature ourselves, we\u2019re in for trouble.<\/p>\n
Some people try to heal their sin by giving money to the poor.\u00a0 Others think that baptism and church membership will save them.\u00a0 They are all doomed to fail \u2013 because there is nothing we can do to get rid of our sins.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad that God did something to take care of them.\u00a0 All sin must be punished.\u00a0 God sent his own son, Jesus, to earth.\u00a0 He lived a perfect life \u2013 without one single sin.\u00a0 Then, He allowed wicked men to put Him to death on the cross.\u00a0 That\u2019s what He meant when He said, \u201cThe Son of Man must be lifted up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can you imagine how painful that must have been?\u00a0 First the Romans soldiers beat him with whips\u00a0 that had glass embedded in them so that his back was torn to ribbons. \u00a0They put a crown of sharp thorns on his head and spit on him and pulled out his beard.Then they stripped him naked and drove huge spikes through his hands and feet onto the heavy wooden cross.When they turned the cross upright,\u00a0 all his weight hung from his hands and feet.\u00a0 The pain must have been horrible.<\/p>\n
The pain wasn\u2019t the worst part, though.\u00a0 The worst part was that while He was there on the cross, God put the shame and guilt\u00a0 we deserved on Jesus.\u00a0 All sin must be punished by an eternity in hell.\u00a0 God poured out His wrath on Jesus and He paid that punishment His people had earned.<\/p>\n
The holy God can\u2019t bear to look on sin,\u00a0 so He had to turn His back on His own Son.\u00a0 Jesus hung there on the cross, alone, bearing our sins.\u00a0 In a way, He went to hell in our place.<\/p>\n
Is just knowing about Jesus\u2019 sacrifice enough to save us?\u00a0 Was it enough for the wicked Israelites to know that the snake was up on the pole?No, the Israelites had to go out and look up at the snake.\u00a0 They had to believe God and do what He said.<\/p>\n
We aren\u2019t saved by just knowing that Jesus died on the cross.\u00a0 We must believe Him and look to Him.\u00a0 We must give up our own attempts to manage our lives, and surrender to Him in faith, trusting in what He did for us to save us.<\/p>\n
Check it Out<\/p>\n
It\u2019s always best to check out everything you read and hear with the Bible to see if it is so.\u00a0 Look at these verses and check out the Bible study you\u2019ve just read.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 The story of Jesus and Nicodemus is in John 3:1-21.<\/p>\n
What did Jesus say would happen to people who believe in Him? (verse 15)<\/p>\n
Why did God send His Son to die? (verse 16)<\/p>\n
2. The story of the serpent in the wilderness is in Numbers 21:4-9.<\/p>\n
What did the Israelites do wrong? (verse 5)<\/p>\n
What did God do to the Israelites? (verse 6)<\/p>\n
What did God tell Moses to do after the Israelites were sorry for their sin? (verse 8)<\/p>\n
What happened to those who looked at the serpent? (verse 9)<\/p>\n
3. Romans 3 tells about why we all need to be saved.<\/p>\n
Look at Romans 3:23.\u00a0 Who is a sinner?<\/p>\n
Does \u201call\u201d include you?<\/p>\n
A \u201cwage\u201d is something you earn.\u00a0 If you work , you have a paycheck coming to you. You earned it. According to Romans<\/p>\n
6:23, what wage does sin earn?<\/p>\n
A gift is something you don\u2019t deserve. What is the \u201cgift\u201d of God? (Romans 6:23)<\/p>\n
Do you understand now why not everyone is headed for Heaven?<\/p>\n
Are you ready for Heaven?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever wondered why God doesn\u2019t just forgive everyone and let everyone into Heaven? Why do we need to be saved from sin?To help us understand, let\u2019s think of an imaginary situation.\u00a0 Suppose a man shot his neighbor.\u00a0Someone called the police\u00a0 and in due process he was brought before the judge. \u201cDid you shoot…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n