Jesus Changes Everything

Jesus’ Early Days

Have you ever thought about what Jesus was like when He was younger? I assume that He was a lot like all of us. He had parents that raised Him. He crawled. He had to learn to walk and to talk. He went through puberty and adolescence. He had emotions. He felt joy and sadness. He got tired. Like us, He was tempted. Yet, throughout His life, Jesus never sinned.

1 Peter 2:22 says, “He committed no sin nor was deceit found in His mouth.”

Jesus’ Personhood

Jesus was conceived by the perfection of God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20) within Mary. Because Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, He was not born a sinner like the rest of mankind (Romans 5:12). He was fully man, but also He was fully God (Philippians 2:6-11; Hebrews 2:14). From His birth to His crucifixion, Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life. 

Why is this so important? It is, in fact, one of the pillars of the Christian faith. Because we are born sinners, we are helpless to obtain our own salvation (Romans 3:23). In order to satisfy God, our holy, righteous Judge, we would have to live perfect sinless lives and keep God’s Law perfectly in order to enter heaven (Revelation 21:27). There is absolutely no way that any human can do that!

So God sent us Jesus, His Son, in the likeness of human flesh to be a perfect substitute to absorb all of God’s wrath, which is our punishment for sin (Romans 8:3). The innocent dying for the guilty. We see this theme throughout the Bible.

The author of Hebrews writes, “For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin” (4:15).

Because Jesus is fully man, He is merciful, patient, and experiences pain and suffering. He understands our struggle with sin because He also was tempted to sin (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13). Jesus, the Son of God, born of a virgin, lived a sinless perfect life. He died the death that each one of us deserves. Now we can trade our sin for His righteousness and receive the gift of salvation (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the Great Exchange!

Jesus’ Perfect Sacrifice

I know what some of you may be thinking, “What’s the big deal?! I learned this before I was saved.” Though it seems like an elementary idea to the Christian faith, it is not something that we simply learn and move on from. Take a minute to think deeply about this truth. 

What if Jesus had been born a sinner? If Jesus had not been perfect, then He would need a Savior, just like us, to avoid God’s wrath and enter heaven. If He had not been fully God, then He would simply be a man trying to pay the price for sin. No man can do this! We would be without hope with no way to obtain forgiveness, mercy, or salvation. We would be condemned to spend eternity in hell.

Thank God that is not the case! Jesus, alone, fully God, perfect and sinless, is the only way for us to reach God, to reach heaven, and to receive salvation (John 14:6, John 6:44, Acts 4:12). This truth isn’t relevant just for the moment we come to a saving faith in Jesus. It impacts our every moment of every day. Without Jesus’ sinless life, we would be hopeless. 

Jesus changes everything!

All we must do in order to receive the gift of God, the gift of heaven, and the gift of salvation is to repent of our sins, confess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead (1 John 1:9, Romans 10:9). Jesus lives, and what He did on the cross still saves us!

Grace and peace unto you,