Umerited Redemption

"...and you are to name him Jesus,^[a] for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)...as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,  so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life." (John 3:13-14)

       When Adam sinned in the garden he ushered in death for all humanity. It wasn't God's intent for mankind, but since He so graciously afforded to us the ability to choose (free will), we chose to partake of death just to have the knowledge of good and evil instead of life. Those were the two choices back in Genesis, for among all those trees two stood out... the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And because they disregarded God's command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin made its debut into humanity. And the only reward for sin was death. (see Romans 6:23a)

       Fortunately for us it doesn't end there. If we were under the law (before Christ) it would have ended there, because there was nothing that could atone for our sin except an unblemished animal. As the ritual went, annually the priest would pray all of our sins and then slaughter the animal and sacrifice it unto God. God saw to it that no more would there be this ritual to atone for all our sins, hence the continuance of Romans 6:23. ("but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord") It costs you nothing to receive this from God, but you must consider what it cost Him?

        In Moses' time as He was leading the people into the promised land, they began to complain about an assortment of things and they began to grow very sick. Moses pleaded to God on their behalf and God told Moses to put a bronze snake on a stick and hold it up and whoever saw it would be saved. (Numbers 21) Jesus, became that bronze snake for us. He was lifted up on the cross for all mankind to see, so that whoever looked upon Him and believed would be cleansed and have eternal life.(John 3) Isn't there enough proof to show you that while we were not worthy of any of this... Christ came and set us free? How could one man pay so much and demand so little? Just believe is all He asks. At times I wonder why is it so hard for us to comply with His simplest demand?