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Jesus Just Loves You to Death

by Alan Allegra  
10/13/2020 / Salvation

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine. My sins my own. They belong to me, me” (Patti Smith, “Gloria”).

In her famous, controversial song, Patti Smith told a half-truth. Her sins were hers, but Jesus did die for those sins. Believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins is essential to receiving Him as Lord and Savior. Why must this be? Let’s start at the beginning.

Disobedience to God brings death. God warned the first humans what would happen, and it did. “[B]ut of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Because of the first couple’s sin, death was passed down to all mankind because everyone sins. This is not only physical death, but spiritual death, separation from God: “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9), known as hell (Luke 12:5).

The bible drives home the fact that this includes everyone: “[F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). No one is excluded.

God is just, “who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:7). God must punish sin, but He is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). So, the good news is that God, in order to spare us, took the punishment on Himself in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Let that sink in!

You might say, “What does this have to do with me?” Let the apostle Paul answer: “[W]e have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died” (2 Corinthians 5:14). Jesus died for ALL, because ALL of us have died in sin. We know that death stalks everyone, because, as we saw above, all have sinned.

Remember we said that spiritual death is separation from God? When Jesus died on the cross, He became temporarily separated from God, and He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). This was Jesus bearing the punishment for our sin on the cross — This is why He had to die on the cross.

Remember the line from Patti Smith’s song above? She was wrong about Jesus dying for somebody else’s sins but not hers. He died on the cross for EVERYONE’s sins. However, that does not free us by default — we need to accept that fact with repentant, loving hearts, or else we will pay for our sins ourselves. It’s like someone coming and putting money in your bank account to pay off your mortgage so you don’t have to. If you don’t take the gift, you pay it yourself.

Ms. Smith got it right when she said, “My sins my own. They belong to me, me.” Surely, they do; but God gave those sins to Jesus to own when He died on the cross. There is no other way of salvation. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8 – 9). It’s very simple: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Alan is editor of Lifestyles Over 50 (Thrive Media) and contributor to the Allentown, PA, Morning Call. He is also an adult Sunday school teacher and Bible study leader. Passionate about reviving theology and church methodology, and being a senior citizen!

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