Chapter 17--Why Jesus Had to Live a Whole Life
Everybody knows that Jesus came so that he could die for our sins. But why did he have to live a whole life first and be a baby and a toddler and a child and a teenager? Why couldn’t he just come as a full grown man and then die?
Those are good questions that we don’t think about very often. Jesus death paid the penalty for our sins, but he had to do much more than that. He had to live a perfect life for two reasons: One, so that he could experience every part of human life the way we experience it. And two, so that he could live it out perfectly and sinlessly showing us how to do it and giving us credit for living our lives sinlessly if we trust in Him.
Think about that for a minute. Not only are our sins forgiven, but we are given credit for all the good things we should have done and did not do! That is amazing, outrageous, scandalous grace, but it doesn’t stop there! When he rose from the dead and sent us his Holy Spirit, he empowered us to do right things. We have the power to love and accept others even if they hate us and do mean things to us. We have the power to resist temptation. We have the power to endure persecution even if it means we have to die because we are Christians.
So when you are trudging through your life and you feel down and you are not able to do all the things you should, be grateful that Christ already lived the perfect life in your place and ask him to help you do the right things.
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