Game Changer by Larry Perry
John 3:16-17 English Standard Version
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Just as Jesus announced to Nicodemus in yesterday’s reading, now is the time. If anyone has never understood why God should choose to sacrifice His only son to offer the gracious free gift of salvation, let it be known, now is the time to receive Him. This was the only way God could justify man’s presence in His Temple.
Jeremiah 5:4 English Standard Version (ESV) Then I said, “These are only the poor; they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God.
Only God could justify a people who were helpless to help themselves. To satisfy His Holiness and justify mankind, He had to come and execute justice on their behalf. He had to become the acceptable substitute in order to set man free from the snare of sin.
Romans 3:24-26 English Standard Version
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Propitiation means acceptable substitute. His sacrifice had to be perfect in order to have the power to do only what God can do, to set aside sin in order to have a relationship with mankind. He is just because He did nothing wrong in living life as the Son of Man. His sacrifice is spotless as demanded by the sacrifices for the sins of the nation.
His sacrifice had to be a free will offering in order that the gift of salvation could also be free.