John 3:18 reminds us of a wonderful resolution to a horrific reality.
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Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
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Jesus didn’t come to earth to condemn us…we were already that way from birth…separated from God. Desperately sad, but true.
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So, we need a Savior to release us from the prison of sin we’re born into. The cost to Christ to make a way for our release was a hideous and painful death. Yet, He came to smash the walls of separation…so we can enter the Holy of Holies to be ‘with’ Him.
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As my pastor reminded us last week, Numbers 21:9 (NIV) foretells of Jesus’ death on the cross:
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Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
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As the Old Testament story illustrates, we gain freedom as we look to Him just as the Israelites looked to the serpent on the pole in the desert for healing.
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Below is a poem I wrote based on this glorious solution to a terrible predicament.
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BORN CONDEMNED
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We’re born confined, where hardened walls
Stand painfully thick and tall
No way to move beyond my cell
Just empty days and darkened halls.
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Under curse of Adam’s sin
Stuck so firm, confined with him!
Escape seems far and fleeting now
Sunny prospects seem so dim.
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Living there so chained and weak
Cell walls were terribly
Pressing in and solid through
Opposed to Thine and Thee.
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But one grand day I hear of news
Of a prisoners death for me
Who came to live and die alone
To die to set me free
To take away the chains I wear
To make a way from evil’s snare.
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All I had to do was look
To Him to trust for life
He shook my walls and tore them down
His peace now found in strife.
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Now I walk where’re I wish
Now I’m truly free
No chains or walls to hold me back
My life consumed by Thee.
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John 3:16 says it all:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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PRAYER
May the Lord bless and keep you and may His hand of peace, grace and truth break down the walls that separate us from Him.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
