Question 71 & 72

Jesus is the son of God. He was one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit* before he made all things. But when he came as a man, he came as a servant.

 

Jesus was the one who came to ‘save his people from their sins.’ He was the son that God promised to Abraham.* He was the prophet* who would be greater than Moses.* Jesus was the son that God promised to David.* He would rule a kingdom* that would never end. But Jesus did not look like a king. He did not live in a big house.[1] He did not guide a great army.

 

In many ways, Jesus was a common man. As a boy, he grew up in a carpenter’s home. He grew and learned. He honored* his parents. He was meek and humble.[2] He was kind to people who were sick and broken. Jesus went toward people that most people went away from. He sometimes told people that God sent him to give good news to poor people. He sent him to heal people whose hearts* were sad. God sent him to make the blind to see and help those who were in trouble. The common people were glad to hear this.

 

From the time he was a boy, Jesus knew that he had come from God. He knew that God was his father. So, he lived his life to please his father in every way.[3] Jesus did all that his father wanted him to do. He obeyed the law* that God gave Moses. Jesus brought honor to his father in all that he did. He obeyed his father, even when it meant that he would suffer.

 

It is in this way that Jesus was different from any other person who ever lived. Jesus pleased God in everything he did. He did all of the things God asked him to do. He loved God the Father with all of his heart and soul* and mind. He never had an evil* thought. He never spoke an evil word. Jesus was without sin.

 

Sin is doing what we should not do. Sin is not doing what we should do. Sin is when we break God’s law. Sin is when we rebel against God.[4] But Jesus never sinned. He never did anything that did not please God.

 

Every person who has been born after Adam* and Eve* has been born in sin. Everyone who has had a human father and mother has a sin nature.[5] But Jesus had no human father. Jesus was the one and only son of the eternal* God. He was born without sin.

 

Jesus was holy. The word ‘holy’ means set apart. When we say that Jesus was holy, we mean that he was one of a kind. He was set apart from sin.[6] Jesus was pure in every way.

 

Why is this important?

 

In the Old Testament*, when people did an evil thing, they had to bring an offering to the Temple.* They would take a young animal, often a lamb*, from their flock. This lamb had to be perfect. It could not be sick. It could not be blind or have a bad leg. The lamb could not have anything wrong with it.

 

The person would take the lamb to the priest* at the Temple. The person had to confess* what they had done. But the priest did not punish the person. Instead, the priest would kill the lamb. He would burn part of the lamb on the altar.* He gave the lamb as a sacrifice.* The lamb would give his life to pay for what the sinful person did.

 

When John the Baptist* first saw Jesus, he called Jesus ‘the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’.[7] John knew that Jesus would be like a lamb in the Old Testament. If Jesus was to be a sacrifice for his people, he had to be perfect. If Jesus was a sinner*, he would not be able to help us. He could not take away the sins of other people if he was a sinner too. But Jesus would be a perfect sacrifice[8] because Jesus was without sin.

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[1] Matthew 8:20
[2] Matthew 11:29; Philippians 2:7-8
[3] Luke 2:41-52
[4] 1 John 3:4; Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18
[5] Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12,17,19
[6] 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:14; 1 Peter 2:2; 1 John 3:5
[7] John 1:29; John 1:36
[8] 1 Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 3:5