None of us are perfect, all of us are created by God, and all of us do things that separate us from communication with God everyday. Us being out of communication with God and infected by sin saddens His heart beyond belief. We are His creation, made to help look after the plants and animals that He had made on Earth, and ultimately to be a good friend to Himself. But even right-back in the beginning we walked away from Him.

According to Jewish law, to restore the relationship between God and the people animal sacrifices had to be made. This may seem a barbaric thing to us today but it’s worth remembering that the meat we get from our own supermarkets are treated worse today than those sacrificial animals back then. Most famously the animal to be sacrificed was a lamb, it had to be spotless, pristine, and basically be so rare that it was worth a lot of money.

But who can make a sacrifice big enough, perfect enough to make up for the sins done by everyone throughout time? God answered this at the time through His prophets who started talking of another kind of sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, for everyone, and it would be a man! But the sacrifice offering had to be a spotless, pure lamb, no blemishes and no defects; what man has ever lived who was that perfect? There wasn’t one!

God is the only one who’s perfect, so He sends His Son! Jesus was born and grew up as a man, with all the usual problems and temptations men get, yet still being every bit God. He never submitted to these temptations. Then after preaching around Israel for three years, He was betrayed into the hands of evil men and killed in the most humiliating and barbaric form of execution ever invented, crucifixion.

Job done? The only man who never sinned was made a sacrifice for everyone, now the eternal punishment of our sins has already been done by Jesus. But Jesus did not stay dead! Three days after dying and defeating sin, He also defeated death itself by rising back to life! Not a ghost or a spirit but really Him, solid body and everything.

So now by simply believing in Jesus and making Him ruler in your life, the punishment of your sins (eternal separation from God) is negated. God declares us ‘not guilty’. Furthermore He grants us eternal life in the Heaven He created.

So the most important question of your life is this: what are you going to believe about Jesus? If you don’t accept Him you’ll face the judgement and punishment of your sin, accept Him and it will be forgiven!