Why does humanity need Jesus?
When God created the first man and woman, He created them in His image and likeness. God breathed His life into them. His Spirit lived within Adam's and Eve's spirits giving them spiritual life and empowerment. They were clothed in a bright and glorious light, which was shining through them. God created mankind so that they could have a close communion with Him forever. God gave them a free will. Free Will means, the ability and power to choose what to do and be, but not the right to choose wrong things. God gave them the power and right to choose all the fruits, of all the trees in the garden except for the fruit from the tree of 'Good & Evil'. It is like a mother who leaves her son at home and tells him you can eat all the food which is on the kitchen table but do not eat that which is in that container (for it is a form of medicine which is not to be consumed by children). She left him at home with the power to eat but without the right to eat that food in the container. That is free will. The POWER to be & do all, and the RIGHT to do only the right but not the wrong.
But Adam used the power and in addition to it took the right to eat the fruit, disregarding God's command. By doing that, he disobeyed God so sin entered him and the glory and righteousness of God which was covering him disappeared and God's Spirit left Adam and Eve. Now they were not clothed with His glorious light anymore because the Holy Spirit cannot live where sin resides. So they realised that they were not clothed anymore. They found themselves naked without God's covering. God's image and likeness in the first man and woman was tarnished completely.
Adam's spirit retained a memory of his relationship with God in the Garden of Eden which he once enjoyed. Now his spirit was left darkened and restless. It was filled with guilt, shame and fear. His spirit longed for God but did not know how to get back that same relationship he had with Him before he sinned. Here we see the psalmist reflecting fallen man's heart's yearning in Psalm 42.
Psalm 42:- 1]As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2]My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3]My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 4]These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. 5]Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior
Now Adam had no defense against spiritual attacks because God's Spirit was not in him. His human spirit was left unoccupied. He could still move and breathe and work with the strength and power that God supplied him but spiritually he was defenceless. Physically he was alive but spiritually he was dead; cut off from God. So because his spirit was unoccupied the 'ruler of this world' which is Satan, began to invade the spirit of the fallen man. Paul describes this in Ephesians 2:1-2.
The bible says that Adam's children after him were all created in his own image and likeness, Genesis 5:3. No more in God's image and likeness. All of humanity which came from Adam was made in the image and likeness of the fallen man. Therefore the ruler of this world is at work in the flesh and minds of humanity because humanity does not have the indwelling of God's Spirit in them any longer. Therefore instead of loving God and others and serving God, they began to serve and love themselves.
All human beings are children of Adam and so all do not have God's image and likeness in them but only Adam's. Those who do not have God's image and likeness restored in them, have the outward appearance of loving, serving, helping, giving, forgiving but it is all directed inwards. That is, all that they do is aimed to advance and promote themselves and their desires. But God looks at the heart and it's motive. Whatever action is birthed from the flesh of the fallen man is deemed tainted by God. Thus Paul says this to the Romans in,
Romans 8:5-9 NLTT
Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. [6] So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. [7] For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. [8] That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. [9] But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)
Unless they know Who God is and unless the relationship with Him is restored in them, they will continue to be influenced and deceived by the spirit who is the ruler of this world.
If humanity continues in this relationship with the ruler of this world, when they die, they will continue this relationship with him in hell for all eternity. Hell is a place where God is not; tormenting and torturous because without God's presence there will only be all kinds of unimaginable pain, sorrow and suffering.
That is why God the Father, in His mercy, first clothed Adam and Eve physically with the skin of an animal and then sent His only Begotten Son Jesus to clothe us spiritually, that is,to remove our sin nature from us by his death on the cross to restore the relationship between God and us by sending His Holy Spirit to dwell in us. What Adam lost for us, Jesus came to restore in us. Only through Jesus we will be able to enter the promised land which is heaven and live with God for all eternity.
Jesus said this in John 14:6 ... Jesus answered, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
In and through Jesus we receive the life which Adam lost in the Garden of Eden. This is known as the second birth. It is not physical but it is spiritual.
Jesus said in John 3:3-8 NLT to Nicodemus...
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." [4] "What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?" [5] Jesus replied, "I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water(baptism) and the Spirit. [6] Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. [7] So don't be surprised when I say, 'You must be born again.' [8] The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
Our relationship with God can only be restored when the image and likeness of God is restored in us, that means when we are born again; when God's Spirit comes into our spirits and dwells within us. For that to happen we must first know that we are sinners. Know that we cannot save ourselves from sin. Then we must repent of our wrongdoings and willingly believe that Jesus died for us and accept Him as our Lord(Master) and Saviour. When we do that God will immediately send His Holy Spirit into our spirits to dwell within us. Then we must proclaim our alliance with Jesus publicly by being baptised. The blood Jesus shed on the cross, now, wipes away all our sins and Father God sees us as pure and spotless. We are now new creations in Jesus.
From then on the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Father God and Jesus) in us will be our guide and teacher, our councillor and our help in time of need. Is that all? No, now that we are born spiritually we must learn how to drink spiritual milk and eat spiritual food like a baby does. We have to read God's Word which is the Bible, everyday, to live the way God wants us to live. We may not understand at first but as we read, the Holy Spirit will teach us and explain God's ways to us. He will remove all fear of man and the world from us and put a new heart which fears only God and loves everyone unconditionally within us. He will remove the desires of the flesh and replace them with godly desires in us. So now begins the 'New Man's walk with God.
We must be constant in our walk with God, reading the Bible faithfully everyday and talking to the Holy Spirit Who lives now within us. That is called 'Abiding in Jesus'. As we continue to abide in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will help us to gain control over our fleshly desires, our thought lives and our emotional lives. We human beings who once lived in the kingdom of darkness, now after accepting Jesus into our hearts live in the kingdom of marvelous light. We are again clothed with the righteousness of God and God's glory will begin to shine from within us, as we continue to put our fleshly and worldly desires to death. This is what Jesus meant when He said in
Matthew 5:14-16 NLT
"You are the light of the world-like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. [15] No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. [16] In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
How then will our light, the light of God within us shine? It will shine as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit by putting our flesh to death daily and by bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control which is produced by the Holy Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit will only be able to produce this fruit (9 qualities of the nature of God) in us, when we continue to abide in Jesus and read the bible faithfully daily. Then our character and nature will become like that of Jesus and His light which is within us will begin to shine and spread the fragrance of God to everyone around us so that they can praise God and get to know Him.
So let me ask you again, "Why does humanity need Jesus"?
1. Humanity needs Jesus, to enter back into the relationship man had with God before he sinned.
2. Humanity needs Jesus, to walk with God in His glory and righteousness now on earth and straight into heaven with Jesus after our physical body dies.
3. Humanity needs Jesus to live forever and ever in God's holy presence.
Satan, the ruler of this world wants all men to believe that Jesus came just for the Jews or Christians. That is a blatant lie. Jesus came to bring New Life to all human beings and restore the image and likeness of God which Adam lost for all men, not just the Jews.
Without Jesus, humanity will never be able to achieve the above 3, but will perish and dwell with the ruler of this world in hell forever and ever.
May we who are in Christ Jesus, grow graciously into mature followers of Christ Jesus and let our lights shine for all to see and praise God and come to know Him and Jesus Who died to save us from Eternal damnation. By the way we live our lives, they will realise their need for Jesus.
Mary Augustine
7th January 2020
