Living Like JesusSample

Jesus chose to be close enough to touch us. 

According to Google, there are 4,200 known religions in the world. What makes choosing Jesus different? He chose us. Out of thousands of gods, Jesus is the only one who died a death we deserved and then came back to life. 

The Bible tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus didn’t wait for us to get our acts together before rescuing us. He met us in our mistakes and mess ups and said, “I’ll pay it for you.” 

Have you ever thought about why God sent Jesus? It’s pretty amazing to think about. God could have chosen any number of ways to save us. But He sent His Son, Jesus, to fix our broken relationship with God. 

See, in the Old Testament (the books of the Bible that are all from before Jesus was born) you see the effects of our fractured relationship with God. After Adam and Eve sinned, we could no longer have a direct relationship with God because He is holy and perfect, and we—well, we’re not. 

So, because of that, people in the Old Testament had to present an animal offering any time they messed up. Can you imagine?! Every single time you lied, gossiped, stole, disobeyed—the list goes on—you had to kill an animal just to be right with God. 

God wasn’t okay with that. So, instead, He decided to send something more powerful than any animal. He sent His Son. Jesus entered our world and brought with Him light, love, freedom, grace, acceptance, joy, peace, and hope. Jesus chose to die for us—in our place—so that we could stop offering sacrifices and instead choose a relationship with God. Jesus rose again three days later to defeat death, and now when we choose Jesus, we’re choosing undeserved but freely given freedom and grace! 

God named Jesus “Immanuel” because it means, “God is with us.” God chose to send Jesus to be with us—even when we were broken and not worth it. And Jesus chose to live among us. To be close enough to touch us. 

So let’s live from the victory Jesus offered us. Let’s live like Jesus—being close enough to touch people who need it. To be with people. To love people. Because Jesus loved us. And if we want to share Jesus, we’ve got to show Him with the way we live our lives. That’s how we can be storytellers. That’s how we can show an unbelieving world what true hope looks like. 

Pray: Jesus, thank You for fixing our relationship with God. Thank You for choosing to be with us, for being close enough to touch, and for saving us when we didn’t deserve it. Help me to show that same grace and love to the people around me. Help me to live more like You each day. Help me to look different because of the freedom You’ve given me. Help me share Your love and Your Good News with the hurting world around me. In Jesus’ name, amen.