Janice Gaines - Greatest Life EverSample

All This For Me

I remember the first time I saw my mother address a letter to “whomever it may concern.” It was a letter for my school, I think. There’s an old-school way of communicating that seems to be lost in this age of texting, but my parents still write letters the formal way. “Whomever/whoever” seem to belong to this formal way. I learned from my mother that this was a general way of getting the enclosed information to the correct person, even if you didn’t exactly know their name. It seemed like such an impersonal generalization to me, but leave it to our loving God to take such an impersonal catch-all and make it lovingly inclusive.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Anyone and everyone is welcome to become a part of the “whoever.” Jesus, the Son of God, wrapped Himself in humanity and walked this earth, living a sinless life, so that He might sacrifice Himself for all of the sins of humanity, taking the punishment for us all upon Himself. Because of this substitution, we are presented to God without the stain of sin on us, making it possible to be in the presence of our perfectly holy God without perishing. Imagine looking directly into the sun. Its brightness is so powerful that to look directly at it with our naked eye is quite damaging. That (times infinity) is how it might be, standing in front of our powerfully bright and holy God covered with our sin. It would not only cause damage, but it would destroy us. God wasn’t going to change His character to allow us into His presence for the possibility of having a real relationship; but He did brilliantly plan to cover our sins with His own perfection, taking our warranted punishment upon Himself, so that we might be able to not only come into His presence, but have a real relationship with Him. IF we believe He did this.

If you’ve not yet made the decision to become a follower of Jesus, please know that this is an invitation to accept the idea that all that He did, He did for you. Will you believe today? If you already do, will you allow Jesus to remind you afresh of this Good News?