He Died for Us

Read John 3:14–18 and Romans 6:23. What do these verses teach that

Christ’s death has accomplished for us?

When Jesus arrived at the Jordan River to be baptized, John the

Baptist exclaimed, “ ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the

sin of the world!’ ” (John 1:29, NKJV). This statement acknowledged

Christ as the antitypical Lamb of God to whom all true sacrifices of the

Old Testament pointed.

But animal sacrifices could not take away sins by themselves (Heb.

10:4). They provided only conditional forgiveness dependent on the

effectiveness of Christ’s future sacrifice on the cross. “If we confess

our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, NKJV).

Read John 3:16, 17. What great hope can we take from these verses,

especially when we rightly sense that we deserve to be condemned

for something that we have done?

Think about what all this means. Jesus, the One who created the cos-

mos (John 1:1–3), offered Himself for each of us, a sacrifice for sins,

all so that we don’t have to be condemned for what we could justly be

condemned for. This is the great promise of the gospel.

Jesus Christ declared that “ ‘God so loved the world that he gave his

only Son’ ” to die for us (John 3:16, NRSV). But we should never forget

that Christ offered Himself voluntarily on our behalf (Heb. 9:14). Martin

Luther referred to the cross as “the altar on which He [Christ], consumed

by the fire of the boundless love which burned in His heart, presented the

living and holy sacrifice of His body and blood to the Father with fervent

intercession, loud cries, and hot, anxious tears (Heb. 5:7).”—Luther’s

Works, vol. 13 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1956), p. 319.

Christ died once for all (Heb. 10:10) and once forever (Heb. 10:12), for His

sacrifice is all-sufficient and never loses its power.

And there’s more: “If but one soul would have accepted the gospel

of His grace, Christ would, to save that one, have chosen His life of

toil and humiliation and His death of shame.”—Ellen G. White, The

Ministry of Healing, p. 135.

Read again John 3:16, replacing the words “the world” and

“whoever” with your own name. How can you learn, moment by

moment, especially when tempted to sin, to make this wonderful

promise yours?