ONLY JESUS -- Devotional for April 2, from "Good Seeds"

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one can come to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

What makes Christianity what it is? Jesus. Only Jesus. Apart from Him we have only Old Testament religion with its knowledge of Jehovah and His Law, and the sacrificial system He instituted for the reconciling of man to God. These served their purpose in their time, but were never said to be God’s final Word to man, or man’s final path to God. The most wonderful thing about the Old Testament is its prophecies. Not only do the words of the prophets foretell the coming of mankind’s Savior, but every ritual, every feast, every law, and every custom observed by the ancient people of God speaks of the Messiah, who would “crush the Satan-Serpent’s head” as God Himself said to our first parents in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). Yes, even in the midst of this curse upon man and the land, God shows the light at the end of the tunnel of human history, of human misery. And that’s just what Jesus came to be – and claimed to be – when He said, “I am the LIGHT of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Jesus is also called the “LAMB of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). John the Baptist was referring here to the sacrificial lambs of the Jewish religion. But the New Testament boldly states: “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin” (Hebrews 10:4). These animal sacrifices pointed to the One who was to come, who as a perfect human being was uniquely qualified to stand in for every imperfect human being – to take the fall for us all. When God saw the blood of the animal, He saw through it His Son, who one day would come and die on the cross. Seeing also the faith of the one making the atoning sacrifice, God forgave sins and placed men in right standing with Himself. But the time would come, and it finally did, when God would “take away the first in order to establish the second, by which we are saved, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all” (Hebrews 10:9-10). It is a false notion to think mankind could ever be saved by his own merits, apart from a life-for-a-life sacrifice by another on his behalf. Another common misconception is that man can be saved and sanctified by the LIFE of Christ – by His pure example, His flawless teachings, or His amazing miracles. No, these things only serve to widen the gap between sinful man and a holy God! It took His dying on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin and yours. Only this – only Jesus, could bring us to God and His heaven. Only Jesus!