JESUS CHRIST: OUR ONLY HOPE

God’s great love for all men provided the only possible remedy for those who have fallen into sin. The Bible says, "God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). God’s infinite justice demands that sinners be separated from him. God’s infinite love provided a substitute for us who suffered that separation on our behalf. Isaiah the prophet foretold of this substitutionary sacrifice: "he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities... By his stripes we are healed... He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken" (Isaiah 53:5, 8).

When Jesus died on the cross as a substitute for us, he entered the world of the dead as one (the only one) who had lived under God’s law without committing sin (Hebrews 4:15). For this reason, it was not possible that he could remain in a state of death. Peter said "it was not possible that he should be held by it," that is, held by death (Acts 2:24). By the power of a holy life, Jesus Christ was raised again to eternal life and now offers the promise of a resurrection to eternal life to all who will obey him (Hebrews 5:9). Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6), and the Bible elsewhere says, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The atoning blood of Christ is man’s only hope for forgiveness of sin and eternal life in heaven.