The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
John 1:14

Isn’t it amazing? Jesus, the almighty God who made everything that exists, chose to come to this world as a helpless baby. What is more amazing is the reason he came. He came to save you and me from our sins. He came to live a perfect life in our place and die the terrible death that we deserved.

Why did Jesus come to save us? Did he come because we did something that pleased God? Did he come because we were trying to be good? No. In fact, the Bible tells us in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus came because he loves us. We were in a completely hopeless state. He came while we were still sinners. He did not wait to see if we would change our ways. He knew that was impossible for us to do apart from him.

Jesus came to this earth to take on himself all the sins that all people have committed or ever will commit. He came to take the punishment for them in our place. All of your sins and my sins were nailed to the cross.

Now because of what Jesus did for us, we are completely forgiven. God does not hold our sins against us. Thank God for sending Jesus to make his dwelling among us. Now that we are forgiven, we can live our lives serving our Savior in thanksgiving.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for coming to this earth to live the perfect life we could not live, and die the death we deserved because of our sins. Please help us remember that this was not because of anything that we did, but because of your great mercy. In your name we pray, Amen.

Written by Sarah Allerding
Reviewed by Professor-emeritus David Valleskey