If you truly want to solve a problem (admittedly, sometimes we don’t!), you must face it head on and deal with the real causes. Too often, we don’t do this either, but God always goes right to the heart of a problem to get it resolved. This is what He did with the death-bringing sin problem of the human race.
How do you solve humanity’s sin problem? Should it just be ignored as if it weren’t really a problem at all? Should God simply grant general amnesty because He is “such a loving God”? Should God devise a series of religious rituals and/or list of good deeds to be performed which He will accept as penance for sins? None of these, as you can see, really get to the real issue: the human race sins, continues to sin, and sin brings death. This is inescapable.
So what was God’s solution? Face the problem head on. Please take the time to read our text. First we see that Jesus, the Son of God, became a human being, sharing “in flesh and blood.” Sin had to be faced in the shoes of the sinner! Jesus was “made like His brethren in all things.” He faced up to the devil and his temptations in the wilderness and did not sin. Through His betrayal, sham trials, denial, scourging, mockings and crucifixion, He faced the wickedness of the human race, Jew and Gentile, friend and foe - all without sin.
His body was laid in another’s tomb. He was dead. He faced Death head on, looked it in the eye and took everything it could throw at Him. He spent time in Hades. But on the third day, He was raised - never to die again! He had conquered death. Death could not hold Him. He was raised because He was without sin. It was “through death” that Jesus broke the devil’s power because now a human being had lived a life without sin, and death had no power over Him.
Now Jesus, thanks to the grace of God, has offered the blood of His death as a “propitiation for the sins of the people.” Our sins can now be truly forgiven through Christ’s sacrificial offering.
The devil has lost. Death has lost. Through Jesus’ death, we win! Praise our God!
><> Jeff