S4 EP6. Why Did Jesus Have To Die?
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Hello everybody! Welcome to another episode of Christ with Coffee and Ice. I am your host, Allie Yost, and I am so excited to be here with you guys. Happy Friday, everybody! We are here, we have our iced coffee, Per Juge, and we have our Christ. We have our Bible. How's everybody feeling today? How are y'all? I'm so excited about today. Actually, let me keep it a buck, I'm a little nervous. I'm a little nervous to talk about this topic. Hold on, let me take a sip of my coffee.

it's crumptious now normally what i like to do before filming is obviously i like to ask the father and say god what do you want your children to hear what are we going to talk about god i don't like to ever really make my own plans when it comes to uh you know the podcast episodes i really just i want it to be his and so with that i don't know how much i would have genuinely picked this topic because it's um it's a heavy one

It's probably the most important topic when it comes to our existence here on earth. And it's one that could be spoken about for hours and hours and hours and days on end and weeks on ends for infinity and beyond, right? So this episode is not going to cover nearly as much depth as what can be with just the story of Jesus and what

and why he had to die for us why the lord sent his one and only son to die for us that's heavy and that is something that could be talked about forever so i just want to say that i really i just want to be obedient to the lord and i want to honor him by bringing this to this episode because he ultimately told me this is what we need to talk about today and so i said okay but with that i think there's grace too knowing that there's so much more to what we could even talk about today

of just why Jesus? Why Jesus? So with that, I'm expectant. I'm not really sure how it's gonna go, but I'm very expectant and I believe it's gonna bring clarity. And this topic may seem like something maybe we should have covered in season one, you know, where it kind of seems like a basic, like why Jesus? Why did Jesus have to die for us? Why is it that Jesus gives us freedom? And I felt it on my heart that a lot of us Christians think

can follow Jesus, love him and believe him and believe in him. But maybe we don't fully understand like, why did he have to die for us though? I think sometimes even I have found myself coming to that where I'm like, but why did Jesus have to die such an awful death? Like, why did that have to happen for us to receive freedom? You know? And so I think that's what dad wants us to talk

about today. So let's talk about it and hopefully it brings clarity for a lot of us listening right now. And I also thought what better opportunity and what better episode to take communion to. I know that I said that this would probably become a habit on the podcast, which is really fun and exciting that we get to do it together. I do think that this episode in particular is very appropriate for taking communion because we are going to be talking about the death of Jesus and we're going to be talking about just why.

Just why? And what we gain from it, you know? And I think sometimes it's good to talk about it even as believers so that we can have a better understanding not only for ourselves but so that when it comes to talking about the Lord and sharing the gospel, we have a better understanding of how to share it and explain it to others.

even though it is a very complex thing and we will continue to try to grasp it and understand it for the rest of our lives, it's good to be able to communicate it to others because like we've said in other podcast episodes before, we just know because we know because we feel it. And sometimes that's hard to actually articulate and put in words. And so hopefully

we can do that by the end of this episode. Hopefully we can put it into words, you know? So if you guys don't mind, I would love for you to join me in communion. So if you have cheese or if you have little communion cups that you've gotten off of Amazon, let's go everybody. We have our bread, we have our body, and we have the blood. So I'm going to give you guys a minute to get that.

I would really love for y'all to join me in this because I think it's going to be a really special episode. And I think it's important to just honor Jesus, love him, see him, and extend our gratitude to him for what he did for us on the cross. Lord, I just thank you for our lives. God, I thank you that this is the life that we get to live, that we get to live a life knowing the Holy Spirit.

and we get to live a life with you, Lord. I just thank you for this community, God. I thank you that we can all come together in communion without even physically being next to each other. I think it's so cool how you've allowed technology, and I thank you that you are using it for the kingdom, Lord. I thank you that you are using it for spreading light and love and the name of your son, Jesus Christ.

Yeah, I'm just so grateful that this is something we get to do together all over the world. Like, that's just a crazy thing to wrap my mind around, that we get to be here honoring you together without even really physically being together or even knowing each other's names. But God, you see us and you see the way that we are gathering and we are honoring you as a family, Lord. And so we thank you for that, God. We thank you that our sins have been paid for. Jesus, we thank you for the sacrifice that you made on the cross.

And Lord, I just pray that during this episode we have a deeper understanding of what that means and why it had to happen. That God, we may not fully, fully understand why, but I do pray for a deeper understanding after this episode. God, I pray that our eyes are open, our ears are open, and we have willing hearts.

to receive this message today. God, I pray even just for my own heart and my own mouth, God, that you just use me as a vessel and you speak right through me, God, that I cannot do this alone. I cannot find the words by myself, God, I need you to communicate this to something that is

So complex yet so simple. Lord, only you can do this. And so God, I thank you that you are using me. And I thank you that there are hearts that are open to receiving this episode and this message today, God. We are willing, we are yielded, and we are so excited to learn from you, God. We're excited to learn from you so that we get a better understanding of who your son is and a better understanding of the Father's love through the Son.

god we're excited for that we're excited to leave this episode feeling changed and we're also excited for a deeper understanding so that we can share it with more people god i thank you that after this episode we're going to be able to share the gospel with more clarity and we'll have the words to communicate it with other people so lord we take this bread together lord and we ask you to check our hearts god

And we repent for any sins that we may need to repent for, God. And we ask you to forgive us of our sins. And we turn from our wicked ways, Lord. We turn from our sin and we say, God, we need you. Please forgive us and purify us again. And every day there are new mercies. And so, God, we ask for your mercy and your love this morning and your forgiveness. Thank you for the body, Jesus. And so now we take the blood.

God, thank you for the blood. Thank you that this is a cup of joy. Obviously, it hurts our hearts as children who love you that you had to spill your blood for us in the first place. But God, we thank you that you did it gladly, that it was something you were willing to do for us out of the love of your heart. And so God, yeah, we thank you that this is a cup of joy.

that because of the blood, because of the way it was spilled, we are able to be renewed, God, that we are cleansed through the blood. That it's interesting that most blood actually stains, but your blood is the thing that makes us clean, that makes us white as snow. So Lord, thank you that we are made new. Thank you that we are not our own selves, that through the power of the blood and the authority of your blood, Jesus,

that we are made new and we do not identify as the sins or the lifestyles of our past or the mistakes of our past, God, but we identify in you and you alone, that we are children of yours and we are made righteous through you, Lord. We are made pure through you, God. And I just ask that we believe that more today, that we have more belief today in our righteousness through you, God.

And so we thank you for the blood, God. We thank you for the authority that we hold and we carry through the blood, that we have the authority to stomp on scorpions and snakes through you, God, through Christ Jesus. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. And God, we just ask that you speak to us and through me in this podcast episode. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Jesus. I feel his presence, y'all. I feel his presence. I feel his peace.

Okay, fun. Y'all, I have no idea. Okay, let's do this. Holy Spirit, activate. So yeah, I feel it on my heart that we need to talk about why Jesus? Why did it have to happen that way? What is the gospel? Have we talked about that on the pod? If we have, we're going to talk about it again. But yeah, why and what? Why and what? So first off, I want to talk about...

Just the actual definition of the gospel. So the word gospel comes from the Greek word euangelion. Euangelion? Girl, I don't know if I said that right, but you get it. Which means good news. In the New Testament of the Bible, the gospel refers to the message that Jesus' life, death, and resurrection brought the reign of God to earth.

It's a message from God that says he's how you can be saved from my judgment. The gospel includes Jesus' cross and resurrection, bearing sin on the cross, turning away God's wrath, canceling sin, and restoring broken lives.

The word gospel is not unique to Christianity and was also used in the pagan world to refer to good news. It also could mean a sacrifice offered for good news, such as an animal sacrifice, food and drink, or ritual dedication. So that's the definition of the gospel, right? It originates from that Greek word, which translates to good news.

It is the news about who Jesus Christ is, what he has done, and how that changes everything. The gospel or the good news about Jesus is the best and most important news you will ever hear. It's the most life-changing news you could ever share with someone else. And so ultimately, when we think about Jesus and we think about the gospel, we know that that means that Jesus was brought into the world fully man and fully God.

by the Father. It was his one and only son. Jesus is his one and only son. And his mission, he had, there were multiple purposes to Jesus, right? Not only was he supposed to come here to make all of our wrongs right, he willingly came here knowing that his ultimate job was to make all the wrongs of the world, all of our sins, and make it right by him taking the death that honestly we all deserved

and making it right by dying on the cross and then also defeating death and being resurrected, right? The other really important thing about the way that Jesus had to come down to earth, right, is that he also gave us a physical representation of the love of God. And so the way that Jesus walked

the way that he treated others, the way that he loved others. He was showing the example of how we should love others, but also showing us the love of God because the same God that is in the Old Testament and New Testament is the same God. But I think

with Jesus coming and showing us the true love of God was showing a different side of the Lord that maybe we hadn't seen just yet. You know, the way that Jesus loved others, he only could do that because of the love of the father that was operating through him. The father also had made it clear that the only way to reach him was through Jesus and that they are one. Jesus was fully man and fully God.

So he set a true example of how we were supposed to love each other and how we are loved by God, how we are loved by him. And so when we ask, why did Jesus actually have to die for us? Right. It really goes all the way back to the beginning of the Bible in Genesis. And

in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve sinned, and they went against God. That was the moment that God was like, okay, sin has now been introduced to the world, which was never a part of what the Lord wanted for us, right? And so ever since that moment, that was when sin was truly just introduced to mankind. And

And it's interesting because when you read some of the Old Testament, which I fully haven't read through, you'll see that the Lord, you know, asks for burnt offerings and there are sacrifices that are made with animals and all these other things. But what you see in that, because that was very much more religion, right? Where you kind of had to bring these sacrifices and these offerings to the Lord.

But people were actually still dealing with guilt of their mistakes and their sin. They weren't fully freed from it.

And so with Jesus coming and then becoming the ultimate sacrifice, instead of all of these burnt offerings, instead of religion, instead of, you know, bringing animals and sacrificing them to the Lord, Jesus came down and was like, I will be the ultimate sacrifice that will cancel out all sin and guilt. So not only does he cover sin, but he then covers the guilt and shame of our sin. And so when we think about the way that the Lord was,

killed it was in a very shameful publicly like basically naked on a cross publicly being beaten and assaulted and dying hanging on a cross he covered not only with his death our sin but the shame that comes with it too in the way that he was crucified there's a scripture that i read where

the Lord was talking about how people were giving sacrifices, burnt offerings, so on and so forth.

and it was still not ridding them of the guilt of their sin. Like they were still feeling guilty. They were still feeling unworthy. They were still feeling distant from the Lord. And so with that, it showed that what was done before Jesus coming to earth was not working for people. They were still feeling the guilt and the shame and it wasn't enough. Okay. So somebody could find that scripture. You would make my day, but I,

I also want to mention that, that there were ways that people were trying to rid and gain the forgiveness from the Lord for their sins through these sacrifices, but it wasn't enough. And the Lord saw this. He knew. He saw that it wasn't enough, which is why then he brings his one and only son down to earth. So that's one of many, many reasons.

why Jesus had to be the one to do it, to just rid the guilt and the shame and cleanse us once and for all from our sin that was introduced to the world in the Garden of Eden. It is now in humanity, right? Sin is in humanity since the very beginning in the garden.

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I have a pulse. You're going to be okay. Dr. Odyssey, Thursdays, 9, 8 central on ABC and stream on Hulu. So the other thing that I think is worth mentioning as well, Ashley was just passing by. She brought up the point that the priests in the old Testament before Jesus would give sacrifices in the tabernacles, right?

once a year but couldn't even spend too much time in the presence of God, right? So they go to the presence of God once a year and they're giving these sacrifices to the Lord in their tabernacle and they couldn't spend too much time in the presence of God because they would have died. The thing is is that the Lord is so holy

that spending too much time in his like being in his presence can actually we will die we will perish we will just disintegrate that is how holy he is right so being in the presence of god was so holy and potent for them that they couldn't even be in the presence of god for very long and they could only do it once a year right only once a year they could actually be in the presence of the lord but because of jesus so then fast forward jesus comes and he tore the veil right from top to bottom his death

on the cross, his body tore the veil. So with his sacrifice and his body, we are now able to access the spirit of God whenever we want, however many times a day that we want. And we don't die. We don't,

absolutely disintegrate and turn into sand or dust because of how holy the presence of God is. Jesus actually tore that veil. So now the presence of God, the Holy Spirit is accessible to us at all times. It's actually crazy guys. Like we honestly should be so grateful that we are in, in, in now and not,

all the way back then because i can only imagine how hard it was to only and it was exclusive like it was only the priest of that time could be the one that would go in the presence of the lord so it's the fact that we all

It doesn't matter who you are, we all have the ability to access the Spirit of God through Christ Jesus, through him bearing the veil, being the ultimate sacrifice. We all have access to the Lord whenever we want, however many times we want, doesn't matter who we are. That's crazy. Like that alone should be enough gratitude for us to be like, wow, God, I am never going to take for granted the opportunity of just being able to be in your presence whenever I want. I think it's really easy to,

in our day-to-day lives

to get caught up in our to-do lists and we're like, ah, I'm busy. I got to do this, that, and the next. I don't have time to be in the presence of God today. I don't have time to go and be in the secret place and shut the door behind me and be in my closet. Or I don't have time to experience the spirit of God through reading my Bible today. I just don't. And I think that that brings a whole new perspective to it, knowing that once upon a time, the spirit of God was not this accessible. Once upon a time, Jesus Christ had not yet come and

we wouldn't be able to access him and hear his voice and be encouraged by him and be in the presence of God without perishing. Once upon a time, I know that sounds crazy, but that's actually how it was. And so I think that that should also bring a whole nother level of gratitude for Jesus, knowing that if it wasn't for his death, we would not be able to hear from the spirit of God the way that we do now today. It would have to be under the circumstances of us being a priest today.

And only being able to do it once a year for a certain amount of time or we would implode, you know? So I'm really glad that Ashley just brought that up. I wouldn't have even brought that to the podcast, but that is so, so important to understanding also why Jesus had to die. Because we have access to the Spirit of God because of it too, which is crazy.

And the spirit of God is truly our shepherd. Like God is our shepherd. The only reason, I mean, Ashley and I say this all the time, but literally the only reason that we can survive every day is because of the spirit of God is because we are able to pray to a God and hear him. And we get to communicate with him and we get to commune with him and we get to have a relationship with him. Like I would not be, I would not be okay right now if it wasn't for

for the fact that I have access to my Heavenly Father and I can hear directly from Him because of Jesus. And so I want to kind of backtrack a little bit to sin and how it keeps us away from God. Let's understand why sin is so devastating to our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

And so ever since Adam and Eve turned their backs on God in the Garden of Eden, human beings have been corrupted by sin. We ignore what God wants because we'd rather do what we want. We set our hearts on accumulating power and wealth for ourselves. And we don't take good care of what God gives us.

We are too darkened by our sin to find our way back to God on our own, and God's justice requires that there be a price for our sin. Yet despite our flaws, God loves us and wants us to be reunited with him. Jesus, God's son, came to earth to make our reconciliation with God possible. In Old Testament times, the people of Israel followed a system of sacrifices in order to pay the debt for their sins.

God's law determined what types of sacrifices were required in order to atone for different sins. Most living sacrifices were to be perfect animals without blemish. Okay? So isn't that interesting that when we go back to the times before Jesus came, that it wasn't just any old sacrifices. Like these animals that were sacrificed had to be spotless, perfect, and without blemish.

Kind of sounds like someone else we know, doesn't it? Sinless, perfect, spotless lamb, Jesus. In the New Testament, Jesus, God's son, came to earth to reunite us with God through the ultimate sacrifice, his own life. Because even the most perfect man

blemish free animal that was sacrificed was not enough for our sins. It wasn't working. And so God said, okay, then I will give my literal one and only son who is blameless, who is spotless, who is perfect. He will be the ultimate sacrifice to cover all of sin.

He will give his life in reconciliation with God so that that is possible. So we can be reunited with God because sin had separated us from the Lord, right? We could never live a life worthy of God on our own. So Jesus lived a life without sin on our behalf.

We couldn't do it, so Jesus came and lived the life without sin on our behalf. And then he died the painful death our sins deserved. John 3:17 says, "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,

but in order that the world might be saved through him. So that also shows the love of the father is that he saw that we were genuinely being infected by our own sin, right? The father had compassion enough to say, I'm going to send my one and only son out of love, not condemnation, not to put us to shame, but in order that the world might be saved through his son. That's love.

God did not send Jesus to be this perfect man to put us to shame and make us feel guilty, but to give us a physical representation in human form of how to live and for us to actually be saved through him. By sacrificing himself for us on the cross, he took the punishment for all of our sins at once. Can we just sit on that sentence for a second? That Jesus...

with one thing in one thing, one action. He just had to die one time in one thing. He took the punishment for all of our sins at once. Every single sin that's ever been committed or will be committed in the world was covered with one thing. And that was the punishment that Jesus took on the cross. It was for all of our sins at once.

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I actually, I can't, I won't ever be able to fully wrap my mind around that. That in one thing that the Lord did, one action, in one death, all of our sin was covered. This made him the ultimate sacrifice, once and for all satisfying the demands of God's justice required. That is why we call Jesus Lamb of God.

So if this wasn't something that we fully understood before, that is why Jesus is referred to the spotless lamb, the lamb of God, right? Because when we go back to the animal sacrifices that were made up until the point of Jesus, they had to be a perfect animal without blemish. And so that wasn't working. Jesus comes, he's the spotless lamb. He is the ultimate sacrifice, the lamb of God, right?

In the sacrifice of Jesus' crucifixion, we are shown the depths of God's love for us and the lengths taken to save us from our sins. And in Jesus' resurrection, we see God's triumph over death pointing towards the promise of eternal life in God's presence.

So we see the depth of God's love for us and the lengths taken to save us from our sins. Because the thing is that we have to, I guess, realize is that God didn't have to do that. God didn't have to do that. We could have been continuing to go down this path of destruction and destruction.

essentially being buried in our sin and the guilt that comes with it and essentially being separated from God for all of eternity. Because if we go back to the holiness of God, right? We go back to what we were talking about where Ashley had pointed out that the presence of God was so holy and so potent. Like the presence of God, he is so perfect that us being the flawed humans that we are,

with sin and everything else, cannot physically stand in his presence. And also he won't have it. Like he is so holy and perfect, having sin and kind of like that filth of sin anywhere near his holiness, it just won't, it can't, it cannot.

And so we could have, that could have been our fate. We could have just continued to be separated from the Lord because we were not clean. He could have let us continue to be buried in our own sin and shame, and he didn't. Not because he needed us to be, but he wanted us to be clean. He wanted us to be made pure through the sacrifice of his one and only son.

That is actually how much love the Lord has for us. So he didn't have to do it. He did it because he loves us and he did it because he wants us to be with him in all of eternity. You know, he created us all for love and out of love and through love. And so with that, we see the lengths of

of what the Lord would do to save us from our sins. And so that was the length he took. He gave his one and only son. And we don't have to endure any more shame or guilt. And we actually have now received...

freedom from our sin through Jesus and the death, resurrection, crucification of the Lord. And also we get the ultimate guidance because of the Holy Spirit, which came after the death of Jesus. It's just the fact that we actually have access to the Holy Spirit and we have a shepherd who

can guide us through the Spirit. We're not deserving of it, but it does show the love of God that he was like, "No, I want to set you guys up for success. I want to give you an option for freedom." And so ultimately now we have the choice to make that. We can either choose Jesus and choose freedom, choose a way where we actually are freed and rid of our sin and guilt and shame through the love of Christ,

or not. And I think sometimes we could even think like, why did the Lord even allow sin in the first place? Why did he allow us that have the choice to even make to choose anything against the Lord? I don't know if we brought this to the pod. I've definitely brought this on my socials, but

it goes back to the fact that the Lord gave us free will. He gave us free will because if we think about versions of humanity, if we think of a version of humanity that didn't have free will, if we didn't have a conscience to say this or that and make choices, if we didn't have that,

Well, first and foremost, I don't know how human we would really be. It would probably feel a little mechanical. It would feel a bit robotic, right? If we didn't have the freedom to make our own choices every day, I think humans would just be different. I don't know if we would be human if it wasn't for the freedom of being able to make our own choices. But with making our own choices, there are two sides of that coin.

And so sin was never a part of God's plan for us. His plan was definitely to give us free will and make our own choices and to live prosperous lives and beautiful lives and good lives. But there are two sides to that coin where we could either choose to live rightfully, righteously, truthfully, honestly, good or not. And so the minute that sin was introduced to humanity,

was when Adam and Eve went against what the Lord had said and they did something that ultimately led them to death. God said, "If you do this, it'll lead you to death." And they had the choice to do it or not, and so they chose to do it. We can always kind of look at the evil of the world and when people are like, "Well, it's free will. It's because people have a choice." And we can look at God and say, "Why would you allow that though?"

And we can be resentful, maybe, and angry at God. The truth is too, though, is that there is something so beautiful about somebody choosing to love. And so when we know at the end of the day that somebody has the choice to either love or not, and they choose love,

there is so much more beauty in that rather than if it was the only option. Of course, the option opposite of that is awful and it's horrific. And because of the sin of the world, there is a lot of brokenness that this world has been made broken because of sin.

And there are some evil, awful things that happen. But when people choose to love, when they choose to do good, when they choose to give to the needy, when they choose to love you when they didn't have to, I really believe that's actually what makes love, love.

is that they didn't have to, but they chose to. You see those videos online of people going out of their way to help a homeless person on the side of the street, you know, or give them an apartment. You see these crazy clips online of people being like giving homeless people homes, giving them hope. And what is it that makes that so beautiful? It's because that person didn't have to do it. Why didn't they have to do it? Well, because they have the choice.

And why do they have the choice? Well, because God gave us free will. Do you see how, how it can really go both ways though? You know, like free will is actually so beautiful because that's actually what makes love love though is because people, they don't have to, it's a choice.

And so when we choose God as well, it's like we didn't have to, but we said yes to him, which makes it all the more beautiful. And it makes his heart warm. You know, it's like he gave us, his children, an option and we chose him and that makes him feel good.

And it makes other people feel good when you choose to love them. Aside from just our relationship with the Lord, it's like, free will is beautiful because we do have the choice to do good. And that's what makes it so much sweeter when we do. It's almost like they're just like, "It's awful." And the Lord never wanted sin for us. It was never a part of his plan. Death, it was never a part of what he wanted for us.

And so there's healing, there's redemption, and we get a second chance at life because of the death of Jesus. We get to be born again through Christ because of what he did and because of the sacrifice that he made and the way that he was born again and brought back to life. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, our lives will never be the same. This gift that we have been given can never be taken away from us. It will never lose its power.

And it will never cease to exist. New life in Christ is the best gift that we could ever receive. And you know what's cool is that the next question that I think some people could ask is like, okay, but why is it Jesus that gives us freedom? Why isn't it anything else, right? We kind of said that in the beginning of the episode, but why is it Jesus? Why is it nothing else? And I think...

ultimately it doesn't come down to belief. It comes down to the truth. This isn't like a, well, I believe Jesus works and I can receive freedom through him because this is what I was taught. It's, I know that Jesus is the way, the life and the truth. He's, he's the truth because I've seen the freedom that his name alone can only give. Does that make sense? Like the only reason that

That Jesus is very much real today. The power in his name, the resurrection, his death, and the Holy Spirit, the love of God, is the way the truth of life is because we see it today. We see evidence today.

of the name of Jesus holding so much power that people actually receive physical healing to this day, today. It goes back to the statement that we've said a few times on this podcast episode though, that you can't physically see the wind, but you can feel it and you can see the effects that it has on other things.

And so it's not a belief, it's the truth because of the proof. Like you see the works of Jesus even today. You see the transformations that the name of Jesus and the gospel, the gospel does to people. That alone is like, no, this is the truth. This is the way to life because you don't see anything else giving that type of life to people.

I can say that because I've felt it and I've seen it in my own life, my own heart, like the way that I speak, the way that I operate, the way that I treat others is so different now because of the name of Jesus, because of the gospel, because of the way that the Holy Spirit is living and dwelling inside of me, that.

is why he is the only way. That is why he is the truth because there is nothing else in this world that can restore us the way that Jesus can. And we know that because we've seen what he's done. We've seen...

what the gospel does for people. And that's undeniable. Like a testimony is undeniable. A testimony of Jesus and somebody finding the truth of Christ is undeniable. You can actually just look into a person's eyes before they knew Christ and after and see the way that Jesus is real. You see the way that Jesus is real. Is he physically standing in the room anymore? Nope.

but you can see Jesus in someone's eyes and that is like that's it that's truth that's not even belief it's it's just truth Jesus is the truth there's nothing else in the world that can satisfy our souls the way Jesus can and that's not just a that's not a belief that's not religion that's the truth it's it's a testimony there's evidence it's it's what he does

So just a few topics of things that we covered with why it had to be Jesus. Why did Jesus die on the cross and what it did for us? He tore the veil from top to bottom. We are able to dwell in the presence of the Lord for as long as we want, however long we want, as many times in the day, month, year. He tore the veil.

The presence of God is 100% accessible to us because of Jesus. It canceled out all the sin of the world in one moment. We have received freedom of our sins. That's good news. That's good news. We are able to not only be in the presence of the holy, holy God, but we are forgiven and our sins were paid for by the Lord.

We have no guilt or shame anymore for those sins because of Jesus, because of the way that he died. He gave us the ultimate example of what it is to love people and how we're supposed to walk while we're here on earth, how we're supposed to serve others and God. And he showed the love of the Father, God's love for us and the lengths taken to save us from sin. That's just one hand.

And there could probably be thousands of more that could be filled up. But those are the things that we touched on today. So if any of us needed more clarity as to why, I hope that that gave some clarity as to why it had to happen.

And I don't think it's anything that we need to feel guilt for. I think sometimes we could fall into that trap too, where the enemy tries to make us feel guilty that Jesus even had to die in the first place. But then it's like, okay, that's counterproductive because he covered the guilt too. So that shouldn't even be a thing. But sometimes I find myself even falling into like, I feel so awful that because of the sin of the world and even myself, that's what put Jesus on the cross.

Like he had to endure that because of me, because of us. And it's hard to not fall into that rabbit hole of being like, I am awful because Jesus was the very last person on planet earth that deserved a death like that. It was not fair. It wasn't, he was perfect. He was the most perfect man to walk planet earth. So why, why that's awful. I'm mad at myself, God, but that's not what the

He wants, he doesn't want that. He wants freedom for us. He says, no, I did this so that you could receive freedom, not more guilt. And that's not what Jesus wants for us. Of course, compassion is great, but it wasn't to make us feel condemned. It wasn't for us to feel guilty. It was good news, good news. He did it. He did it joyfully.

Was he scared? Was he so scared that he was sweating blood? Yes. Did he ask the Lord, even though he knew it was what he needed to do, did he ask the Lord, "But if there is any other way, Lord, will you please spare me and let this cup pass me?" Yes. Jesus was afraid, for sure. He still did it gladly for us, because that's how much love he had for us. And it was personal. Like, Jesus going on the cross and dying for us was personal to you.

He did that for you individually. And isn't that crazy to think about? Because he was fully man and fully God, but he was thinking of you. He was thinking of me in particular, like knew your name. He said, no, I'm thinking about Rachel. No, I'm thinking about Melissa. No, I'm thinking about Abby. Like, no, I'm thinking about you.

I'm thinking about you, John. You know what I mean? It was personal. It wasn't like, oh, I'm just going to die for everybody. He was thinking about every single one of us individually, which is really hard to imagine, but he was God. So of course he knows all of us. He said, I'm going to do it for my child.

And he did it willingly because he knew that in that short amount of suffering, for the hours that he spent on the cross and for those three days of him being dead, it was going to restore all of his kids, give us all freedom, and we get to live in eternity with him. So yeah, it was worth it. It was worth it for him and he did it gladly and he probably would do it again.

If he had to, he probably would do it again, but he doesn't have to because all it took was once. Once and for all. But he did it so that we could live with him for all of eternity. Oh, we can have the best time with our dad forever because this life here on earth is just like a little grain of sand compared to all of eternity with the Lord. So it was worth it. And it's nothing that we need to feel shame about. It wasn't to condemn us.

It was to save us from our sin and give us freedom, which is why the gospel is actually good news. It's good news, y'all. So we're going to celebrate today. We're going to continue to celebrate for the rest of our lives. And we are going to continue to give gratitude and thanks to our heavenly father. We're going to give gratitude and thanks to our Jesus Christ. And we're going to talk to him all the time, aren't we? Because we also have access to him all the time. Thank you, Lord.

I love you guys. I hope that this episode was good. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm really excited to continue to talk about this topic on the podcast because I know this won't be the last time that we'll talk about it because there's so much more to say. But this was a very Sparks Note version of it and I hope it was enjoyable. I love y'all. I'm so proud of you. I'm really grateful for the community that we have here and I'm really grateful that y'all have found the Lord. I'm really grateful for that.

I love y'all. Hey guys, can we do something cool today? Can we show somebody how cool Jesus is? Can we do that? Why don't we share the gospel? Why don't we share a little fun fact that we learned today with somebody? Let's spread his love. Let's spread his encouragement, his patience, his kindness. I love you guys. I will see you next Friday. Have a beautiful week. And I just bless you guys. I bless you.

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