Verse Ref.:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
Full text of
Tricky Treats
Crunch! Crunch! What a delicious apple! Oh gross … there poking out of the middle of the apple, where I’d taken my last bite, was half of a worm! That meant the rest of it was in my mouth! I spit out my last bite, but somehow that still didn’t leave me feeling very good. Have you ever had a treat like that? Something that seemed so good but had something bad in it?
Sin is a lot like that kind of treat. Sin is anything we do that does not please God, anything that is not what He wants us to do. The Bible even says that there is a certain pleasure in sin, but it is only for a little while. Doing wrong things can seem so fun for a while. We can disobey our parents or teachers and we seem to get away with it. But eventually there is a price to pay for everything bad we do. We can be selfish and think it’s great to have everything go just the way we want it to. But then, when no one wants to be our friend anymore, we realize it is like a delicious-looking apple that has a gross worm in it — it’s not fun anymore.
Most important of all, God always sees what we do, and even though He loves us, He hates sin. That’s because He is perfect and holy and sin is against all that He is. But He is also love, and so, He made a way so that He could take sinners to heaven. Do you know what He did? He gave His only Son to die, to pay for all our sins. The Bible says it this way: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish [that means, go to hell] but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to this earth because of God’s love for you and me. He allowed people like us to kill Him in a very cruel way.
But before He died, something wonderful happened. He “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). That means that, being good, He could pay for the bad things (sins) we have done. Now He can give sinners like you and me everlasting life and a home in heaven, if we will take His gift. There is nothing bad in what He offers us!! It is — eternal life!