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Written by Mark Hankins

In His death on the cross, Jesus was demonstrating the condition of humanity and ending the reign of sin.

Life is made of many lessons. The greatest life lesson comes from the cross of Jesus Christ. Actually, the cross teaches us that man’s greatest need is not just lessons, but life itself! Many religions offer good lessons, but only Jesus gives life. Because of His love for His creation, He gave the gift of life.

I heard a funny story about a man in the days of the “wild west” who was caught stealing horses. The penalty for being a horse thief was death by a public hanging. On the day of his hanging, he was asked if he had any last words. He said, “This sure am gonna teach me a lesson!”

It’s sad that death is the ultimate lesson that will cure bad behavior! Humanity has a problem that cannot be cured with education, medicine, religion or training in good manners. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was God’s answer to man’s greatest need. What happened on the cross and what does it teach us today?

In the beginning, before Adam sinned, you can see a picture of life the way God intended. There was no sickness, death, fear or hatred. But when Adam disobeyed the Father’s one command, death entered and with it, all the evil that is visible around us. The four Gospels tell the stories of Jesus’ healings and give us His teachings. However, His lessons were not finished until He died on the cross. Jesus’ substitutionary work was the ultimate lesson of life. It revealed man’s condition in the sight of God. Man not only needed a lesson, but he needed a death and resurrection. Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me.” (John 12:32)

Jesus, the Son of God, had the capacity to absorb all of the world’s sin into His great heart. In His death on the cross, He was demonstrating the condition of humanity and ending the reign of sin. When He was raised from the dead, He became the firstborn from the dead, the federal head of a new creation, a new humanity filled with the life of God! This is the lesson He was giving us. All right behavior will spring from this new life. The “cure” for the condition of humanity is eternal life!

Jesus Came to Give Us His Life and Nature

...I am come that they might have life….
(John 10:10)

Jesus died to give us His life. Man’s greatest need is life. This is real life–eternal life. It is the God-kind of life–it is spiritual life, overcoming life, love life, victory life, joy life! “He that hath the Son, hath life….”

When a person believes and receives Jesus, God’s love gift to every man, they receive His life and pass from death to life (John 3:16; 5:24). The answer for every problem and everything we need is in His life.

And this is the record that God has given us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life; He that has not the Son of God has not life.
(1 John 5:11-12)

W.E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary describes “eternal life” as much more than our English words contain: “Eternal Life is life in the absolute sense, life as God has it, that which the Father has in Himself…Eternal Life is the present actual possession of the believer because of his relationship with Christ.”

Mark Hankins Ministries International
All rights reserved. Used by permission.