Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Why did Jesus, the Son of God, come down to this earth? Not simply so He might take us to heaven when we die. He has another blessed purpose. The angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary before He was born, "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). This is how the Apostle Paul described it:
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:2-4).
That was a greater achievement even than making the Milky Way! It's "easy" for the Creator to make a world or a sun; He simply speaks the word--and it's done. But conquering sin in fallen, sinful human flesh? "Condemning" it there? Delivering us who have fallen, sinful flesh from the dominion that sin has over us? That's something God could not do by simply sayingan empty word, "I conquer sin!" No, that would never do.
He cannot tell a lie, or claim to have accomplished something that's not real. So, He does it! He becomes a real Baby in Bethlehem's manger, a true human being, grows up as a child and a youth, meeting all our temptations to sin, and saying "No!" to every one of them, even until He was hanged on a cross.
And there on His cross, the devil throws his worst temptations at Jesus, trying to get Him to sin in one tiny, almost insignificant way so that Jesus might fail of His mission "to save His people from their sins." But Jesus conquered every subtle temptation!
No, no idol or image can ever represent that glorious achievement! No angel in heaven would ever think of bowing down to an image of any kind. He couldn't do it! And neither can you or I if we have an adequate understanding of the righteousness of Christ our Savior.
--Robert J. Wieland
From: A New Look at God's Law, 2000.
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