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| Photo: AP |
Throughout history God sent prophets to the Jewish people to tell them of Christ's coming and give them rules by which to live their lives. According to His will, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to come and live with humankind. Christ experienced all of the things that humans experience: love, joy, pain, sorrow, anger, and even death. We believe that through man, sin came into the world, and through sin came death. And we also believe that through Christ, the power of sin and death can be eliminated.
Christ taught about God and led the people away from the false teachings of idolatry, and pointed out the hypocrisy of the scribes and pharisees. Jealous of Christ's popularity, the scribes and pharisees tried and sentenced Him to death. But these enemies did not know that His Death was the will of the Father, and is part of the plan of our salvation. Christ went willingly to His death even though He knew that He would suffer pain and humiliation. He did this because He loves us, and no longer wanted to see us as slaves to sin and death. He opened a path for all people to be resurrected from the dead. Christ died so that we could have victory over death also.
He did this because He is the One Who created life, and has ultimate control over life and death. After dying on the cross, He descended to Hades like every other person who died, but, because He is God, He was able to break the bonds of sin and death. In other words, He paid the ransom for our captivation to sin and death with His own life.
Finally, we should remember that Christ, Who is our creator and the creator of the world, came, lived with us, and died in order to save us. Had He not died, and conquered death, then we could not be resurrected and live eternally with our Heavenly Father.