I don't know anything about you, but there's one thing that I know you and I have in common: we mess up. We might have all sorts of good intentions, we might make new year resolutions, we might really want to do better, but the truth is we fail. We want to do good but we end up giving in to our bad temper, our selfish attitudes, our urges... We might manage to be nice to someone for a bit, but it doesn't last too long... It's a struggle.
Now, here's how God looks at this: he loves us, you and me and everyone else, and he knows us inside out - he knows we can't get it right. He wants to help us.
He loves us - hang on to this piece of information, it's vital!
Trouble is, he loves everybody. If I come along and hit you, God looks at what I've gone and done and he's got a problem: he loves me and would really like to just be able to ignore the wrong I've done, to just let it go... but I hurt you, and he loves you too, so it wouldn't be right to ignore the wrong I did, would it? It wouldn't be just.
That's the problem: someone has to pay for the wrong we do, for the way we hurt others, for the bad and selfish stuff we think and do. And the problem is that we humans do so much wrong that it is absolutely impossible for any of us to pay for it all.
But God loves us and he wants to help us.
That's why he came up with the most radical plan. It's so radical that people find it hard to believe it, people keep wondering where the catch is... There is no catch. We're talking about God here, who is loving and perfect. This isn't some dodgy guy trying to sell you something at the door. This is God, who created you and loves you, who has loved you since before you were born and has been watching you struggle and waiting for the day you'll finally accept his offer of help, because he knows that it's your only chance, that you have no way of getting out of the mess without his help.
What's this radical plan I'm talking about? It's simple: someone had to suffer and die to pay for all the wrong stuff that humanity has done/is doing/will do, and the only one who could qualify for this job was someone who himself had done no wrong. That was Jesus - God's only Son, holy and perfect in a way that none of us could ever be. He went willingly to the cross to die, because he knew this was the only way humankind could ever get out of the mess we're in.
So now, thanks to his sacrifice, we - you and me and each and every person on this earth who chooses to believe in what Jesus has done - can receive God's forgiveness for everything, a clean slate, a new start, everything completely paid for.
