While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

This is he very heart of the Christian message.

It is the central message of the Bible: God loved us so much that He sent His own Son to serve the penalty we each deserved, and die in our place.

Why was that necessary? Why could not God simply forgive us - or effectively let us off? Well, because as well as being supremely loving, God is also supremely just. To let sin go unpunished would be to no longer bring justice. To let rebellion go unpunished would be to go against His character just as much as were he to ever stop loving us. he simply cannot do either!

So, how then to show His love for us, and yet still deliver justice?

Wonderfully, when Jesus died on a cross 2,000 years ago, His great love and perfect justice both came together. As we have just seen, the law demands that the 'wages' for our sin is death. But Jesus, perfectly innocent, chose to take our place and die instead of us.

Jesus died for us - and so God has shown his perfect love.

And, since the death sentence was carried out - God has also shown His perfect justice.

Now, because the sentence is paid, because our sin has been dalt with once and for all, it means that there is no longer anything to separate us from God. We have effectively been made clean again, and so can be re-united (or as the Bible says, 'reconciled') with God. No longer are we facing death (that is, separation). The gap has been wonderfully bridged!

So, does that mean everyone is off the hook.
Do we all go to heaven?

Well, no actually...