Born Condemned

John 3:18 reminds us of a wonderful resolution to a horrific reality.

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Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

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Jesus didn’t come to earth to condemn us...we were already that way from birth...separated from God.   Desperately sad, but true.

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So, we need a Savior to release us from the prison of sin we’re born into.   The cost to Christ to make a way for our release was a hideous and painful death.   Yet, He came to smash the walls of separation...so we can enter the Holy of Holies to be 'with' Him.

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As my pastor reminded us last week, Numbers 21:9 (NIV) foretells of Jesus' death on the cross:

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Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

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As the Old Testament story illustrates, we gain freedom as we look to Him just as the Israelites looked to the serpent on the pole in the desert for healing.

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Below is a poem I wrote based on this glorious solution to a terrible predicament.

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BORN CONDEMNED 

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We’re born confined, where hardened walls

Stand painfully thick and tall

No way to move beyond my cell

Just empty days and darkened halls.

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Under curse of Adam’s sin

Stuck so firm, confined with him!

Escape seems far and fleeting now

Sunny prospects seem so dim.

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Living there so chained and weak

Cell walls were terribly

Pressing in and solid through

Opposed to Thine and Thee.

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But one grand day I hear of news

Of a prisoners death for me

Who came to live and die alone

To die to set me free

To take away the chains I wear

To make a way from evil’s snare.

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All I had to do was look

To Him to trust for life

He shook my walls and tore them down

His peace now found in strife.

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Now I walk where’re I wish

Now I’m truly free

No chains or walls to hold me back

My life consumed by Thee.

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John 3:16 says it all:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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PRAYER

May the Lord bless and keep you and may His hand of peace, grace and truth break down the walls that separate us from Him.

In Jesus' name.   Amen.