What do you think of the value of human life? It is very important to properly understand its true value. There are various standards in this world by which people think to estimate the worth of themselves and one another. Many try to measure the worth of a man by such things as class, nationality, educational level, occupation, wealth, or even age. But God created man as one who is inherently worthy and valuable. The Bible tells us that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them” (Genesis 1:27, 28). “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10).

But what happened to this man who was the crowning work of God’s creation? He became weaker and prone to disease, with no other destiny than to end up in death. His condition became really regrettable and miserable. Why? God declares that it is because of sin. And the Bible confirms it by declaring that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

People now boast that society has developed very much and has become very comfortable to live in. The days have passed when you could only look at some rare food wistfully but could not taste it. If you wish, you can now try all kinds of food from all over the world in all seasons. In fact, you can even take innumerable kinds of nutrients and tonics if you wish, or find all kinds of clothes. The days when you shivered in winter and wiped your sweat in summer are past, because now you can purchase and enjoy warm summer breezes in winter - and cool, winter winds in summer, or maybe autumn or spring according to your desire. And the days have passed when there was no other way to travel than to walk. Now you can travel by car, bus, train, or fly by plane. You can even arrange your trip just as you wish, according to where and when you want to go. Today, educational and reference books are overflowing everywhere, and human science has developed so much that it seems to reach even to the heavens.

The Bible summarizes the human passion to fulfill one’s desires in this way: God “gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul” (Psalm 106:15). Yes! Truly something is missing today even though everything is so abundant. You feel like a snail even though you run, you feel hungry regardless of how much food you eat, and more than ever human bodies are becoming weaker and weaker in spite of taking energy drinks and supplements. Human hearts have reached the condition where they never seem to be satisfied.

Today as never before, the competition for life has become so severe that to many it requires someone’s death in order to allow the other to live; and this is continuing day after day. The breakdown of the family is seen everywhere. More than ever before, the wreckage of collapsed homes broken into pieces is piled upon the rock of selfishness. Yes! Selfishness is sin.

Crimes, wars, illness, and the rate of death will continue to increase until someone solves the problem of sin. Regarding the condition of this world, the Bible says that “evil men . . . shall wax worse and worse” (2 Timothy 3:13).

Although medical science is so developed and various kinds of medicines are abundant, hospitals are still full of patients, and the life force of many who were hoping for future success is becoming weaker and weaker. Only when God solves this acute and chronic problem, the problem of sin, “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick” (Isaiah 33:24).

Yes, sin, sin, sin - any violation of God’s holy law of Ten Commandments - is the very thing to be hated. Does this problem in some way affect you and your family’s life, which should be filled with joy and happiness? If indeed it casts its dismal shadow upon you, then the problem must be solved immediately.

Yes, sin is the greatest human problem. God wants to have happy communion with us, but sin has become the barrier between God and man, therefore He must remove it in order to restore close fellowship with you and me. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1, 2). Since sin is a universal problem, how will it be fixed? It is to be blotted out, but why hasn’t this happened yet?

Let us consider the problem of sin from God’s viewpoint. Unfortunately, this virus of death infects many whom He loves. The only solution that can satisfy the heart of God, because of His infinite love, is to separate sin from sinners. Do you think it is possible? God says it is. But the devil, who is the enemy of God, insists that it is impossible. Whom will you believe? God is able to solve this problem of sin. “I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour” (Isaiah 43:11). What means does He have to separate sin from man?

Do you know how cruel that murder was, which happened in the spring of a.d. 31? This is a case when the King, the Creator of heaven and earth, was crucified on the cross by man - man who was created by Him. It is really shocking news to hear whenever a parent has been murdered by his or her own child. Yet, it is an even greater shock to hear of the sin which men committed by killing the loving Creator. This is one page in human history that should make people of reason and conscience to tremble.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ guarantees redemption to repentant sinners who are eager to return to close communion with God. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The innocent One must have borne sufferings for the sake of the wicked. The One without sin suffered instead of sinners. God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us. . . . Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9, 10).

This love is not impulsive, sentimental, or emotional. It is genuine love, which makes us live. And it is the expression of the Saviour’s unconditional love. God has revealed His amazing plan ever since man committed his first sin. We find the plan of salvation in the Old Testament. Whenever anyone committed sin, he had to take a lamb with him to the sanctuary. “And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering,” “that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing” “and slay it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering” (Leviticus 4:33; 5:5). Through this ceremony, the sin confessed was transferred to the victim, and then the victim was killed. Who killed this sacrificial animal? The repentant sinner, who confessed his sin, killed with his own hands the animal, which represented Jesus Christ. “Day by day the repentant sinner brought his offering to the door of the tabernacle and, placing his hand upon the victim’s head, confessed his sins, thus in figure transferring them from himself to the innocent sacrifice. The animal was then slain.” 5

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ who died as a true sacrifice at the cross of Calvary is the only hope of every sinner in all ages. The Bible says in Mark 15:17-25, “they clothed him with purple, and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it about his head. . . . And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, . . . and when they had mocked him, . . . led him out to crucify him. . . . And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull . . . and they crucified him.” In consequence of this, the message given to every sinner is “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This message is “the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6). It is the good news. Many people are indifferent regarding His sacrifice. But the Bible tells of Him as follows, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:3-10).

Jesus Christ is the Saviour, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. If we come to Jesus and “confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Anyone can come to Calvary as a repentant sinner, as in ancient times when one took an animal to be killed instead of himself. And beholding the Son of God, who was nailed to the cross, he may say “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). Who is the One they have pierced? Who is the bleeding One nailed to the cross? He is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away our sin. His hands and feet were nailed, and a crown of thorns was put on His head. “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.” Who is going to look upon Him? Of course, those who pierced Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. As a result of looking upon Him, what will they feel? “As one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” The one who beholds Jesus, the Lamb of God who died on the cross, may see the cruel figure and realize this crucifixion was caused by his sin. He cannot restrain his tears for the earnest love of Jesus Christ who has become a sacrifice for his sake.

The cross! The meaningful first step of Christian faith is beholding Jesus Christ who became a sacrifice for man. “Jesus died as a sacrifice for man because the fallen race can do nothing to recommend themselves to God. The merits of a crucified and risen Saviour are the foundation of the Christian’s faith.” 6

When you and I come to Calvary, then we come to face the grief. There we see Jesus Christ who was crucified. He was not killed by happenstance, but by your and my sins. Our wrong thoughts, words, and lives killed Him. When we see that the innocent and righteous One died for sinful you and me, we begin to see more and more the cruelty of sin. Then you and I come to know the love which is so vast and deep that it constrained God to lay our sins upon the innocent soul of Jesus Christ. When a sinner looks upon the cross, he finds the way of salvation. He also comes to find the spring of true love, and understand the reality of sin. It is then that God creates in us enmity against sin and its originator. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). When we come closer to the cross, we will see the great love, which is incomparable to human love. Even though Jesus was so cruelly treated, He prayed for you and me saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

“The spotless Son of God hung upon the cross, His flesh lacerated with stripes; those hands so often reached out in blessing, nailed to the wooden bars; those feet so tireless on ministries of love, spiked to the tree; that royal head pierced by the crown of thorns; those quivering lips shaped to the cry of woe. And all that He endured - the blood drops that flowed from His head, His hands, His feet, the agony that racked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His Father’s face - speaks to each child of humanity, declaring, It is for thee that the Son of God consents to bear this burden of guilt; for thee He spoils the domain of death, and opens the gates of Paradise. He who stilled the angry waves and walked the foam-capped billows, who made devils tremble and disease flee, who opened blind eyes and called forth the dead to life - offers Himself upon the cross as a sacrifice, and this from love to thee. He, the Sin Bearer, endures the wrath of divine justice, and for thy sake becomes sin itself.” 7

When through faith you and I meditate upon the significance of this sacrifice, we come to understand that we are sinners condemned by the law which we have transgressed. It is thus that we are led to repentance. When we come with a humble heart to the cross of Jesus Christ our Saviour, acknowledging our sinfulness, our loving heavenly Father willingly forgives us.

We all have heard stories of fathers who have paid a tremendous amount of money as ransom for a kidnapped child. Suppose that God is this father and you are this kidnapped child. Do you think your life is worth the sacrifice of the life of Jesus Christ, who is King of the universe? Does God know the value of your life? Does the One who created you know your value? If He says you are worth the price (sacrifice) paid for you, then will you deny it? Oh yes, let us thank God. He says that you are worthy enough to be ransomed.

What makes you and me so worthy to God? God regards us as His sons and daughters who were originally created in His own image. Every individual on this earth is different from every other. Have you ever seen anyone who is exactly the same as you? No, it is not possible! It is really wonderful that there is no one in this world who is exactly the same as you are. If you would find one who is exactly the same as you are, then your value would decrease to 50%, if you would find two, then it would go down to 33.3%, if three, 25% and so on . . . but this is impossible, so we do not have to worry about it. You are the one and only YOU.

The only way for us to feel happiness and to experience it is to know that we are needed by someone else. The essence of true fellowship is that you satisfy someone’s need whom you love, and you are also satisfied by him or her. And to recognize this satisfaction is also very important. “The consciousness of being appreciated is a wonderful stimulus and satisfaction.” 8

God needs you!

Yes, He needs you!

“We were brought into existence because we were needed.” 9

There is a space in God’s infinite heart, which can be filled only by you. God is willing to have you as His friend. God is eager to have fellowship with you, your love. You are a very precious being to Him. He hates sin because it has separated you from Him. Therefore God wants to extinguish sin from our life so that we may be united with Him forever. Are you willing to cooperate with your Creator and Redeemer in this process?

God has designed the marvelous plan which only destroys sin but not you and I who are infected with it, and does not allow sin to continue to exist forever, but saves sinners. This is the precious plan, which was carried out with the infinite investment. The price has already been paid at the cross. You are very precious to God. This is why Jesus Christ, your Saviour, has paid His life as a ransom to save you. This is the sacrifice made on the cross of Calvary by Him who is the heavenly King, and this is the perfect work of redemption performed in behalf of your salvation.