God had a plan in place to save all mankind even before Adam and Eve were created. He knew that we were going to break his law and sin against him.  God knew that man’s sinful nature would ultimately lead to death and eternal separation from him. What was God’s plan to save us from the eternal condemnation for our sins? He would willingly sacrifice his one and only son to die on the cross for our sins? What? Yes, this was the only way, a perfect sacrifice had to be made to save mankind from their sins.

In the old testament when people sinned against God, an innocent animal, often a young bull or a goat would be sacrificed for the atonement of their sins. This sounds gruesome but this had to be done every time someone sinned.  God knew that no amount of animal sacrifices would be enough to wipe away all the sins of men. He had to send Jesus Christ to be the one and only perfect sacrifice to wipe away all our sins for once and for all.

1 Peter 2:24 says “He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.

Jesus Christ bore the weight of our sins on the cross so that we might live forever and be reunited with God. This was the only perfect sacrifice that God would accept for the atonement of our sins. His own Son, the only man that never sinned, had to die on the cross for our sins.

John 3:16 says “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.”

This was the plan that God had in effect since the beginning of creation. A plan that shows how much our God loves us.  This plan finally came to fruition when Jesus was on the cross. He was in a lot of pain and agony while on the cross but Jesus knew at that moment that the debt had been paid in full for all our sins. Now all of mankind had a way to be reconciled back to God. His mission was accomplished and He confirmed this with his Father by saying, “It is finished!”. Those words of confirmation from Jesus saved all mankind.