the Gospel - Did Jesus come to be our example? or is it more than that...

If Jesus came as a model and example for us in order to redeem ourselves, He is an utter failure. If this were so, I would then wish he would have never have come, because nobody can care like Jesus cared, nobody can love like Jesus loved, and nobody can give like Jesus gave...

And if He is my model and all He gives me is just one more shot to be like Him, all He shows me is that I can NEVER redeem myself. As a model He discourages me, He DOES NOT encourage me. He devastates me, He demolishes me! He leaves me in the darkness if that is all...

But the Bible tells us that Jesus came and died to pay the penalty of our failures. And if we receive Him, His record becomes our record. He isn't the god of second chances, 'let's get it right this time!'. Instead He says in a sense, 'Your doing will never get you there. Looking at me proves that! I have done all the good deeds for you. I have lived the perfect life. I have died the perfect death. I put myself in your place and took your penalties, so that if you trust FULLY in me and you lay your doing down, the Father will welcome you as complete.'

-----------------------------------------------------------

Martin Luther used to pray, "You are my goodness, I was your punishment. You assumed everything I deserved and was, so that I can receive everything you deserved and are."

"This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ's, and the righteousness of Christ not Christ's but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us with it and fill us with it; and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them." -- Martin Luther