We’re all inspired by acts of heroic selflessness.  Jesus said in John 15:13 (NLT): "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." And no story is more moving or more powerful than that of Jesus himself, who demonstrated the power of his words by willingly laying down his life for the sake of us, his friends.  We set the stage by looking at four key characters in God’s redemptive drama: God, Us, Christ, and You.

The First Key Character: God

The first thing we need to know about God is that he is LOVING.

One of these is that he is HOLY, which means that he is absolutely pure and separate from everything that is impure.

That leads us to one other characteristic of God: he is JUST.

The Second Key Character: Us

We abused our free will, rebelled against God, and we became SINFUL.

Unfortunately, according to his just judgment, we deserve DEATH.

Romans 6:23 says it clearly, "The wages of sin is death."

To complete the bad news, we are spiritually HELPLESS to do anything ourselves that will change our grim situation.

The Bible says in Romans 3:23, that we "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

The Third Key Character: Christ

Good news: Jesus Christ was uniquely able to solve our dilemma because he is GOD as well as man.

The central truth of the gospel is that Christ died as our SUBSTITUTE.

I Peter 3:18 says: "Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."

He offers us his forgiveness and leadership as a GIFT.

Words of a praise song:

                                        Amazing Grace, all day long

First question: why did any price have to be paid at all? "Why couldn’t God just forgive and forget — like we can?"

We’ve done spiritual damage by sinning against God.

Second question: "What kind of justice is there in having Jesus, an innocent bystander, suffer instead of me?"

Christ is God, who also became a man. He is the God we sinned against!

Philippians 2:6–8 spells this out: Jesus was "in very nature God," but that he was willingly "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

The Fourth Key Character: You. The ball is in your court, and it’s up to you to decide what you’re going to do with it.

Jesus paid the price of salvation for the whole world, but each of us must RESPOND.

Jesus warned in Matthew 7:21–23: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, ’will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"

Each of us must respond by asking Christ to be our FORGIVER AND LEADER.

When we do the Holy Spirit will immediately take residence within us and begin a spiritual TRANSFORMATION in us.

        Please make certain that you’ve taken that step yourself—putting your trust in Jesus to forgive your sins and to lead your life. Please don’t go home without this!

        Next week is the big weekend we’ve been praying about and building toward. We’re going to learn about "God’s Contagious Love."