I have been reading the Old Testament prophets and have been seeing a common theme.

God loves people but hates sin; he is a God of judgment but also a God of love and mercy. God’s response to us, his creation, is based upon our decision to either be obedient to his word or disobedient to it.

To those of us who choose to live lives of disbelief and have a disregard for what he demands of us, there is condemnation and severe judgement. We see an example of people like this in Isaiah 1: 4 where it states, “Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evil doers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord, they have spurned the holy one of Israel and turned their backs on Him.”

This problem mankind is born with is called sin and on our own we can’t do anything about it except suffer the consequences for our actions.

The good news is that this same God, because he desires for us to change, and because of his love for humanity, has made a way to take care of the sin problem. This attitude is revealed in Isaiah 1:18 where he says, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

In other words, God can and will clean our lives up and this offer is made to the dirtiest sinner, no matter what mess we have allowed ourselves to get involved in.

The prophets speak many places about a messiah, a savior who will be the deliverer to those in bondage to sin. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ, God’s son, is that fulfillment. Matthew 1 tells us that the birth of Jesus “took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet”.

This truth was that Jesus came to save his people from their sins.

It all comes back to us; we can receive forgiveness, peace and eternal life by choosing to follow Jesus Christ or if we say no to Jesus we can choose to keep being who we are, rejecting God’s mercy and stand before our creator receiving his judgement.