I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to make a lot of mistakes in a day. I am getting better, but I am so far from perfect that it isn't even funny. Having 5 children in my home all aged 7 and under sometimes makes for opportunities for me to be short with those that I love most. When I make a biting remark, or react in anger, that action wounds the person that I act against. Call it an emotional, mental or spiritual wound...call it what you will, but it is a wound all the same. One that I have inflicted and that I am totally incapable of completely healing. I don't know exactly how they feel and thus I don't know how to fix it on my own.
One of the reasons why we need Jesus is actually for others. What I mean by that is that Jesus is the only one who was capable (as an infinite being born of a mortal mother and an immortal Father) of suffering through everything we suffer through. Isaiah teaches that He bore our griefs, our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and through His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53, see also Mosiah 14 in the Book of Mormon). The prophet Alma in the Book of Mormon explains that Jesus suffered in the flesh for our pains, afflictions, temptations and sicknesses. Jesus suffered all of this so that He might know how to help us (Alma 7:11-13).
Without His knowledge of everything we have experienced, nobody would truly know how we feel. Thus nobody would truly know how to find total and complete healing. We might find some small, insufficient ways to bear with our problems, but complete healing would never be possible. One reason why we need Jesus is because of that...without Him there could not be complete healing. The healing can come to both parties in any situation where hurt occurs. What a precious blessing to not have to carry these burdens!
The list could go on and on, but allow me to mention briefly a few other reasons why we need Jesus Christ:
He is the Creator. Without Him our world would literally not exist. He is the light and life of the world!
He has redeemed us from the Fall of Adam and Eve. Because of His act of redemption, we all will be resurrected and live forever in an immortal state. In addition, we will all be brought back into the presence of God to be judged.
He paid the penalty for the eternal laws we break. Our Heavenly Father has eternal laws that have been established that He asks us to live by. It is a fact that all of us break those eternal laws. The punishment for that broken law is "endless and eternal punishment" (see Doctrine and Covenants 19:10-20). Jesus Christ took that punishment on our behalf so that we would have the opportunity to repent and be justified and sanctified through His grace and mercy. My previous post with the story of Big Tom and Little Jim I think illustrates this point, and demonstrates what I hope is my gratitude to the Lord for His infinite sacrifice on my behalf. I will love Him forever for it!
Finally, it is because of Him that we can have peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come. I have felt my burdens lifted by my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have felt Him take the burden of sin, of illness, of temptation and of countless other things. It is a real, tangible feeling. He is real and He lives today! He is the Creator of worlds without number, the Redeemer of all mankind, my Savior and my Friend!
The best way to sum up why we need Jesus is to use the analogy of Noah and the ark. Let's put us all in the time period of Noah and let's compare Jesus Christ to the ark. Why did the people in Noah's time need the ark? Hope that answer is pretty obvious. Why do we need Jesus? For the very same reasons as those people needed the ark! He quite literally saved us from everything in the world, including sin and death. We need Jesus because He is the only one capable of being the ark for every human that is willing to see the need and come to Him!
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