The final book I completed in 2011 was the Bible.

The Bible is such a large book that contains so many stories – stories of new life, death, tragic decisions, beautiful surprising endings, intriguing plots, romantic heroes, despicable kings – and above all, the greatest love story of all time.

This book tells about a powerful God – so powerful that He created the world and everything in it. He created man in His likeness and gave this man a woman. He gave them everything they needed. He also gave them a free choice – they could obey and follow their Creator or they could choose their own way.

They chose the latter.

Because of their choice, a great barrier of sin was between them and their Creator. In fact, all of mankind was put under the curse of sin. God promised to send someone to remove the barrier…but it would not be in their lifetime. In fact, it would be many generations before the time was right.

Many years later, the time had come. God sent His perfect Son to earth to remove the barrier of sin. He came to earth – not as a King in all His glory – but as a baby. This baby, whose name was Jesus, grew up and began to tell everyone He met about God, His Father.

People thought He was insane. Or maybe He was possessed.

Despite what people thought, this man truly was God’s Son. And He had been sent to remove the barrier of sin between mankind and God. However, the eyes of the religious authorities in that day were blinded. They knew Jesus was a fraud and they were not about to let Him get away with it. So they devised a plan to kill him.

Little did they realize that they were but a small part of God’s plan. And though they believed themselves to be in control and overruling the “lies” of Jesus, they were simply acting according to the larger plan of God, their Creator.

Their hatred for Jesus put Him on a cross where He was crucified.

God’s love for them allowed Jesus to be put on the cross.

Because it was while Jesus was on the cross, breathing His last, that the barrier of sin was broken. Jesus – God’s perfect Son – was the only one who could remove the barrier. That’s because He’s the only One who has ever lived a perfect life. God took the barrier – the sins – and placed them on Jesus’ record instead of on the record of every sinner in the world.

Thousands of years later, I was born. I was not there so many years ago when the first man and woman made the choice to follow their own way instead of their Creator’s way. But I still bear the curse of sin. I still have that barrier between me and God.

What am I to do? Did the death of Jesus only apply to those born before He died?

No. It applies to me. My sins were put on Jesus’ record when He died on the cross.

That leaves me with a choice. A choice similar to the one given to the first man & woman:

• I can choose to follow God’s way and accept that Jesus broke the barrier of my sins.

OR

• I can choose to follow my own way and pay the penalty for my sins.

I have chosen.

Have you?