God loves mankind and wants to bless all. It is not (and never was) God’s intention to be separated from mankind. God is a God of relationships, and He wants nothing more than to exercise this relationship with His creation:

“You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Psalm 16:11).

“How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.” (Psalm 36:7-10)

Mankind is separated from God because of sin, which results in spiritual death.

“But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

Even despite this separation, God desires to have a relationship with man. Being the perfect and just God that He is, we are separated from Him by our sin. The chasm is insurmountable in our own effort, but God has made a way for us to be restored.

As the Bible makes clear, our sin has separated us from a relationship with God. The Bible also explains the punishment for our sins; that is, our trespasses. A punishment that is the same for all – Jews and Gentiles alike – if they indeed remain separated from God:

“Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
(Isaiah 64:6).

“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine, the soul who sins will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)

“But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.” (Jeremiah 31:30)

“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

The Bible is very clear on this point as well; there is nothing we can do to save ourselves and be reconciled to God. Additionally, there is nothing that a man can do for us to reconcile us to God:

“ ‘Although you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your iniquity is before Me,’ declares the Lord God.” (Jeremiah 2:22)

“No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him.” (Psalm 49:7)

Do not be discouraged! God loves us and He did provide a solution to what seems to be an unsolvable problem. God sent Yeshua the Messiah to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Messiah, whom the Scriptures teach is God, died and atoned for our sins.

We should pay particular attention to the Scripture from the prophet Isaiah who predicted the humiliation, suffering, death by crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of the Messiah in Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12. The following is a part of that section of the Hebrew Scriptures:

“He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgement, He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:2-13)

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” (Leviticus 17:11)

“I, even I, am the LORD, and there is no savior besides Me.” (Isaiah 43:11)

The barrier between God and us created by sin has been knocked down by Messiah’s selfless sacrifice on our behalf. It is our choice to accept this free gift by faith.

“Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

“Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4)

The solution is here and readily available for those who desire an eternal relationship with God. Only by repentance, as we voluntarily admit and turn away from our sins, can we be saved. Faith, and only faith, in the atoning death of Yeshua the Messiah can reconcile us to God. Yeshua bridged the gap between God and us. Faith is our response to His gift: salvation for those who put their trust in Him:

“How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. […] I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord;' and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:1-5)

“He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” (Proverbs 28:13)

Contrary to all man-made religions, our biblical faith in God is rather simple. We realize nothing we can do will reconcile us to God except to believe by faith in the atoning death of Yeshua the Messiah. You have no hope apart from Him. For those who do not currently have this relationship with the living God and desire to establish it, you are only a prayer away from becoming a child of God. He is waiting! Anyone can pray right now to invite Him to be the Lord of their life and change them into a new person!

Dear God, I agree that I am a sinner and I am separated from You. I desire a relationship with You, but I cannot do it on my own. I thank you for sending Yeshua the Messiah to die for me, and I accept His death as my atonement. By faith I invite Yeshua into my heart and ask Him to be my Lord and Savior.