Jesus Gave His Life for Us – Basic 4 Christian Religious Studies Lesson Note (Third Term)

The Meaning of Giving

What is Giving?

• Giving means sharing something you have with someone else
• It means letting go of something that belongs to you
• The person who gives loses something, and the other person gains it
• True giving is done without expecting anything back

Types of Giving

Giving Things:

• Sharing your toys with friends
• Giving food to hungry people
• Donating clothes to poor families
• Offering your seat to someone who is tired

Giving Time:

• Helping your parents with chores
• Playing with a lonely child
• Reading to someone who cannot read
• Visiting sick people in the hospital

Giving Help:

• Carrying heavy bags for others
• Teaching someone who doesn’t understand
• Protecting someone from bullies
• Comforting someone who is crying

Giving Love:

• Showing kindness to everyone
• Forgiving people who hurt you
• Being patient with difficult people
• Caring for those who are sad

The Greatest Gift – Giving Your Life

What it means to give your life:

• Being willing to die for someone else
• Sacrificing everything you have for others
• Putting someone else’s life before your own
• Loving someone more than you love yourself

Examples of giving life:

• A parent protecting their child from danger
• A soldier fighting to save their country
• A firefighter rescuing people from a burning building
• A doctor staying with patients during a dangerous disease

Bible verse: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13)

What Makes Giving Special

It Shows Love:

• We give to people we care about
• Giving proves that our love is real
• It shows we value others more than ourselves
• Love motivates us to share what we have

It Requires Sacrifice:

• We give up something we could keep for ourselves
• It costs us something valuable
• We choose to have less so others can have more
• Real giving involves losing something

It Helps Others:

• Our giving meets other people’s needs
• It makes their lives better
• It brings joy and relief to those who receive
• Giving can save people from suffering

It Makes Us Happy:

• Giving brings joy to the giver too
• We feel good when we help others
• It makes our hearts warm and satisfied
• God blesses those who give generously

Bible verse: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35)

Why Jesus Gave His Life for Us

Because of His Great Love

God’s Love for the World:

• God loves every person He created
• His love is perfect and never changes
• God loves us even when we do wrong things
• His love is greater than any human love

Bible verse: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16)

Jesus Shares God’s Love:

• Jesus is God’s Son who has the same love
• He loves us as much as the Father does
• Jesus came to earth to show God’s love
• His love motivated Him to die for us

Because We Are Sinners

What Sin Means:

• Sin is disobeying God and doing wrong things
• Everyone has sinned and made mistakes
• Sin separates us from God’s holy presence
• We cannot save ourselves from sin

The Problem Sin Creates:

• Sin makes us enemies of God
• It brings death and eternal punishment
• Sin keeps us out of heaven
• We need someone to rescue us

Bible verse: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

To Pay the Penalty for Our Sins

The Price of Sin:

• The punishment for sin is death
• Someone had to pay for our wrongdoing
• Justice requires that sin be punished
• We couldn’t pay the price ourselves

Jesus Took Our Place:

• Jesus died on the cross instead of us
• He received the punishment we deserved
• His perfect life was the payment for our sins
• He satisfied God’s justice for us

Bible verse: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23)

To Give Us Eternal Life

What Eternal Life Means:

• Living forever with God in heaven
• Never dying spiritually
• Perfect happiness and peace
• Being with Jesus always

How Jesus’ Death Gives Us Life:

• His death paid for our sins completely
• Now we can be forgiven and live with God
• We don’t have to fear death anymore
• Believers will go to heaven when they die

To Show Us Perfect Love

The Greatest Example:

• Jesus showed the most perfect love possible
• He loved us more than His own life
• No one has ever loved us more than Jesus
• His death proves how valuable we are to Him

Bible verse: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)

Reasons Why Jesus Gave His Life for Us

Reason 1: Because God Commanded It

God’s Plan from the Beginning:

• God planned Jesus’ death before the world was created
• It was part of God’s plan to save humanity
• Jesus came to earth specifically to die for us
• He was obedient to the Father’s will

Bible verse: “This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23)

Reason 2: To Rescue Us from Satan’s Power

Satan’s Control Through Sin:

• Satan uses sin to control people
• He wants to destroy everyone
• Satan brings death, sadness, and hopelessness
• People were trapped in his kingdom of darkness

Jesus’ Victory:

• Jesus defeated Satan by dying and rising again
• His death broke Satan’s power over believers
• He rescued us from the devil’s kingdom
• Now we belong to God’s kingdom of light

Bible verse: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8)

Reason 3: To Bring Us Back to God

Sin Separated Us:

• Our sins created a wall between us and God
• We couldn’t reach God by ourselves
• The gap was too wide for us to cross
• We needed someone to build a bridge

Jesus Is the Bridge:

• His death opened the way back to God
• Now we can pray to God and He hears us
• We can have peace with God instead of being enemies
• Jesus made it possible for us to know God personally

Bible verse: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5)

Reason 4: To Fulfill God’s Promises

Old Testament Prophecies:

• God promised long ago to send a Savior
• The prophets wrote about Jesus’ coming death
• God always keeps His promises
• Jesus fulfilled every prophecy about the Savior

Bible verse: “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer” (Acts 3:18)

Reason 5: To Create a New Family

Making Us God’s Children:

• Jesus’ death allows us to be adopted into God’s family
• We become brothers and sisters with other believers
• God becomes our loving heavenly Father
• We belong to God’s family forever

Bible verse: “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12)

Reason 6: To Show God’s Justice and Mercy

God’s Justice:

• God is perfectly fair and must punish sin
• His justice demands that wrongdoing be punished
• Jesus received the punishment so God’s justice was satisfied
• Now God can forgive us without compromising His holiness

God’s Mercy:

• God is also loving and merciful
• He doesn’t want to punish us
• Jesus’ death shows both God’s justice and mercy
• We receive mercy while justice is still served

Reason 7: To Give Us Hope

Hope for This Life:

• We know God loves us because Jesus died for us
• We can face problems knowing God cares
• We have purpose and meaning in life
• We can help others because we’ve been helped

Hope for Eternity:

• We will live forever in heaven
• Death is not the end for believers
• We will see Jesus face to face
• Perfect joy awaits us in heaven

Bible verse: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19)

Reason 8: Because We Are Precious to Him

Our Value to God:

• God thinks we are worth saving
• He was willing to give His most precious Son
• Each person is valuable in God’s eyes
• Jesus died for you personally

Bible verse: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31)

Exercises

Exercise 1: Fill in the Blanks

1. Giving means _______ something you have with someone else.
2. Jesus gave His life because of His great _______.
3. The punishment for sin is _______.
4. Jesus’ death shows both God’s justice and _______.

Exercise 2: True or False

1. Giving your life means dying for someone else. _____
2. Jesus was forced to die on the cross. _____
3. All people have sinned and need salvation. _____
4. Jesus’ death was not planned by God. _____