Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, December 24th. Christmas is about more than a baby in a manger. Let's learn about how Jesus fulfilled his role as the ransom for many. This is the second in the series of messages on why Jesus came. And if you'll turn to Matthew chapter 20, I want us to read two

verses, and we will depart from these two verses and start in Genesis and show you one of the

most important reasons Jesus came, in fact, of all the reasons, it is the ultimate reason for which

he came. So in this particular passage, Jesus is talking to his disciples about requests that one of their mothers had made,

and she wanted their sons to be able to sit on his right hand in the kingdom.

And so this brought up the subject of being having a servant spirit

and so he says in verse 27 of Matthew 20 and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your

servant even as the son of man came not to be minister unto but to minister and to give his life

a ransom for many a ransom is a substitute for something else.

And what he's saying is that he came as a substitute for many. Not to preach, not to teach, not to

heal, although those things were a part of his ministry. He came to die for you and for me.

And to begin, let's go all the way back to Genesis chapter three, if you will.

Let's begin where the problem started. God's perfect creation, the problem developed in Genesis

chapter three in verse 6 when the Bible says that Eve took the fruit

thereof of the tree ate and gave it to her husband and he ate. The result of that was, of course,

that sin entered the world and sin separated God from man. Immediately in verse 15, God came to Adam and Eve and offered to them a word of promise, though he gave this word of promise to them, but he spoke it in a word to Satan when he said,

verse 15, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, woman doesn't have a seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel.

And that is here is the first implication here of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

Then if you'll notice in verse 23, here is the result of their sin.

Therefore the Lord God sent them forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from

whence he was taken. Verse 21 says unto Adam also and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of

skins and clothe them? Who made the coats of skin? God did it. Now, with that in mind, I want you to see that

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