i was listening to a podcast today. actually, i was listening to a couple podcasts: one on the gospels and one on marriage. the gospel one is the one i’d like to focus on for the moment (though the marriage one will play in here a bit).
the podcasts were from solid rock church in portland, oregon. the gospels one started out with looking at the entirety of the gospel, or the “good news”…i.e. the entire Bible. and they started with creation. the guy who was speaking said that God created all the creatures of the earth. God made adam the head of the creatures, the dude in charge. adam was the one who gave all the other creatures names and was put there to take care of the garden and everything inside the garden. now when mr. podcast guy was talking about this, i started getting this mental image…let me try to paint that image for you.
picture this.
you’ve got a guy (i’ll give you a hint -- that’s God). well God decides one day that He wants to show off His creativity, His power. He wants to create. so He makes this world, because that’s definitely what most people do when they want to be creative…they create an entire universe. but He’s God, He can do whatever He wants. so He creates a world.
now try to picture Him. i pictured him as an older gentlemen with a kind face and a big white tunic (yes stereotypical i know but go with me here) and a leather apron. now that we’ve pictured God, picture Him standing above a wooden table. He’s creating, molding things out of clay. now i pictured Him creating all of the creatures: hand-placing the spots on the giraffes, making the puppy tails, smoothing out the cat whiskers, etc. and then He comes to us. God created man in His own image, and He created male and female. He put His own personal touch and creativity on everything, He made everything unique.
now if you made something that you poured your energy and creativity into, i’m assuming that you would really like it. in fact you would most probably love it, care about it, want the best for it. meaning you wouldn’t just let some schmuck come in and steal your creation, or damage your creation. you would protect it, make sure that no harm could come to it and that it wouldn’t break. that’s how I imagined God feeling about His creation. He made us, unique and different, and created each of us and knows us personally (psalm 139). i mean if we feel that way, then how much more does the One who created us feel that way? we are His, we belong to Him. He loves us, and wants the best for us (jeremiah 29:11). we are His creation.
but then something happened that God had known about, but it wasn’t a part of His perfect plan. He created us to live in relationship with Him, and be with Him. we were created for relationship, that’s part of the reason we crave relationship so much. the reason eve was even created was because God said that it was not good for adam to be alone, so He made eve. we were created for relationship, and for relationship with God. but then sin entered the picture. sin creates a wall between us and God, it impacts us and says that we cannot live with Him. its like a black goop…it permeates our lives in everything. if we let it, it will push God and His goodness out of our lives.
so. God intervened. He knew that sin wouldn’t allow us to be with Him, or experience Him in His fullness like we were created to. sin was a barrier, it was a gap. so God sent His son to earth. now this is the part i want you to get. God sent His son to earth. this is kinda one of those monumental life-changing moments. without Jesus, we would all be going to hell because of sin. sin had invaded our lives so much that we needed something to atone for our sin, because God and sin can’t live in the same room (essentially). if God hadn’t sent Jesus, we would be going to hell. I mean c’mon now, we deserve hell because we rejected God, we said no to Him, we gave into temptation. and that choice changed man-kind. it allowed the sin nature to join our human nature. it was separation from God. and so, God in His grace and mercy, sent Jesus to earth.
think about when you were little. you know when you stole that cookie off the counter, you would usually get punished for it right? like no dessert for the rest of the day or go to your room till dad gets home (always hated that one) or something. well what if someone stepped in and said “i’ll go to her room instead”, or “let me not have dessert for the rest of the day”, you would be blown away because why would someone step in to take the punishment for something that they didn’t do? You know that you deserve the punishment, because you did the wrong thing and that other person was completely innocent, and so they don’t deserve it. but because that person loved you so much, they were willing to take the punishment for you. you would feel so loved and valued and special after that, to think that someone cared that much about you? that is basically what Jesus did for us. He stepped in and said “let me die for him so that he doesn’t have to. yes I know he deserves it, but let me pay that price because I love him”. okay. do you even fully understand what this means? it means we don’t have to die. just take a second to think about that. we. dont. have. to. die. someone who loves us so very much was willing to take our death for us.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
but here’s the deal. i don’t know if we ever even realize that. i know i take it for granted sometimes. being raised in a christian household, the concept of “Jesus died to take away my sins” is so known that i could say it in my sleep. no big deal. but when you actually think about it, yes it is a big deal. and it makes me wonder, do i actually believe it? do i really believe that Jesus died to take away my sins? really? because i think if i did i would live my life a little bit differently. when you put your life in the light of God and His grace and mercy, it makes you realize something…at least it makes me realize something. and that is that i only exist [one] because of God and His grace, and [two] i only need to live my life to praise Him. that’s it. that. is. it. then why don’t i live my life like that? why don’t i live my life for the glory of Him? why don’t i live my life telling everyone about the One who saved me from death? do i really believe what i claim to believe? do you? and does anyone else know that? live in the grace and freedom you have been given and claim it as your life. because when we pledge our life to Him, He dang well better be our life.
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