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The Concerns of Jesus, Part 16

Copyright © 2005, Roy F. Osborne. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.

So far, in our studies in the Concerns of Jesus, we have not touched on His primary concern. Luke 19:10 "... the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." In these few words, Jesus enunciated His primary purpose for coming to earth. I want to remind you of two other passages, and then we will consider the implication of them for us today. The Golden Text of the Bible, everyone agrees, is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso believes on Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life." Finally, I John 1:7 says, "... if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."

These three verses, together with many others we might have chosen, proclaim forgiveness and salvation to all who will accept what Jesus came to offer. They are a beginning point for seeking an answer to the question, "How can the death of one man, on a cross, twenty centuries ago, have any effect on my life and destiny today, in the twenty first century"?

Let us begin (as did C. S. Lewis) with the observation that we live in a moral universe. Every person in this universe, has a sense of right and wrong. The most uncivilized tribes, studied by the anthropologist, exhibit a definite sense that some things are right, and others are wrong. What they consider right or wrong is not the issue. It is this in-born sense, that a line exists between right and wrong, that defines this as a moral universe. 

No such moral sense exists in the animal world. Only man has a conscience. With an intellect which can choose, not driven by instinctive behavior patterns, and a built-in moral sense, man becomes responsible for his behavior. But  responsible to whom? Logically, one must argue that man is responsible to the One who gave him the power to make such choices. That power must be an intelligent, moral spirit, for that is obvious from the product He produced. 

The next step is to recognize the definition of sin. Sin is a refusal to follow the moral order of the universe. It is rebelling against my created purpose and the One who created me. It is denying my responsibility to the One who makes the rules, and a thwarting of His purposes.

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In the perfectness of "heaven", where peace and love rule supreme, such rebellion cannot be tolerated. This is not because God is not willing to put up with it, but because it, by its very nature, upsets the balance of perfection. We must understand that heaven is not a "place", for a place is limited to a certain locale, and heaven is not limited. So the terms in the Bible, which seem to refer to heaven as a "place", are used to accommodate to man's limited understanding. Heaven is a "state" of absolute perfection, which surrounds God.

So, what is to be done? The Bible tells me that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. In other words, a loving Father wants all of His children to dwell in heaven, but unless something can be  done about their sins, they cannot enter there. Sin cannot dwell in heaven, for it poisons the atmosphere, as a toxic gas makes any room uninhabitable when it is introduced there.  

The problem God had to solve was how to preserve man's freedom of choice,  which led to his sinfulness, and still open a way to heaven for him. It was a  heavenly problem, which man, in this limited box of space and time, could never understand. So, in order to communicate with man, and create a way for him to be forgiven of his sins, God had to devise a language man could understand. Heavenly things had to be said in earthly terms. 

The message was one of heavenly love, and it had to be transmitted in such a way that man could understand it, and respond to it. Only love could be strong enough to pull man away from his self-centeredness, which is what causes all sin, and bring him to repentance, a return to the love of the Father, and a rejection of the world, and all its temptations.  

So God sent His Son. Man could understand the love of a Father for His Son. He came and died at the hands of those who rejected Him as God's Son. Death is the ultimate evil...the ultimate fear...the worst thing imaginable to men, here in this box of space and time. With it, the message of the depth of God's love was made clear. But man needed a way to respond, and a reason to do so. Death is a hopeless state. So God brought Him forth from the grave in the resurrection. This was the ultimate way to transmit hope to the hopeless. After death, there is life! The space and time limitation of life was transformed into a hope of that which transcends space and time, and offers immortality to sinful man. 

Those who "get" the message, and believe it, receive the benefits of the sacrifice. God forgives their sins, when His message of love causes them to repent of their sin, and turn back to make Him the Lord of their life. Upon the basis of that decision, He opens the gates of heaven, and welcomes them in.

What did the death of one man, twenty centuries ago, have to do with my life and destiny? It brought a message from heaven, and when my answer is to choose God as Lord, instead of myself, I grasp an eternal hope, which those who reject it can never have.  

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