Skip to main content

All...


          My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (I John 2:1-2) 

          Don’t you just love the hero in stories, who arrives when he’s most needed and saves the day? I hate to think that I might be a romantic at heart, but I often wish for a knight in shining armor to ride in, fix whatever situation I’ve broken, and generally, to ride away again until the next time I need him. Except for the riding away part, that’s Jesus’ role. 
          When we separate ourselves from God, He is the one who speaks in our defense. I have yet to hear of this role being filled by the leaders of any other religion. Mohammed, Buddha, the Dalai Lama, the two hundred million Hindu gods – as far as I know, none of them defend anyone. Jesus alone has paid the price. Jesus alone defends us. And as we saw yesterday, if we claim we don’t need a defense, we are calling God a liar. 
         It is the last phrase that gives pause. What does it mean that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world? Does it mean that everyone’s sins have been atoned for? Yes. Does that mean that everyone goes to heaven? No. Quite simply, if I paid for everyone in a group to get into the movies, they could all go. But if someone in the group decided he was going to pay his own way, and at the same time happened to not have the money to pay the full price of the ticket, unless that person changed his/her mind (a.k.a. repented,) he/she would not get into the movie. At the very least he would have to accept from me the difference between the cost of the ticket and the money in his hand (a.k.a. grace.) It would do no one any good to be mad at me, or mad at the movie theater. The fault and the problem lie with the one who refuses to accept it, who refuses to be part of the group for which I’ve paid. I can defend that person’s right to go see the movie until I’m blue in the face, but that person has to change in order to participate.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more