Anyways. Another basic. God gave us free will because he wanted a loving relationship. If you program a robot to love you, is that true love? I say no. If someone falls in love with you because of their own free will, is that true love? Well I would say that it is to be preferred over robot love! So... with this free will, what did we ultimately decide to do? Sin! Which brings me to my next basic...
Everyone has sinned, is unrighteous, and unfit for the presence of God. Yeah. No matter how much good you do, one sin and you are unholy! It kind of goes with the illustration I have heard a million times. If there is a purified water bottle on the counter, would you drink it? Of course you would, why not! Now unscrew the water bottle and drop just a little bit of poop in it. Not a lot, just one tiny little drop. And it's not even bad poop! ;) Okay, so you would not drink it. My facetious comment of "It's not even bad poop!" was meant to be a sort of parallel to how we talk about different sins. For instance, people look down on someone who murders someone more than a person who lies about something. And although I personally would much rather see someone lie than to see someone murder, the fact of the matter is that God can accept neither. So that's that! But the good news is.... there's another basic!
God STILL loves us! So much in fact, that He sacrificed by being born in human flesh, living decades on Earth resisting the same temptations we give in to and being persecuted when He was completely innocent. After living a perfect life, He then gave Himself up as a living sacrifice to bring about a new covenant. How awesome is that? He not only resisted huge temptations, (I've heard people say He was not tempted, but I believe Satan did everything in his power to stop Jesus from God's plan. And that includes a LOT of temptation!), but He who was so good literally took upon the sin of the world. I will quote something quite descriptive from a book I read called Boy Meets Girl . It is actually a quote from When God Weeps, and it was put into the book I read because it is the reality of what Christ experienced.
"The face that Moses had begged to see--was forbidden to see--was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth's rebellion now twisted around his own brow....
"On your back with you!" One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier's heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner's wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier's life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on--he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.
As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm--the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless--the nerves perform exquisitely. "Up you go!" They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breathe.
But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being--the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father's eye turns brown with rot.
His Father! He must not face his Father like this!
From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.
"Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped--murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten--fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk--you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp--buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves--relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?"
Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.
The Father watches as his heart's treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah's stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.
"Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!"
But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply. The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied.
The Rescue was accomplished."
Don't move too quickly from this scene. Keep gazing.
The Rescue accomplished here was for you. Did you see your own offenses on the list of sins that necessitated the Cross? If not, name them yourself. Name your darkest sin. Now reflect on the fact that Christ bore the punishment for that sin. He took the punishment you deserved. Do you feel His passionate and specific love for you. He died for you. He was condemned and cursed so that you could go free--He was forsaken by God so that you would never be forsaken (Hebrews 13:5).
So the basics. God is good. We have sinned against Him. He died for us.
What does it mean?
My next basic is that if you believe and love the Lord, His gift of salvation is extended to you.
I won't go into all of the theology behind this, I will only say that the Lord seeks a relationship with everyone. He wants you, and He did His part. If someone gives you a gift, but you do not take it, it is not yours.
So these are my personal 'basics'. Things that I will never question, and are the foundation of my faith. I didn't even intend to write about that, but I went on a tangent from what I intended on writing about so this is the end result. I guess I know what to write about for my next post. Comments are welcome.
Questions go to katelyn.cowart@selu.edu
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