Faith and the Gospel
Do you ever look at what goes on in the world and wonder, “Is this the way things are supposed to be?”
Children die of cancer. Murderers bring guns to school and shoot children. People are disabled. Women can’t bear children when their heart burns to be pregnant. A spouse leaves. Children are fatherless. People face racial attacks when they never chose to be born that race or to be born at all. Civil political discussions are long gone.
Is this what God wanted when He created everything?
No. This isn’t what God wanted. Things aren’t supposed to be this way.
The story of the Gospel is about how God has worked, is working, and will work to restore His creation to the way He intended.
The story of the Bible is about a kingdom and a king. God created mankind with a purpose: to further build His kingdom by building out from the paradise in which he had placed them. God’s desire has always been to work in partnership with His created people.
He gave people great power: choice. They could decide to build His kingdom or not. They were given the power to populate the earth and use the resources He gave them to invent and expand.
But sin stepped in and had its way. When God gave his first people a command to follow, they had a choice: obey or disobey.
They justified their decision to disobey. They sinned.
The perfection that God had created was broken. Man’s relationship with God was broken. The creation itself was broken. Sin introduced death into the world.
And none of it was as God desired. The world then had and still has death and murder and stealing and violence. Inside of our hearts there remains the idolatry and hatred and envy and anger and lust that fuels the conflict we see in the world.
But God had a plan. He would redeem and restore people and the world through a deliverer. At different times, God chose different people to bring about His plan because He was committed to partnering with the people He created. Many of them disappointed Him, and none of them could bring redemption. Ultimately, God knew that only one person could bring true deliverance: Jesus, God as a man.
Jesus was born as a baby. He was God in the flesh. He grew up as a sinless man who always did the will of His Heavenly Father. He preached repentance, for people to change their mind and change their ways, to think and act like they are part of God’s kingdom and not part of the kingdom of sin and death.
Jesus challenged the religious structure of His day. It had abused its power and not treated people with mercy and justice and righteousness. Instead of changing their minds and their ways, the religious powers joined with the political powers (the Roman Empire) and nailed Jesus to a cross and killed Him.
And they thought they had won.
Until…
God said “no” to their plan and raised Jesus from the dead. Yes, the man they killed, lived again. Jesus walked out of the tomb and appeared to hundreds of people.
And in front of his followers, Jesus ascended to Heaven to do what the Bible had said he would do. He rules from Heaven. He rules through His Holy Spirit. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him until the day He returns and restores His kingdom and creation and resurrects His believers from death to live forever.
So, what does it mean to believe in Him? What are you supposed to believe?
That you have sinned and failed to be what God intended you to be. That you understand that your sin brings about death. That you cannot deliver yourself from this mess. Only God Himself can deliver you from death and hell and eternal separation from Him.
You believe that Jesus came from Heaven to be the deliverer. You believe that his death on a cross is the payment for your sins and that His resurrection from the grave is the proof and hope of two things:
One: You believe that you will one day have your body raised, just as Jesus did, and
Two: that right now, Jesus is transforming you into what you always should have been. Through the Holy Spirit, he is turning you into a person of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.
You become a follower of Jesus when you believe this, calling on Him to be the Savior you need and could never be for yourself. When you believe that through His power—and not your own—that He can turn you into the person He always wanted you to be.
So no…this world is not how God wanted it to be. But in His faithfulness, He continues to partner with people who mess it up. In His love and kindness, He is restoring and will restore things to the way he always intended them to be.
And He is inviting you to be restored and to be part of this restoration. Will you accept His invitation?
