There is good news in this world
that is so full of bad news. The Bible
tells us what that Good News is. The
Bible tells us how the story began. The
story begins with God, the greatest Being in the Universe. Someone who always existed. A God who is the very essence of love. A creative God who decided that He would
create stars and planets and angels and a planet called Earth and its
inhabitants both animal and human. The Bible tells us that when this
uncreated creator created the universe that it was good. That there was nothing bad in it. No dying stars. No hurricanes. No earthquakes. No cancer.
No wars. No lies. And no death.
The universe was a place filled with spiritual beings called angels who
were the messengers of God. The earth
was filled with animals and the humans that God made to take care of them and
the Earth. It was all good.
But the Bible tells us that when God
made these spiritual beings called angels and human beings that He made them
capable of love. And in order for love
to be real between friends, whether the love is between God and angel or God
and human, that love has to be returned.
There was one angel named Lucifer who was the most beautiful of all. He decided that he was not going to love God
in return or give Him thanks for the life that he had been given. But instead this mightiest of angels would
try and usurp God's throne. There was a
rebellion in heaven against the creator.
But the created rebel angel could not defeat his creator, and, after
convincing one third of God's angels to follow him, this mighty angel, now
turned God's enemy was thrown out of heaven.
But he didn't stop there. This angel turned devil went after the humans
who lived on the perfect Earth. This
enemy of God, this adversary, this Satan would bring mankind down with
him. The Bible says that he got humanity
to join his rebellion against their creator as well. Although humans knew that God was their creator
they refused to give him thanks for the life that they had been given and
became dark in their thinking. And in
that moment that humanity decided to follow the dark one the universe began to
die. The very fabric of the universe was
infected by this death causing virus called sin. When mankind decided to cut themselves off from
their source of life they began to die like a tree branch ripped from the
tree. The universe became unplugged from
it source as well. Star began to die. The earth groaned as the poison of sin shook
it to its core. The weather was
broken. Humans began fighting each other
first in close family relationships and then eventually in massive wars that
would devastate themselves and the environment.
The good beginning would have a bad ending. Sin caused death. Death was the price of the rebellion.
But the thing about Love is that
when it is needed the most, it kicks into high gear. God, who is the very essence of Love, for
love comes from God, decided that he would give the humans a second chance. He would come after them. He would find a way to save them from the
destruction that they brought on themselves.
So he used His power to become
human. His name was Jesus Christ. He was born in a backwater town among the
poor. He set aside his riches as the
King of every king and grew up to be a carpenter. He worked a blue collar job for thirty years,
unnoticed by society. To look at him you
would not think that there was something special about him. Unless you got to really know him. Then you would find that this Jesus was the
best person you ever met. He never did
anything wrong. He was always just. He was always right but not in the way that
humans think they are always right. He
just was. He would make children feel
like they were the great citizens of God's Kingdom. He would make women feel that they were
equals in a world where men in their evil had dominated them for
centuries.
He would eventually choose 12
uneducated young men with no power or prestige or money to become his team of
world changers. They would be his
co-architects of the restored world that He would create. When he trained them to be the people who
would change the world and overthrow ruthless Kingdoms he didn't train them in
the use of the sword or turn them into money making moguls or politicians. He showed them how to serve each other and
the people around them. He fed the
poor. He used his God power to heal the
sick.
Then He would make the ultimate
sacrifice. Jesus Christ, who did no
wrong, allowed himself to pay the price of our sin. He would pay our penalty. He would pay our debt. We were the ones who should have been
executed for our misdeeds. But the
Creator decided that He would be executed instead. He let evil men arrest Him and literally nail
Him to a Roman cross. The Bible tells us
that His execution paid the price of sin forever. And then three days after He was killed in
our place He beat death and came back to life.
The Bible tells us that if we will just believe that Jesus Christ was
executed in our place and that He came back to life that we will be
forgiven. That all of our personal
misdeeds will be forgiven forever and our guilt will be washed away in His
sacrifice of love. The Bible also tells
us that even though we will die one day that Jesus will raise us to new life
and we will be restored. Our
relationships can be brought to new life.
Because Jesus Christ did all this death itself will work backwards and
even the Earth and the Universe itself will be made new. And all we have to do is love Him back and
believe this Good News.
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