In last week’s blog, I lamented the fact that everything we do gets corrupted by sin. I posited the following truism: There is no good thing devised by man that cannot be corrupted by sin. And I suggested an accompanying corollary to that: There is no good thing devised by man that has not been corrupted by sin. I also gave examples of how mankind even corrupts those things he has not made in the natural world around us. Let me add one more example: there are an estimated 170 million pieces of man-made debris – in orbit around the earth. This debris is composed of dead satellites, spent rocket boosters, and alien motherships (no, wait, that was a movie). This includes 18,000 pieces large enough to be tracked by our space defense command. I guess the earth wasn’t big enough to hold all our junk! Interestingly, check out John 21:25 – “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” If we’re going to fill up earth and space, it might as well be with books about Jesus!
I referred to this problem of corruption by the terms, “makin’, breakin’, and achin’,” meaning we invent and create things (makin’), our sin corrupts the use of them (breakin’), which leads to evil results and suffering (achin’). There is where I left you, in the “slough of despond” (to quote John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress) into which the Christian sinks under the weight of his own sins and despairs of any hope.
There is where I left you, in the “slough of despond.”
But there is hope. God knows our condition – in fact, knew it before we sank into it – and prepared a remedy for our brokenness and pain. Before he even created us, Christ was the Lamb of God who would be slain to cover the guilt of our sins. Revelation 13:8 claims that Jesus was “slain from the foundation of the world” (KJV), and Ephesians 1:4 promises that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” I like that: holy and blameless before God, even though we have messed up everything he has given us in this world.
But there is hope.
He tells us to therefore have courage as we face the struggles, dangers, and aches of this world: “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:8). Hebrews 13:5 repeats God’s promise: “For I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So, I guess we can add “but not forsakin'” to the chain of makin’, breakin’, and achin’. Though we have sinned and corrupted everything, God sent his un-corrupted Son to save us, the Son who likewise promised us, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
This is a remarkable promise, because God made it to sinful creatures even in light of our ongoing rebellion against him. We have brought our woes upon ourselves, either directly by our own actions, or indirectly through the actions of others. Yet, Scripture tells us that, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And Romans 5:10 continues by proclaiming the effect that Christ’s death and resurrection had on us sinners: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
One important term the Bible uses to describe the transforming effect of Christ’s sacrifice on sinners is “redemption.” To be redeemed is to be freed from lawful bondage by payment of a ransom. We use it today to refer to what takes place at pawn shops. A person takes an item of value into the shop, and leaves it with the pawn broker in exchange for cash. The person then has a set period of time to return to the shop with money and a pawn ticket to buy back, or redeem, the item left there. If not redeemed, the item is forfeit to the pawn broker, who may sell it to reclaim the cash paid out. In biblical teaching, we are in bondage to sin, unable to redeem ourselves, so Christ came and paid the redemption price – his own life – to set us free. We are his, valuable enough to him that he paid the price for our freedom.
We are his, valuable enough to him that he paid the price for our freedom.
This redemption has a three-fold effect:
- On our standing with God as forgiven, righteous children. Romans 3:24-25 says that we “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” When we believe in Jesus Christ we receive right now complete forgiveness of all our sins, including the sins we have yet to commit! After all, Christ died for us before we committed any sins. This means all our breakin’ is forgiven; though the consequences of our actions may continue to bear bitter fruit in our life or in the lives of those around us, the guilt and prescribed eternal punishment for those sins are taken away. Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Psalm 103:12 proclaims, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” And John 1:12 promises, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” You get the picture: the redemption of Christ frees us from the guilt of our sins.
- On our lives now and on the culture we create. We are told not to conform to the world, but rather to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). When Christ redeems us, he puts his Spirit into us and we begin the process of being transformed into Christ’s likeness and away from the sinful nature which enslaved us (Romans 8:29). We call that process “sanctification,” which means we are being made to be holy in our thoughts and actions, even as we were declared to be holy by God’s loving grace and forgiveness. Then, as our actions and attitudes change, the effect we have on the world around us changes too, and we see changes in the culture. Though at times we need to just walk away from certain cultural traditions when they are opposed to God, at other times we can transform the culture to be more God-honoring and pleasing. I thought about this while attending our city’s recent Multicultural Festival. While there I saw a wide variety of costumes, saw (but did not eat!) various ethnic foods, and listened to music from different nations – my favorite being the Japanese Taiko drummers, though most of the drummers were Caucasian (cultural appropriation or cultural appreciation? I think the latter, since I certainly appreciated what they were doing). While most cultures have desirable attributes, history shows that every culture also reflects mankind’s fallen nature. Every culture is “brokin'” to some extent in various ways. We see beautiful artwork – but some is devoted to idols and false gods; we hear drums beating, but their skills were developed to guide troops in battle; we enjoy varieties of food, even as man-made famines starve innocent people from the “wrong” tribes. And the culture that developed algebra and the numerals we use today instituted the thousand-year long slave trade which continues even today. And then there’s our own nation’s participation in said trade. Our cultures all need to be redeemed, by the power of the Holy Spirit working in believers of every nation, tribe, and language to mend the breakin’ and stop the achin’ to the extent we can.
- On our futures. Ultimately, we can only change so much in this world and in this life. Sin will continue until the Lord returns to judge the living and the dead. Therefore, our hope is in the Lord and his promises of eternal life in bodies that will also one day be fully redeemed and restored to their pristine condition, free from sin and all its effects. Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 22:3 continues the promise, “No longer will there be anything accursed.” As Paul puts it in Romans 8:23, “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Because God is not forsakin’ us, we can look forward to complete healin’ of our achin’ and no more breakin’ of what we are makin’. God’s love for us overcomes all that we have done to ourselves, each other, this wonderful world, and yes, even space. For that, we can be eternally grateful!
God’s love for us overcomes all that we have done.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Read: Hebrews 8, Revelation 22