Advent- December 5
Listen: Good Christian Men Rejoice!
When Adam failed, God did not change toward us. Adams's sin did not cause God to hide from us. Jesus’ entire life was a move toward our failure until He became that failure (sin) and defeated its power. At the cross, Jesus stepped back into Eden, where Adam failed, and reunited mankind with the Love that formed them.
“For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.” The joy was that you would be included in God's love.
For Adults:
Jesus also dealt with sin. Sin was the disease that infiltrated the human race in Adam. Sin was not just Adam’s original failure; it was the whole ensnarement and deception of brokenness, darkness, alienation, abandonment, and orphanhood through Adam’s false believing. Through their unbelief, sin entered, and death through sin. Darkness, bitterness, murder, hatred, sickness, oppression, etc., entered the world and began to overtake all human existence until they were so blinded and broken they slipped into non-existence.
At Mt. Saini, when God moved toward mankind, they rejected His offer to make them kings and priests. He had no choice but to agree with them and settled on an inferior plan- the Law. At the mountain, God’s voice was silenced to man- never again would He speak audibly. Moses was the last man to talk directly to God, friend to friend. The Law brought wrath (Romans 4:15) toward those who failed to obey it. It brought blessings if it was obeyed and curses to the disobedient. It could not forgive, and it could not save; it also could not give eternal life. When enough time had passed to allow the burden of the law to do its work- (to burden, to convict of sin, and to inflame sin), God sent His Son to become the final payment that the law demanded. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5). Every sacrifice performed bore witness to God’s eternal plan of forgiveness for the sins of the world. Jesus, the incarnate One, was God’s witness of His nature- Forgiver!
Jesus’ cry of “It is finished!” was Heaven’s cry of “NO! I did not create you to be alienated and broken! I have died so that you would have life- the life of God that fixes brokenness and shame, the life that doesn’t remember sin nor condemns you. I fixed the problem of separation and brought you into the Love that Elohim has for One another. There is no more striving to attain God’s favor; there is only abiding. I have placed you in the Light.” Jesus’ death restored your value.
Jesus did not merely save us from sin. To be “saved” suggests that we are still the same. Jesus died to transform us into His image and give us His life. Where the Law brought self-effort and condemned us, He brought rest, forgiveness, transformation, and New Life. The Old died, and a New Person was born- you were Born Again.
Where the Law was about man’s ability, now it is about Christ’s ability.
To live in the finished work is to live the life Jesus died to give us- eternal life. Eternal life is to know and experience the fullness of the Love of God. To be so deeply loved, you will never be satisfied without it. It is not about how well you perform but about well He performed!
Sin no longer has power over you; you now have power over it.
Where once God’s voice was silent, His voice is now ever speaking to us through the Spirit that dwells within us. He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother, and He will never leave or forsake you.
This is Good News! - an excerpt from a study on the Gospel of John