Every story has a beginning...
Some of the most exciting stories told in films are about someone saving the world. Whether it is from evil geniuses, asteroids, rogue nuclear states, or from sentient robots, the basic story framework is the same. The Bible tells us the real life story about a divine rescue operation, where God has to save mankind from itself.
Every story must have a beginning and the Bible gives us the answer to one of the deepest questions we can ask: 'Where do we come from?' God tells us that He exists outside of time, because when He created this universe and all that is in it He also created time - an idea which we now recognise in physics today. In the beginning, all was good and right in the world. Mankind lived happily in relationship with God, enjoying all the good things in the world He had given us to look after.
...However, this paradise was lost...
Mankind chose to believe a lie, that God was keeping something from us which was holding us back from godhood. Our first ancestors used their free will to rebel against God’s loving care to make our own way in this world, regardless of the good order in which He created it to operate by. This shattered and separated us from having relationship with God! This decision has resulted in disaster throughout human history as we each have inherited this rebellious nature against God. This rebellion against God which manifests itself in all our lives is called “sin” and it represents man’s refusal to acknowledge God’s rightful rulership over His creation, and consequently our desire to supplant Him with ourselves.
Now just as we have a broken relationship with God, we too have broken relationships in our world with one another, with violence, discord, suffering, selfishness, and all other kinds of wickedness running amok as the good creation unravels. This is a corrupted world of our own making.
...This is not the end of the story though...
The second big question of life is: "Where are we going?". God is the embodiment of justice - the great principle that the heroes in these films always stand up for and defend - and He must punish the rebellion of mankind, as that is what we deserve. To be right before God we must be perfect, and we all know that no matter how good we think we might be that none of us are perfect! It might seem that we are all destined for judgement and punishment because of this fact. The answer to this big life question is that if we die we will have to face judgement for all eternity because of our rebellion.
However, the amazing thing about God is that He is also the embodiment of love. He loves humans and desires to be reconciled into relationship with them again as there was in the beginning. God has not just turned His back on us allowing us to destroy ourselves and this world, rather He has embarked on the greatest rescue mission ever known to show us both His love and His just character.
The Bible records the words of Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16 -17).
God chose to become a man by sending His Son, called Jesus Christ, into this world. He chose to suffer in this world as we all do, although He did not have the same sinful rebellious nature that we each have inherited, which meant He could live the perfect life that none of us can live. Because Jesus was a man like all of us but yet a perfect man, it meant that He could become a substitute for us by bearing God's just wrath against our sin. Jesus was the hero who out of love self-sacrificially laid down His life to save us humans from ourselves. By taking the penalty for our sinful rebellion upon Himself, we can now be restored into relationship with a loving God whose justice has been satisfied by His own divine rescue efforts on our behalf. The truth that our sins have been forgiven because of what Jesus has done was confirmed by the fact that Jesus rose again from the dead 3 days later and appeared alive to His friends and hundreds of other people who saw Him die just a few days before. This is how the Christian Church began: seeing the dead man walk - although of course He couldn't have been just a man if He rose again; He was God!
Now He calls Christians to walk in obedience to what God has said, according to the pattern of life which the Creator knows to be the best way for things to operate. He also calls us to be involved in reaching this broken world with His loving truth and seeking to see reconciliation and restoration of the brokeness that is all around us, by having relationship with Him restored. He will one day return to create a fully restored world, free from all sin and suffering, but until then He calls Christians to live lives which show and minister to the world a taste of what is to come, if they will trust in Jesus for salvation
... But what does all this mean for me?
Jesus Christ is the culmination of God’s divine rescue plan. The only question left is how will you respond to Him? Unlike going to the cinema to watch this incredible story on the big screen and walking away; this is real life and this demands a response in our lives because it is fact, not fiction. We all have the choice to accept the forgiveness offered through Christ taking our punishment for us so we can be restored into relationship with God and enjoy life after death in a restored world with Him. Alternatively, we can refuse to accept what Christ has done and stand condemned and suffer the punishment ourselves. Following on from the quotation from Jesus that we read earlier we find a stark warning that says: “Whoever believes in Christ is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).
(This gospel account was written by David J. Nixon for Edinburgh University Christian Union)
