ThinkBlog

[This was written as an informal email to a few friends interested in seeing The Passion, and I wanted to give a plain-English explanation for why Jesus suffered what he did—the reaon for his incarnation, death, and resurrection. What follows is a slightly edited version for public consumption, sometimes making liberal use of slang and idiom. I’ll be glad to clarify if need be!]

Before you see The Passion of the Christ, chronicling the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ’s life, it might help to know what it was all about to begin with. If no one’s ever told you about the Good News, so bear with me and I’ll do my best to tell you of it!

First things first. God’s will for each of our lives is knowable, and it’s in the Bible. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).

H’okay, zo. God created us each with the ability to make moral choices, which is something unique to humanity: He created animals, for instance, not to have that capacity, so that’s why when they kill each other out in the field we don’t call it “murder” and why when cats in heat bump & grind with every other cat in heat, we don’t call it “adultery”. Well, since we have this choice, this ability to make moral decisions, we can also make immoral decisions, those things that we know are wrong we can actually choose to do. The ability to choose is what Christians typically refer to as a “free will,” and that’s what they mean.

Thing is, we all have chosen to do wrong. I mean, can anyone really claim that he’s perfect? I sure can’t. I know I’ve lied, cheated, stolen, cursed, profaned the name of God, and, well, you get the idea! The Bible attests to the fact that everyone has committed willfully wrong acts: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). It’s not about making excuses and blaming other people for our actions, either. It’s about taking personal responsibility for the wrong we’ve committed—basically owning up before God and being like “Wow, dude, I was wrong.”

This concept of moral wrong is called “sin,” which is simply a word that comes from the Greek meaning to shoot an arrow at a target and hit something other than a perfect bull’s eye. So when I say “I’m a sinner,” or the Bible says something about sin, what I’m saying is that I’ve shot the arrows of my actions out of the bow of my will and most, if not all, of them have been way off bull’s eye. The Bible confirms that, too! That’s what it means when it says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

What does it really mean to “fall short of the Glory of God” though, really? Well, God is perfect, totally (all-encompassingly!) good, always right, and always fair. He cannot tolerate sin, because what sin is, is willful disobedience of Him (even though once we’ve done it enough sometimes we don’t even think of it anymore) and is moral imperfection. Obviously, Perfection can’t accept Imperfection, or it would become Imperfect itself! Well, to put it more concretely, a full sheet of paper can’t accept a rip, because then the paper would be ripped and it wouldn’t be a full sheet anymore! Habakkuk 1:13 puts it really well: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”

The Bible says “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). What that means is, what we deserve for sinning (willfull rebellion against God, remember) is death. Indeed, we get it!—everybody dies, physically. There isn’t anything we can do to stop it, nothing in our own power for us to keep death away—even though we can try to stave it off, of course, with herbs, meds, surgeries, cryogenics, whatever.

But the awesome thing is, just because God is perfect doesn’t mean He’s mean, or spiteful, or some old Zeus throwing lightning bolts down on “sinners” and mere mortals who dare disobey Him. No indeed! God is the very essence of Love (1 John 4:9), and He loves every bit of His creation, especially humans who are special to Him. He doesn’t want you to die, not spiritually, so He made a way for you to get back to Him. Since we’re cut off from Him by the sin and rebellion in our lives, and there’s nothing we can do in and of ourselves to turn it around, He had to make a way Himself—and He did! Here’s the rest of that verse I quoted earlier: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

He who we call Jesus the Christ is the way we can get back to God! Jesus, the one and only Son of God, came to Earth and lived a perfect, “sinless” life. He didn’t rebel against God at all—he did everything He told him to. Here’s the clincher: the only way that we could get back to God was for Christ, who is fully man and fully God, to die in our places and take the punishment we deserve on himself. And here it is, here’s the heartbreaking truth: he did it! And that, because he loves you, and loves me, enough to have died a brutal and cruel death, being separated from God, when he was the one person that ever lived that didn’t even have to die! Jesus took hell for us, literally, even though we didn’t deserve it: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

To accept the death of Christ, this free gift of God, is to obtain eternal life—and peace and joy here on Earth. God doesn’t want us to be separated from Him, He wants us to be truly happy, and in communion with Him: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17). And again, “… Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God…” (I Peter 3:18).

So what does this dude’s death have to do with anything—I mean, even if he was perfect, what good was that if he died? Well! He didn’t STAY dead, and that’s where our (Christians’) hope lies—he rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, and later ascended into heaven. He conquered death itself through the power of God—and that’s why we call it eternal life, because to believe in Christ is to accept this gift and this power over death.

So how does one attain to this eternal life? Well, it’s not simply by believing Jesus was a real dude that lived and breathed and died, it’s about believing that He holds the key to forgiveness for your sins and that he rose again on the third day, and is ready and waiting to accept you if’n you just ask. It’s true! All we have to do is be willing to turn away from our rebellion in God—which is that phrase Christians use, “repent (turn away) from one’s sins” and ask Christ to forgive us for what we’ve done.

“All you gotta do is ask, man.” It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, if you just ask, sincerely, Jesus for forgiveness, he won’t turn you away. In fact, he’s waiting for you to accept him! “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is essential that you come to Jesus as you are. You don’t have to try to clean yourself up or make yourself presentable to God somehow, God’s not the host of a down-south get-together, all you have to do is come to Jesus and be like “Yo dude, I’m dirty and I know you have the soap—will you wash me?” He will, and you’ll be shouting joyfully for the rest of your life. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).

So, what is the means by which one comes to this belief, this trust in Christ as your salvation? Easy dude! All you have to do is pray a conscious prayer, from the heart, something along these lines: “Jesus, I know that I have sinned against you. I know the truth is that I have sinned by my own choice, and I am the one responsible for it. I know that I have earned punishment from You, and that the fair punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You died in my place. Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover or take my sin away, I am relying totally and only on You. You are the only one who can save me. I reject my sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my life, take away my sin, and show me how to live my life in a way that is right and pleasing to You.”

If you pray that prayer from the heart, truly seeking God, being honest with Him, you are saved! That’s all there is to it. Now, granted, there are really only two ways to respond to this—either “yes” or “no”—and you have a choice. God is patient with us: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But why put it off? It’s the greatest decision of your life! “For he says, `In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). If you want me to pray with you, I’ll be glad to, any time, day or night, call me up if you’d like (346-0062) or snag me in person. Or, if you just want to talk about it, the offer stands!

So that’s it, that’s the plan of salvation, called the Gospel (comes from Old English meaning “good news,” that’s all): realizing we’ve missed the mark (”sinned”) morally, separating ourselves from God; wanting to change; and accepting Christ’s forgiveness and his empowerment to change.

So now you know, when you see Passion, the reason Christ went through hell—figuratively and literally—because he loves you that much.

[This was written as an informal email to a few friends interested in seeing The Passion, and I wanted to give a plain-English explanation for why Jesus suffered what he did—the reaon for his incarnation, death, and resurrection. What follows is a slightly edited version for public consumption, sometimes making liberal use of slang and idiom. I’ll be glad to clarify if need be!]

Before you see The Passion of the Christ, chronicling the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ’s life, it might help to know what it was all about to begin with. If no one’s ever told you about the Good News, so bear with me and I’ll do my best to tell you of it!

First things first. God’s will for each of our lives is knowable, and it’s in the Bible. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).

H’okay, zo. God created us each with the ability to make moral choices, which is something unique to humanity: He created animals, for instance, not to have that capacity, so that’s why when they kill each other out in the field we don’t call it “murder” and why when cats in heat bump & grind with every other cat in heat, we don’t call it “adultery”. Well, since we have this choice, this ability to make moral decisions, we can also make immoral decisions, those things that we know are wrong we can actually choose to do. The ability to choose is what Christians typically refer to as a “free will,” and that’s what they mean.

Thing is, we all have chosen to do wrong. I mean, can anyone really claim that he’s perfect? I sure can’t. I know I’ve lied, cheated, stolen, cursed, profaned the name of God, and, well, you get the idea! The Bible attests to the fact that everyone has committed willfully wrong acts: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). It’s not about making excuses and blaming other people for our actions, either. It’s about taking personal responsibility for the wrong we’ve committed—basically owning up before God and being like “Wow, dude, I was wrong.”

This concept of moral wrong is called “sin,” which is simply a word that comes from the Greek meaning to shoot an arrow at a target and hit something other than a perfect bull’s eye. So when I say “I’m a sinner,” or the Bible says something about sin, what I’m saying is that I’ve shot the arrows of my actions out of the bow of my will and most, if not all, of them have been way off bull’s eye. The Bible confirms that, too! That’s what it means when it says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

What does it really mean to “fall short of the Glory of God” though, really? Well, God is perfect, totally (all-encompassingly!) good, always right, and always fair. He cannot tolerate sin, because what sin is, is willful disobedience of Him (even though once we’ve done it enough sometimes we don’t even think of it anymore) and is moral imperfection. Obviously, Perfection can’t accept Imperfection, or it would become Imperfect itself! Well, to put it more concretely, a full sheet of paper can’t accept a rip, because then the paper would be ripped and it wouldn’t be a full sheet anymore! Habakkuk 1:13 puts it really well: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”

The Bible says “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). What that means is, what we deserve for sinning (willfull rebellion against God, remember) is death. Indeed, we get it!—everybody dies, physically. There isn’t anything we can do to stop it, nothing in our own power for us to keep death away—even though we can try to stave it off, of course, with herbs, meds, surgeries, cryogenics, whatever.

But the awesome thing is, just because God is perfect doesn’t mean He’s mean, or spiteful, or some old Zeus throwing lightning bolts down on “sinners” and mere mortals who dare disobey Him. No indeed! God is the very essence of Love (1 John 4:9), and He loves every bit of His creation, especially humans who are special to Him. He doesn’t want you to die, not spiritually, so He made a way for you to get back to Him. Since we’re cut off from Him by the sin and rebellion in our lives, and there’s nothing we can do in and of ourselves to turn it around, He had to make a way Himself—and He did! Here’s the rest of that verse I quoted earlier: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

He who we call Jesus the Christ is the way we can get back to God! Jesus, the one and only Son of God, came to Earth and lived a perfect, “sinless” life. He didn’t rebel against God at all—he did everything He told him to. Here’s the clincher: the only way that we could get back to God was for Christ, who is fully man and fully God, to die in our places and take the punishment we deserve on himself. And here it is, here’s the heartbreaking truth: he did it! And that, because he loves you, and loves me, enough to have died a brutal and cruel death, being separated from God, when he was the one person that ever lived that didn’t even have to die! Jesus took hell for us, literally, even though we didn’t deserve it: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

To accept the death of Christ, this free gift of God, is to obtain eternal life—and peace and joy here on Earth. God doesn’t want us to be separated from Him, He wants us to be truly happy, and in communion with Him: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17). And again, “… Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God…” (I Peter 3:18).

So what does this dude’s death have to do with anything—I mean, even if he was perfect, what good was that if he died? Well! He didn’t STAY dead, and that’s where our (Christians’) hope lies—he rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, and later ascended into heaven. He conquered death itself through the power of God—and that’s why we call it eternal life, because to believe in Christ is to accept this gift and this power over death.

So how does one attain to this eternal life? Well, it’s not simply by believing Jesus was a real dude that lived and breathed and died, it’s about believing that He holds the key to forgiveness for your sins and that he rose again on the third day, and is ready and waiting to accept you if’n you just ask. It’s true! All we have to do is be willing to turn away from our rebellion in God—which is that phrase Christians use, “repent (turn away) from one’s sins” and ask Christ to forgive us for what we’ve done.

“All you gotta do is ask, man.” It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, if you just ask, sincerely, Jesus for forgiveness, he won’t turn you away. In fact, he’s waiting for you to accept him! “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is essential that you come to Jesus as you are. You don’t have to try to clean yourself up or make yourself presentable to God somehow, God’s not the host of a down-south get-together, all you have to do is come to Jesus and be like “Yo dude, I’m dirty and I know you have the soap—will you wash me?” He will, and you’ll be shouting joyfully for the rest of your life. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).

So, what is the means by which one comes to this belief, this trust in Christ as your salvation? Easy dude! All you have to do is pray a conscious prayer, from the heart, something along these lines: “Jesus, I know that I have sinned against you. I know the truth is that I have sinned by my own choice, and I am the one responsible for it. I know that I have earned punishment from You, and that the fair punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You died in my place. Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover or take my sin away, I am relying totally and only on You. You are the only one who can save me. I reject my sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my life, take away my sin, and show me how to live my life in a way that is right and pleasing to You.”

If you pray that prayer from the heart, truly seeking God, being honest with Him, you are saved! That’s all there is to it. Now, granted, there are really only two ways to respond to this—either “yes” or “no”—and you have a choice. God is patient with us: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But why put it off? It’s the greatest decision of your life! “For he says, `In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). If you want me to pray with you, I’ll be glad to, any time, day or night, call me up if you’d like (346-0062) or snag me in person. Or, if you just want to talk about it, the offer stands!

So that’s it, that’s the plan of salvation, called the Gospel (comes from Old English meaning “good news,” that’s all): realizing we’ve missed the mark (”sinned”) morally, separating ourselves from God; wanting to change; and accepting Christ’s forgiveness and his empowerment to change.

So now you know, when you see Passion, the reason Christ went through hell—figuratively and literally—because he loves you that much.