Good God 4

"...he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, 'Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.' And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.  And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."  Luke 22:41-44  (English Standard Version).

These words were spoken by an individual who chose to be sinless. He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet He chose not to sin (Hebrews 4:15). Sin had been mankind’s master and ruled over him because man gave him the right. When sin said “Obey me!” man said “I will,” and we allowed him to master us. But we were not made for sin; we were made for righteousness. So, God came in the person of Jesus Christ and showed us that it was not necessary for us to be a slave to sin. Sin could be mastered and the purpose of man could be found apart from sin. Jesus lived without sinning, and because He was able to live a life without sin, He condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). He showed us that sin was not the real master, God was. But it was not an easy lesson to teach. It was costly!

From the birth of Jesus Christ, man, spurred on by Satan, attempted to put Him to death. Herod sent his soldiers to kill the Christ when He was less than two years old. They succeeded in killing all the boy babies two and under who lived in the area, but they missed the Savior. Fleeing for their lives, Joseph and Mary took the boy and went into Egypt. When Herod finally died, they returned to the Holy Land and went to their hometown of Nazareth, where the Christ Child grew up in stature and in favor with both God and man.

As He came into manhood He went to the Prophet John and was baptized of him, even over the protests of the baptizer. "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."

You can picture Jesus coming to John. The crusty John, in his camel hair clothes, long beard and gruff voice would have been standing and preaching to the people who came to hear the message of the coming savior. After a time he would have asked the listeners to respond and be baptized for the remission of their sins; many would. A line would form and Jesus would have been in the line. Why? Not because He sinned. No, that’s not the reason.

He stood in line because He was one of them – one of us. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. There was the nation of Israel standing before the Father condemned by their sins and national repentance was called for and the response to that repentance was baptism. Because Jesus was one of them/us He took His turn and joined hands with them in baptism. His fellowship with man, although apart from sin, was what God always wanted. Love needs to express itself and from the creation God has been showing us His love for us in fellowshipping with us. When He became flesh He became one of us.

He could not stand aloof and tell His people that He wanted no part of them because they were sinners. No. While we were still sinners, even enemies, Christ came to fellowship with us (Romans 5:6 and 10). As we look at the Apostles we can see that they often sinned, arguing who would be greatest in the kingdom, denying the Christ, cursing and lying. Yet Jesus did not remove Himself from them as if they were too sinful for Him to be around. On the contrary, He came to clean them from their sin, but He had to be one of us in order to do that.

Eventually, of course, He offered a sacrifice that no other could offer and that was a sinless by choice body. Babies were sinless, but not by choice. They knew nothing about sin. When they grew and learned what sin was they chose the sin over and over again. Jesus knew the sin and chose righteousness every time. We killed Him for it. The innocent died for the guilty and in dying He was telling us that sin could be overcome. He was also telling us just how bad sin really was. Sin killed the creator. Sin had no qualms about striking God and putting Him to death. Sin was in the crowd standing before Pilate and shouting, “CRUCIFY HIM!! CRUCIFY HIM!!” Sin thought he had won the victory and that’s just how wicked sin really was and is.

How can one stand before the almighty God and not just threaten Him, but actually beat Him, spit in His face, push a crown of thorns onto His head and nail Him to a cross? Because that’s what sin urges us on to do. Kill God and rule yourselves, but even the simple among us know that it is not within us to rule ourselves. Sin ruled…until the Christ came and overcame it. But it cost Christ His life. Hated, always criticized, ridiculed, arrested, rejected, beaten, stripped naked and crucified, He told sin this was His choice. Rather than give in to sin just once, He said He would take the abuse. And He did, showing us the only truth that can set us free.

So when we are asked why did this or that terrible thing happen? We don’t have to say it was a judgment from God because of man’s sin and then feel threatened when someone says, “show me the passage that tells you that.” All we have to do is explain that any tragedy is a part of the curse and tragedies, all tragedies, ultimately come about because of man’s sin. This is God telling us that sin is that terrible and must be dealt with. It is God saying turn to me. It is God saying I want you and there is a better life ahead, just turn away from this one and I will see you through to the real life that lies just around the corner.

We can deny this. We can say, “No. Not my God.” We can argue and criticize and say that makes no sense, but we can’t turn to Genesis three and not see that a very dramatic thing happened right after man sinned and as a result man’s existence changed dramatically. Pain, suffering, old age and death were now a part of man, and there was a very good reason for such things. Sin. All of those things are better than sin.