I think our cultural infatuation with heroes—from Superman to Harry Potter to Percy Jackson—comes from a deep place in us that knows we’re not what we once were and we’re not all we are meant to be. Likewise, I think our cultural fascination with the “undead”—shows like The Walking Dead and movies like I Am Legend or World War Z—come from some deep place in us that feels some deep disconnect with who we are and fears what we may yet become.
When God warned if Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, “you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17), He meant it. They “took and ate” of the fruit—choosing it over God. In so doing, they chose to disconnect themselves from God, the Light and Life of men. Without that connection, they ceased to be who God lovingly and generously created them to be.
God’s warning had not been to withhold something good from them, but a warning for their good. The man and woman they had been died that day. When Adam and Eve fell in the Garden, we all fell hard and far. What we know of being human now is far from God’s original design for being human.
Jesus came to rescue humanity from sin, and corruption, and death that binds it. The good news of Good Friday is that Jesus—fully God and (this is important) fully human—became on the cross all that was sinful, corrupt, and dead in us so that we could once again become fully human.
I remember hearing many times as people tried to explain the Gospel to me that faith in Christ means when God looks at me, He no longer sees me, He sees Jesus. That never felt like good news to me. Tolerable news, maybe, but hardly good news.
This version of the “gospel” gives the impression that Jesus just covered up how bad we are. But this comes from darkened eyes still running from the eyes of God, hiding behind fig leaves.
On Good Friday, Jesus let Himself be stripped naked and exposed. The Son of God not condemning human beings, but being condemned by them. Not beating us, but being beaten for us. Not destroying us, but being destroyed for us. All we feared about how God would treat us, He showed us we did not need to fear.
We need no longer hide before the eyes of God. We reverse the first Adam’s curse when he “took and ate” of the forbidden fruit, by heeding Jesus’ call to “Take and eat [of His body]” and to drink His blood “poured out for the remission of sins.” Where Adam and Eve broke union with God, we re-unite with Him, we enter into Communion.
In union with Jesus, we are remade and we are being remade, into fully restored, alive, seeing, loving, humans again, into and His “very good” creation again (see Genesis 1:31).
May God meet you in a special way this Holy Week.
Human,
Josh
Do I ever need that this week. Losing my job, feels a little unfair but honestly my fault for not doing a better job and not being a better steward, feeling unmotivated and taking for granted what good there was, wasting opportunity money and time, and all the layers of sin and disconnection from God that underlies my job performance and lack of career goals and every other area of my life where Im failing.
As someone who himself has fallen short at times in the workplace, and as someone who, thirty years ago on this Holy Week of 2018, was signing up with temporary agencies to keep himself going in the aftermath of being let go from a job that I had held in a private law firm for 13 years, and also as someone who was even then receiving encouragement and support from an earlier version of today’s Regeneration ministry, my heart and my prayers are with this one who is now seeking the way forward. God is far more gracious and far wiser and more resourceful than most of us dare to believe, and so many have discovered that after we’ve tried just about everything else. His blessing and the intercessions of many are going forward with you at this challenging time, so don’t lose heart, keep going, and congratulations on your new journey to find his best for your life!
Beautifully true.
Josh – Your devotional helps me see God as a good, good father. I need constant reminders of that. Thank you.
We need no longer hide before the eyes of God. We reverse the first Adam’s curse when he “took and ate” of the forbidden fruit, by heeding Jesus’ call to “Take and eat [of His body]” and to drink His blood “poured out for the remission of sins.” Where Adam and Eve broke union with God, we re-unite with Him, we enter into Communion. Awesome.
The ‘fully restored’ part of the cross is hard to really digest. Because we have sin nature and because we can’t escape it, it feels wrong to say that we are being fully restored! Grace doesn’t make sense to us. But it makes sense to God and it brings me back to trusting that the power of the Cross is bigger than my shame and that it can restore in me what is broken in me. I must hold tightly onto the power of the cross.
Thanks Josh