With today being Easter Sunday I realized I neglected to write on the Holy Week leading up to this amazing day. Truthfully, in some ways, I felt there was enough out there about Jesus’ final week on earth before His sacrificial death and glorious victory without my thoughts being added to the mix. However, I went and saw the movie “October Baby” (a movie I HIGHLY recommend) today after lunch with my mom and my sister and one quote burned in me:
“Humanity is beautifully flawed.“
Consider the weight of this truth, this oxymoron perfectly describes the human race for all that we are. Forgive the length but I didn’t want to separate this post and leave you hanging but wanted to go into detail and share with you the full impact that this one quote had. It exploded like an atom bomb but I assure you if you read the entirety of this post you will not regret it.
We, as being descendants from Adam & Eve, are born with a disease called the sin nature. It was never in God’s original design for us when He created Adam from the clay of the ground but came to be by the separation from God caused by Adam’s disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit. You see, in the Garden of Eden God gave Adam the command to not eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, warning him, “lest you die.” It’s not that the fruit was poisonous but rather it represented a choice for Adam of whether or not He was going to obey God.
God gave mankind free will (right to choose) because He wanted people who would choose to be with Him intimately, not just mindless robots. For intimacy comes only by choosing; choosing to be close to one we love. Yet Adam made his choice as as his descendants we inherit the result of his disobedience, thus we are all born separated from God. This is our flaw. We were separated from the source of true Life, being tragically wounded of no choice of our own but that is the dealt hand of every man. Flawed.
Fast forward 28 generations later Jesus Christ comes into the world with one mission to bridge the gap between God and man by dying on the Cross carrying the weight of our judgement that being death. Jesus died bearing the sins, sicknesses and diseases of the entire world on Him (see Isaiah 53) to the point the Father had to turn away from His Son while He was on the Cross. He died in our place, we deserve nothing less than death (I speak for myself if no one else) for our sins. However on the morning of the third day the tomb where Jesus laid collided with heaven when He rose from the grave. Angelic visitors waiting for the two Mary’s to say, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay (see Matthew 28:1-8).” That is why we celebrate today, for He is risen! Our lives live to declare He, the Lord, lives forevermore!
Why?
That’s the question I once asked myself and the answer is simply because He loves us. I have to say I am still coming to terms with the scope and magnitude of His love for us but I’m ok with that. We are beautiful in His eyes. We are made in His image (Genesis 1:27) and He desires for us to know and be with Him. This is what eternal life is all about for John 3:16-17 teaches us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Love gives while death steals (John 10:10). God’s goal was simple to be reunited with the creation that He loved. John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” It is because of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead that this is even possible and we as Christians enjoy the fruits of this restoring today; as can all who choose to believe in Him.
We are flawed people born with a nature that separates us from God yet He loved us so much to not leave us there. We are beautiful because he values us and it is because of this that we have been redeemed. For God saw not the worst of us but the best in us:
