Jesus Died For Me. Jesus Loves Me. So what?

I used to wonder what it meant. How does some guy dying do anything for me? I think it works like this:

First, you have to come to grips with who and what God really is. To call him "him" is putting him in a box, but it's all I can get my mind around so we'll use that term for now. Imagine a perfect being, so powerful that he is able to bring things into being purely by speaking. He is eternity - the beginning and end, so time doesn't apply to him but if it did, you could say he's been around for millions of years.

A being with this much power probably got bored, so he created a race of beings in the spiritual plane, which we know as Heaven. The place God lives. The beings could best be described as the angels. Sometimes you just need someone to talk to. He embodied these beings with the unique element that defines the human race, choice. The bible says that he created Lucifer, the most powerful and beautiful of all the angels to be his right-hand man, so to speak. If God was the CEO of Heaven, Lucifer was probably the COO (chief operations officer...).

We know that at some point there was a war in Heaven. Lucifer one day decided that he didn't like the way things were. He decided that he knew better than God what was good for him and wanted to go his own way, and he convinced a third of the angels that they should feel the same way. I believe that at his point God decided to create the universe we know to let things play out. God gave Lucifer his wish and cast him out of Heaven, but banished him to roam the earth while retaining his spiritual form.

So God created earth, and on it, Eden. The entire universe is an expression of God's creativity and intelligence, but nothing expresses these attributes more than the humans he created to inhabit this space. The bible says that we were made in God's image. Not that we are gods, of course, but that we have his most important attributes - the capacity for love, and the ability to choose. The rules were simple. Enjoy everything I've given you, but don't eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. God knew that every sentient being has to have a choice, and this was as simple and direct as he could make it. Do what I say and enjoy the life I've created for you, or go your own way.

The game was on. Lucifer was no longer "The beautiful one", but rather "The adversary" AKA Satan and he is bent. Why? Even with all of his power and stature at the end of the day he is a created being too, and God has the final word. Satan cannot create as God can, so he's stuck with whatever God lets him have and for his betrayal he is no longer welcome in heaven. His mission is to corrupt whatever God creates - I don't think it's really to prove anything, but rather out of spite. Like the bullies we all know from school, he just wants to rule over something. So, he appears as a snake to Eve, talks her into eating the apple and the rest is history. Sin, which is basically pride, or choosing your way over God's, enters the world.

So man is cast out of the garden and is left to fend for himself - man, of course, being mankind since woman is right next to him. I use the term "left" loosely - God never truly left, he just left the original relationship he had with them. The bible said that Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden - that's pretty close. They knew they made a mistake and really liked God - I mean, put yourself in their shoes. At one point, the creator of the universe, and, in fact, the creator of them, had hung out with them and they enjoyed each other's company. God is the bigger man, of course, and continued to commune with them, just not on the same face to face basis.

Now it's spirit vs. spirit. The spirit of God on one hand, the spirit of Satan on the other. Both are presenting their ways of living, and man gets to decide. Good vs. Evil? I think those terms are a little too concrete. To me, the choice seems to be submit to God's way, to live the way he designed us which, interestingly enough, is with his spirit in close communion with our souls, or to follow Lucifer's way which is/was to reject God's way and make our own decisions. This doesn't necessarily mean going on a murderous rampage which we would define as "Evil". It is simply the choice to not ask for or care about your creator's opinion on anything, and instead make up your own mind using your own (limited) resources. Of course, if you believe there either is no God or his rules don't apply to you, a natural progression could lead to a murderous rampage...

The thing is, God designed us with a "God shaped hole in all of us", to quote the lyricist. We were designed as spiritual beings, meant to commune with our creator and our souls are constantly longing for the "completeness" or "fulfillment" that filling that hole should bring. God is a gentleman, and doesn't force his way into that void, instead we are given the choice to fill it with whatever we want. Satan is the father of lies and liars and is always presenting you with choices to live for yourself instead of for God. Sex before marriage feels good and doesn't hurt anyone so why wait until you're married? Working hard is better than spending time with God. After all, a new car, bigger house, better TV, faster computer would really be nice. Life is more fun and easier to take when you have drugs and alcohol to help you get through it. Cigarettes make you look cool. Hate and anger is easier than love. No one has the right to offend you or tell you what to do, right?

The funny thing is, going this route never seems like enough. Divorces, addictions, bitterness, anger, lust, and all of this with nothing to show for it. It's a downward spiral that can start as small as burning ants with a magnifying glass and end up as vile as raping and killing innocent children.

So here we are. To put all of this in a nutshell, God wants company but he wants "people" who are willing to do things his way. Earth is a training ground - a trial perhaps. You are put in an empty space with choices on both sides. At the end of the trial is eternity. Choose God's way and you get to hang out with him for eternity when the trial is over. Choose to go your own way, and you also get your wish - eternity without God. This is off the subject, but I don't think Hell is literally a place of fire and brimstone, though it could be. I think it's having to live with the burning regret that you had an entire life time to make a decision, you chose the wrong path and there are no do-overs. Where there is no God, there is no law. Where there is no God, you have no rights. Hell is the place where everyone gets to do what they want, and as we see on earth, that in places like that the strongest and most vicious rule. Where does that leave the "good people" who seemed nice on earth, but just didn't want God in their life? At the end of the day, God decides but I know what he has said about it.

I've sinned. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, all of it. I've smoked so much pot that the Zig-Zag man has a tattoo of me on his arm. I've cut people off on the highway and I've wished bad things on people who cut me off. I work too much and I've neglected my family. Now I'm 40 and I have a lot of regrets. I'm soiled. I'm damaged goods. I'm not satisfied with the things I've accomplished or the way my life is going. I've come to the place in life where I believe there is a perfect, holy God but I can't imagine being in the same room with him and having to explain everything I've done. What the heck am I going to do now...

God saw all this coming. He knew Lucifer, when given the choice, was going to decide he didn't want God telling him what to do. He is eternity - he saw the end at the same time he saw the beginning and had a plan to bring me (ME!) back into a relationship with him. The day he created the universe he knew that Satan would cause man to fail and had a plan to allow him to come back into his presence.

You see, the fact is that breaking a law requires punishment. This is a law of the universe that you know that as innately as you know the law of physics. If a man kills another man, he deserves punishment. If someone breaks the speed limit he deserves to pay a fine. If your spouse cheats on you they deserve to live without you. If you thumb your nose at your creator you deserve to be put out of his presence and live forever without him. (Interesting parallel with the divorce thing, isn't it?) But that's not what God wants. He created you to live with him forever. Still, the transgression occurred, and it cannot be overlooked. A price must be paid...by someone.

At precisely the right time in history he created the man we know as Jesus - a unique soul to inhabit a human body. Unique in the sense that Jesus was in full communion with God's spirit from the time of his birth. He was God's son in the same sense that as a human father's characteristics are passed to his children, God's perfect love, intelligence, compassion, empathy and so on formed the core of Jesus' character. This was a son that God could be proud of - everything a father could ask for. And just as a son is groomed to inherit his father's business, Jesus spent his entire life becoming the kind of king that God intended to rule over all of heaven. Self sacrificing. Pure love.

Jesus lived a life on earth to know what it was like to be a man. He knew temptation but didn't give in to it. He has experienced every emotion and trial you have, and more. And at the end of a life filled with love and service, healing the sick, giving to the poor, feeding the hungry and even raising the dead, he was murdered by hypocritical religious leaders. A completely innocent man was put to death in the most horrible fashion possible.

Jesus paid the price for you, and he did it willingly. He made the choice to die in the most horrible, humiliating fashion imaginable and this choice in all of its nobility was enough to satisfy a perfect, holy God. Why did Jesus, or why would anyone for that matter, willingly and with full knowledge choose to suffer the pain and degradation he did? Because he was God's spirit incarnate, and that perfect love would rather die than live without you.

So is it that easy? Jesus died, so I'm free to do whatever I want? Of course not :)

God doesn't care about what you do as much as what you think, or what your motives are. Remember, he sees you from the inside. This is what separates Christianity from religion. Religion is concerned with the outward appearance. Follow the rules, do good deeds, or at least do more good deeds than bad deeds. Being a Christian means that the inside has to change - truly change - and that will bring about outward results. To be right in God's eyes requires the following steps:

• Recognize that you have failed. Confess it with your mouth and be determined to change. God knows the heart - you can say anything you want but if you don't believe it to the core of your being you're wasting your time.
• Accept the fact that Jesus' sacrifice was good enough for God and that all of your transgressions, failures and shortcomings are forgiven.
• Ask God to fill the hole in your spirit that you've been filling with everything else. This means cleaning house and living as God wants you to. The only way you can overcome temptation and start changing from the inside is with the help of the God's spirit, aka the Holy Spirit. The word holy is very important here - holy means pure. Purity can't exist with impurity. You can't hold onto your old life if you want the life God wants for you.

This is good news! God, like a good father, wants you to experience life to the fullest the way he intended from the beginning. He knows you're going to fail along the way too, but as long as you're trying to do the right thing, and God knows the heart and your motives, he wants to help you back to your feet. You just have to be willing to recognize your mistakes and learn from them. Make the right decision the next time.

This is long-winded, but I don't know any other way. If you've actually read this far, I hope it made sense to you. Getting back on the right path is easy. Just take a hard look at your life, then ask Jesus to help you change. He'll do it!