This is Easter week.  Good Friday is now just days away.  Although it may seem superfluous, I feel a need to examine why Jesus had to come.  My reason is simple: in every generation there have been whole groups of people who seem to be oblivious to their need for a Savior of their soul.  In Jesus’ day the Pharisees thought that their trappings of legalistic righteousness would save them.  In fact, they weren’t even looking for that type of Messiah at all.  In the Greek world there was little thought of the state of the soul.  If the gods were happy with the sacrifice offered to them then you were free to live as you pleased.  They were not even aware of their great need for a Savior.

Is today so much different?  We have religious people of all stripes who believe that religious devotion and/or correct philosophy is what they should be focusing on.  There is hardly a thought about the lost condition of the soul.  These individuals believe that religion is about doing certain acts or checking off certain theological positions.  Perhaps religion is only those things, but a real faith in God is so much more.  Faith in God is a reconciled relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.  It is a relationship in that we actually know and are known by God.  It is a reconciled relationship because God has a good reason to be angry with us, but He has chosen to forgive.

In our human interactions, reconciled relationships are a wonderful blessing to experience.  It is here that what was once broken is now fixed.  What was once a great wound is now healed.  This is the great wonder of what Jesus has done between us and God.  He has brought near the God who was far off.  Even though the distance was not of His making, Jesus spanned the distance and brought God near to us again.  What an amazing reality!  It isn’t about us working to God.  It isn’t just a bunch of cold theological truths.  Salvation is about God coming near to us with forgiveness in Jesus.

We need this reconciliation because without God there is no life.  He is the creator and sustainer of life.  Without Him, life ends at the grave.  Why do we need reconciliation?  Life ends at the grave without God because we rejected God in our sin.  We pushed Him away from us.  In our We kicked Him out of our lives in our sin.  So, God has reached out again in Christ with forgiveness for all who respond to Jesus.  What an invitation.  O what a love!

Something to think about,

Pastor John