Christa and I read Galatians 1 today and as I was reading verse 4 a word just seemed to stick out that makes me wonder. Verse 4 reads, "who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." The author uses the word, "this present evil age" which at first may seem obvious what he might be referring to but after taking a second look maybe there is more to this than the obvious. But before I go into what I see as the deeper meaning let me give you a little background about myself.
I grew up in the conservative Christian Baptist church and I must say I was taught more about Heaven than I was about following The Way (and by the Way I mean everything that makes up Jesus). Over the past 5 years I have studied the scriptures and have found that Jesus never called people to Heaven but called people to Himself. He spoke more on living a Life or a Way more than He talked about where people would spend eternity. So I began to question why in the world growing up we put so much emphasis on Heaven as opposed to following this Way, this Man. I even found that Jesus never asked the question, "if you were to die tonight do you know where you would spend eternity," or "if you pray this prayer after me and really mean it you will be saved." Actually I never even found this "magical" prayer. What I did find blew my mind. I found this Man who lived a life of selflessness all because He loved people so much and wanted them to know that He knew a better Way (do you see a theme here with the word Way?) to live. I began to realize that Jesus was trying to show people a Way to live; The Way that God designed back in the garden.
So what does this have to do with "this present evil age"? Well, Jesus is the one who rescues us from "this present evil age" (the life that is here on this earth). Hell is now!!! Hell isn't (just) when people die. People who are Christians can live in a marriage that is hell the entire time. People who go to church every Sunday can be living a life that is a Hell and never realize that it isn't suppose to be this way. Jesus didn't die so we could pray a prayer and then live a life of frustration, confusion and an ultimate hell. Jesus died so we could be connected to the One who created us, our Father. Like it or not life is all about God and Jesus came to live a life, a Way, that was the example of God's original design. Jesus is trying to save people from hell now!!! Not (just) when they die. I am learning that salvation is about being saved from myself and the life and the way that "this present evil age" is trying to make me live. Salvation is about being connected back to who I am in God's eyes and no one else. Salvation is about being and KNOWING who's son I am. Eternity, well that is just a mere formality.
1 comment:
Great word! Collossians 1:13, "For He (God) rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Jesus) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins"
Follow my imagination for a minute. We're all in a world full of Islands in which our leaders provide for our needs and the majority of our wants, yet we're not quite satisfied. Something is missing. The results of our wants are putting us in shackels and we're continually being transferring us from Island to Island. The story picks up as a group of us are in the midst of an Island transfer. It's the same ol' thing. It's all we know. Here we are in the bottom of this dark and smelly ship getting rocked at sea. Suddenly there's massive commotion on deck. We hear the sound of war: Swords, cannons, people hitting the deck etc... Suddenly a burst of light and we're rushed by a storm of beings and they break our shackles, wipe our wounds, throw us on their backs and transfer us to another ship that appears and feels much better. This may be too good to be true. One of us gets the nerve to ask the Captain, "Where are we going?". His peace filled answer rings music to our ears, "the Kingdom of my beloved Son". We know this has got to be good. Now we're put to work and we've never experience so much suffering and joy in our life. Perhaps it's too good to be true or it's heaven on earth. Eternity Now!
Without Gods intervention we are enslaved to ourselves in a midst of a world where Sin is King. We hop from one sin to another and often times spend extended amounts of time on One Island of Sin. We're in darkness w/o a light and many of us don't even know it. God rescues us. I love that word. He rescues us from the hell that is ourselves. Jesus doesn't just save us from Hell, he saves us from ourselves. He rescues us from our wretched mean minds and our deceitful hearts. Where are we going? To the Kingdom of His beloved Son! I can't put enough exclamation marks here!!! If you haven't already, kill yourself! If you have, do it again and again and then again (7x70 times).
Post a Comment