Ignition

(or Engines Part 2)

Quick Recap: Two posts ago we discovered that God created us in His image and with the capacity to be fulfilled. We did not figure out what fills up that capacity, so last post we discovered that we try to fill that gap with things of this world. This led us to find out that these efforts all turn out in vain, because God and only God can fill it. If we are cars designed by God, then He is the fuel that drives us.

I don't know your reaction, but after finding this out, some glaring thoughts came to my mind: If God is the gasoline that drives my engine, then why do I keep trying to run it on carrot juice?

In more detail, when we need refueling, we see two bottles on the shelf: a bottle of gasoline (God), and a bottle of carrot juice (wealth, success, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, approval from other people, the list could go on forever). We know we will only really run by fueling ourselves with God, but we still reach for the juice. We fill up, start the engine, drive a couple inches, and BAM! we sputter. Why the heck do we do that?

Essentially, we are defective. We know exactly what is best for us, yet we choose something else. We intentionally do something that harms us. We treat other people in ways we wouldn't treat ourselves. We sputter and drive around in circles looking for answers when the real answer sits on the shelf we left behind. We are broken. Busted. Cracked. How did we break? Did God make us this way? Did someone else break us? How would a creature created by the Perfect Being become imperfect?

Enter the garden of Eden. God makes man. God makes woman. Adam and Eve "were both naked, and they felt no shame" (Genesis 2:25). In other words, Adam and Eve were in perfect fellowship with each other, and more importantly with God. They walked with Him in the garden. Everything was perfect. There was only one rule: don't eat of the tree that brings knowledge of good and evil. The punishment for breaking this rule was that "when you eat of it, you will surely die." (2:25)

Quick side note: the fact that God gave Adam and Eve the choice to disobey Him demonstrates how much He loves and prizes us as His creation. We can get into this on another post.

Anyways, at this point Adam and Eve aren't defective. Death, suffering, anger, hate, lust, and all forms of sin don't exist. Adam and Eve recognize God as their Creator and their engines always run on Him. So what goes wrong? Unfortunately, Adam and Eve are tempted to eat of the tree. They are told eating of it will make them "like God, knowing good and evil" (3:5). So, they take a bite. Game over.

Before we move further, we need to realize how unfathomably evil this act was. If we move past the "Bibleishness" of this story of Adam and Eve and examine what eating this fruit actually means, we can figure out why we are defective today.

On one side we have God, who is infinitely holy, infinitely righteous, infinitely perfect in every way. He is in fact so perfect that any imperfection in His presence cannot survive. He is the Ultimate Satisfaction. Anything or anyone that says "No" to Him for something else must be punished.

On the other side we have Adam and Eve. They begin in perfect harmony with God. God loves them so much that He gives them the opportunity to say "No" to Him in the form of that tree. They eventually say "No" when they eat that fruit. This action essentially says, "No God. We are better than You. We don't need You." They betray God. Humanity becomes a race of traitors.

Now God, being like we've described Him, has no choice but to punish us. He curses the earth, introducing the idea of Death for the first time. All things bad here on earth come from this moment. Hurricane Katrinas, tsunamis, earthquakes, and all natural disasters come into play. Worse, man is changed forever. Every man or woman born ultimately descends from Adam and Eve, and they inherit the evil that they initiated. All hate, wars, death, cancer, anger, torture, pain, suffering, lust, jealousy, rage, and sin comes from this moment in the Garden. Man is now defective. They sputter, they crash, and they drive in circles searching for meaning because their engines can't run on God anymore. Man deserves to be wiped out forever.

Well now you say, "But God didn't wipe us out. I'm still here".

Good observation! Just as God is all those things we described earlier, He is also a merciful, loving, and compassionate God. He 1) loves us too much to wipe us out, and 2) being all knowing, He knew this would come. So being God, He engineers the ultimate solution.

It starts with a group of people in the Middle East. He chooses the Jews as His people. They live by a strict code of rules so they know how to not sin against God. He eventually forms the nation of Israel, and periodically chooses people to speak on His behalf. These prophets warn Israel when they go astray, but more importantly, they speak of a time in the future when everything will change. All the rules they have to keep will be thrown out, and God will establish a new agreement with mankind. He alludes to a man that will come and lead the nation of Israel as their new King. They call Him the Messiah.

Enter Jesus of Nazereth. A man unlike any other man. He heals the sick, gives blind men sight, helps the lame walk, raises the dead, and performs all kinds of miracles. This man makes outrageous claims to be sent from God and equal with God. He also claims He can forgive everbody's sins committed at every time. Some Jews believe Him, but many plot to kill Him because of these preposterous claims. Even though He has committed no sin, they eventually sentence Him to the one of the most excruciating deaths in human history. Death on a wooden cross, hanging only by nails in your hands and feet. His followers desert Him, and His killers think they have won. After He dies, He is placed in a tomb sealed by a stone.

Easter morning. He does something He said He would do all along. The tomb is empty. He raises Himself from the dead. All of His claims to be God and from God must now be true! Begin Christianity.

Now you're saying, "Thanks for the history lesson, but how does this relate to us being defective?". Ok, back to the Garden. God punished us for sin. Under this system, we die, then live defective forever separated from God. How does God fix this? For one, He can't just give us a clean slate. This would imply that He condones sin. He cannot do this. Being God, even one sin deserves an infinite punishment.

Back to Jesus. Jesus is God. Therefore, Jesus does not sin. Even knowing this, He still endures the death on the cross. We deserve death. Jesus does not. What if Jesus' death was a sacrifice to endure the punishment that we deserve? That means God sent Jesus to die in our place! He settled the score by sacrificing His perfect Son on our behalf! We can now re-enter life with God! Hallelujah!

So where does this leave us? We, being defective, now have to go to Christ to get an engine swap. We have to accept what He did for us so that our busted parts can be replaced by His perfect ones. When we do this, it's finally possible to fill that gap again. We can now look at the shelf and pick up the bottle of God to fuel our lives! We can drive with the joy that we were meant to have all along! Even though our sin still leads to our death here on earth, we now have a hope of an eternity spent with our Maker. Through Christ, the Ultimate Satisfaction can now satisfy us.

That, my friends, is how our defects are fixed. Fixed is actually a poor word choice. Replaced would be better. Our sputtering engines are completely replaced by Christ's Perfect Engine. Even though we may still screw up along the road, when God sees us mess up, He sees His perfect Son in our place. Redemption is a beautiful thing. Christianity is a beautiful thing.

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21