Jesus and the community of God

I have a friend who occasionally tries to say what he believes in less than 120 seconds. It's his own exercise in reminding himself of what is the point of his faith. I think that this is a healthy exercise. Problem is, this is not an easy task at all. To sit down and try and write to you what Jesus means to the community of God in a blog is somewhat incomplete at best, pretty arrogant at any rate, and probably impossible at worst. Aaron Weiss of the band mewithoutYou states the difficulty best when he exclaims:  

Oh, what am I to think

of what the writing of a thousand lifetimes could not explain

if all the forest trees were pens and all the oceans ink?

I was raised being told I should believe the gospel, and I should obey the gospel. I now live to preach the gospel and equip others to share the gospel. But what is the gospel? 

I had a professor who rightly pointed out that one of the best questions a church can ask itself is: 

What do we have that is so good that it is a shame that people have to live without it?

However you answer that question, that is the "gospel" your church has for the world. 

Some of you might answer that question by saying, "Well... what we have is the good news of salvation." And that is a fine answer, but it leads us directly to another good question: If we are saved, what are we saved from? 

All of this to say: set the clock for 120 seconds... Who is Jesus? 

Ready... Go. 

Yes, I believe that Jesus is fully divine and fully human. Yes, I believe that Jesus lived a sinless life--the model for all of humanity. Yes, I believe that Jesus is the head of the church which is his body. But none of these things is the most pressing story I have to tell about Jesus. 

I believe that in a word, Jesus is LIFE! 

When humans first sinned the final repercussion in Genesis 3 is the introduction of death. Adam and Eve are removed from the Garden of Eden and lose access to the tree of life. From this point forward what has been the story of creation--the story of life--is co-opted by the story of death. 

In Genesis 4, Cain murders his brother... 

In Genesis 5, the genealogy introduces a phrase repeated over and over: "and then he died." 

In Genesis 6, the flood waters drown out life almost entirely. 

In Romans 6:23, Paul says that "the wages of sin is death." In fact, from the Garden forward, death is what sin does. Sin has one trick: death. So strong is the connection and correlation between sin and death that Paul can't help but describe it as a law. (Romans 8:2). 

This is the bad news... death is real, present, and universal. 

So what is the good news? God is the God of life!

The gospel of Jesus is that life wins! The gospel of Jesus is that death has lost its sting and has no more victory. In fact, this is the substance of the preaching of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:22-24). Death cannot reign if Jesus is king. Or consider how Romans 6:23 ends: 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

 Hear Romans 8:1-2:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 

We believe that Jesus died for us all to take away our sins, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is not simply that Christ died for you. The gospel of Jesus Christ is that Christ is risen and death no longer reigns because the risen Jesus is the king!

When we were removed from the Garden, we lost access to the tree of life. But thank God because through Jesus we have been raised to new life. And it gets even better. Read Revelation 22:1-5 and you find out that in the presence of God in eternity we are reunited with the tree of life.

I love the simplicity of the confession in 1 John 5:11-12:

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

God is the God of life!

 

Christians, if this message does not get us excited, then we can pack up, close up shop, go home, and never bother to come back.  Jesus is the presence of life at work in the world. In Jesus we meet the God of life--and that is good news.