Rescue from evil and sin itself…that includes me! (Thursday)

Topic: Week 2- Jesus as Savior
Theme for 6 Weeks- Who is Jesus and what difference does it make?

Read Colossians 2:13-15; Romans 6:5-8

Evil must be reckoned with. Sin must not be overlooked. When statements like that are made, what often follows is a litany of “ain’t if awful.” Well, there are a ton of awful things on personal and systemic or structural levels. But, I’ll omit the litany.

You could make your list of the outcomes you see from evil or sin today. You don’t have to look far, only as far as yourself. That’s all the further I have to look, even though I’d rather look at and enumerate the sins of others.

What’s at stake: not overlooking evil. There is a temptation, perhaps in reaction to abuses or an “ain’t it awful” party that has appeared in churches and pulpits, to diminish the realm of evil and sin. I can find no other way to make sense of the sad and sick and twisted ways humans have (and still do) treated one another and creation itself. So, it’s here. Real.

But…and this is an important “but:” God has done something about this. By coming to us in the flesh, Jesus has rescued us from evil and sin itself in his life, death and resurrection. It wasn’t a rescue effort to defeat sin by political means, or by use of force; it was the upside-down way of self-sacrificial love. His death on the cross is totally consistent with the way in which Jesus lived. Rescue. Victory over evil and Satan and the powers! Christus Victor!

Now, evil is still sputtering along but the victory has been won and it will come to full completion in the “new heavens and new earth.”

N.T. Wright states the importance in this way, “Nothing in all of history of paganism comes anywhere near this…The death of Jesus of Nazareth as the king of the Jews, the bearer of Israel’s destiny, the fulfillment of God’s promises to his people of old, is either the most stupid, senseless waste of misunderstanding the world has ever seen, or it is the fulcrum around which world history turns. Christianity is based on the belief that this was and is the latter.” (p. 111, Simply Christian).

This makes sense of both the personal and systemic level of sin, rather than turning my head and acting as if evil did not exist. And, God in Jesus comes to rescue, save and restore. I need no longer be enslaved but freed, and to live in that freedom with increasing awareness.

Question: What is it in my life that Jesus wants me to be freed from and no longer enslaved? In what ways would Jesus want us, as a community of his followers, to be engaged in living and announcing this freedom in our city?

Prayer: Oh Lord God, you know that I can’t rescue myself. Evil is powerful and runs deep, and it needed the cross- the bearing of the sin of the world and defeat, by this self-sacrificial love, of evil and sin. Thank you for that in my life; may I live in that freedom today. And, help us to be instruments of your work on the cross and the resurrection, to those in our city: announcing good news to the poor, release to those who are captive, forgiveness of sin, reconciliation, and walls that are broken down. Amen.