Some say he came to free us from sin. They say this world of ours is corrupt beyond repair, and he came to give us hope that one day all its fear and pain and evil would be purged by fire, and through his sacrifice we would be welcomed into a new one, where there would finally be peace. Now ye need not fear the grave: Jesus Christ was born to save.
Some say he came to redeem the world. They say his ministry was an example of how to live in ways that daily bring his kingdom to earth through his power, his peace, his justice, his grace, his mercy which makes all things new. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.
Some days you leave the house and enter a world so marred by sin and evil that you cannot believe good could exist in such a place. Death eats at everything. The Bible delivers a message our society has forgotten: we are irreversibly prone to evil. In the turmoil of our time, fear is pervasive and commanding. We hope for Christ's return.
Some days you leave the house and enter a world so full of promise you believe you can see the hand of God reworking the soil. You find hope in community, in service, in humility, in signs of life. We hope for the redemption of our world.
Often it seems he can't have come for both. Either the world is head to hell in a hand-basket or heaven in a slow cooker. This is the tension of already but not yet resurrected fallen man: A world where there is hope and there is no hope. A person who is damned but sanctified. A savior who was God and man.
Image: Lehigh Valley, PA
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