The God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth. He does not live in temples built by human hands. The Lord does not need anything. Rather, He gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man (Adam), God made all the nations and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though the Lord is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. We are God’s offspring….Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. (Acts 17:24-28 excerpts; John 17:3)
G. K. Chesterton’s Famous Two Words
Gilbert Keith “G.K.” Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer. Before he came to faith in Christ, he was an agnostic and dabbled with the occult. While in college, he suffered from spiritual darkness and depression. Humanistic optimism (apart from God) was no help to him, but Jesus made more and more sense as G. K. studied the Scriptures.
Chesterton met and married Frances Blogg (1869–1938), an author. He admired her Christian faith and how she lived it out. She trusted and obeyed the Bible; she taught Sunday school; and she cared for sick and elderly people. Chesterton said that Frances was the first person he’d ever known whose faith in Jesus was woven into every aspect of her life. She led him to Christ as the Liberator of his soul.
Chesterton was asked by a newspaper reporter what was wrong with the world. He skipped over all the expected answers—breakdown of the family, corrupt politicians, rivalries between nations, rich people’s greed, poor people’s shortcomings. He didn’t mention crime, unjust laws, immigration, inadequate education, climate change, or pollution.
What’s wrong with the world? Chesterton responded with just two words: “I am.”
He was admitting that, by nature, he rebelled against God. Most people will not admit that because we are so self-centered. But Chesterton was right. Every one of us rebels against the Lord by failing to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we fail to love our neighbor.1 Most problems on our planet are rooted in these 2 giant mistakes.
But wait. There’s good news! Pastor Jack Miller (1928–1996) said: “Cheer up! We are worse sinners than we ever dared imagine. And we are more loved by God than we ever dared hope.” But before we get to the solution, let’s understand our predicament.
Our Problem
God created humankind, male and female, in His own image and likeness. We are unique among all God’s creatures, different from the animals. The Lord made us to imitate Him in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.2 God made human beings a little lower than angels and crowned us with glory and honor.3 What a splendid start! Adam and Eve walked and talked with the Lord regularly and were close to their Creator until they chose to follow Satan and his rebellious ways.
Our first parents, by their own free choice, distrusted and disobeyed God. Even in paradise, they fell from their beautiful beginning, dragging all of us down with them. Now our thinking, being, and doing are bent away from God and His ways. Now everyone does whatever seems right in our own eyes.4 That makes us dangerous people and the world a dangerous place. Most of human history, including current events, documents this sad truth. Even unreligious people recognize that we are a mess.5 But thank God, the Lord’s image in any human being is not destroyed, but damaged. His image is defaced, but not erased from us.
God Restores Us in Christ
The good news is that the Lord is loving, gracious, and merciful! That’s His nature. So He did not reject or abandon us. God decided to reclaim all that we lost and make it better. From Genesis 3:15 onward, the whole Bible tells about God’s rescue mission in Jesus. The Lord promised, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people….They will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”6
To bring His Old Testament people back to Himself, the Lord used prophets (like Moses), priests (like Aaron), and kings (like David) as mediators. They were only human beings, sometimes faithful to God, sometimes not. But each of them pointed ahead to Jesus, the Son of God, who is fully God and fully human in one person and over 300 prophecies in Scripture foretold Him. Only Christ is the Son of God. Only Jesus (His name means “God saves”) is competent to deliver us from our sin and bring us back to God.
“Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. “Christ” is a title and it means the Anointed One, the Messiah, the One God sent to crush Satan and all evil. Over 2,000 years ago, God’s reclamation project climaxed in the coming down of Jesus into this world, into history. Christ saved us by His sinless life, His death, His life-giving resurrection, His sending of the Holy Spirit, and His future guaranteed return. Unlike Old Testament mediators, Christ is our perfect Prophet, Priest, and King. He is our “Triple Cure.”
Christ our Prophet
In our heads (our knowing), we don’t know God and His ways rightly. We are suckers for following the crowd and the devil’s lies. So Jesus is the Word of God who became flesh and made His dwelling among us. He came from the Father, full of grace and truth.7 Christ revealed God’s truth to us by His Holy Spirit working with His Holy Scriptures. Jesus was and is the Prophet and Master Teacher of all time, because no other teacher ever loved his students as Jesus loves us. Scripture says: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made God known.”8
Christ Our Priest
In our hearts (our being), we are guilty of not acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.9 God is completely holy and just. He hates and must punish sin. So Jesus offered Himself up once and for all as the atoning sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and to reconcile us to God. In addition, Christ continually advocates, intercedes, and prays for us. Scripture says:
Blessed are we whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered….The Lord forgave the iniquity of His people and covered all their sins….Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them receives God’s mercy.10
Christ Our King
In our life (our doing), we are weak, wandering, wild, and worried without God’s leadership. So Jesus comes as the King of kings and Lord of lords to bring us under His loving power. He rules and defends us, and restrains and conquers all His and our enemies. Christ also leads and guides us in paths of righteousness (doing the right things) in our everyday lives.
The Bible describes Christ’s kingship unfolding in stages:
- For all eternity, He was, is, and ever will be King of His Creation.
- All through the Old Testament, Jesus ruled history and saved people from sin and danger.
- At Christ’s first coming, He accomplished a mighty salvation for us and decisively defeated Satan.
- Between His first and second comings, Jesus is hallowing God’s name, advancing His kingdom, and causing His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
- When Christ returns, He will consummate our salvation, destroy His enemies, and bring us into a new heaven and a new earth, where there will be only righteousness.11
O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord!
Prayer
Lord Jesus, help us to taste and see that You are good, to believe that You came to seek and to save the least and the lost, including us. Help us to live gratefully, trusting and obeying You in love. Help us to live with all our confidence in You. Dying, You destroyed our death; Rising, You restored our life; Lord Jesus, come soon and take us home to glory. Amen.
Notes (various Bible translations used): 1 Mark 12:29-31 (quoting Deut 6:4-5; Lev 19:18). 2 Col 3:10; Eph 4:24. 3 Gen 1:27-28; Psalm 8:5; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10. 4 Judges 17:6, 21:25. 5 See: The Natural Depravity of Mankind: Observations on the Human Condition by Ferdinand Lundberg. Lundberg defines depravity as individuals putting their personal interests ahead of the law and the common good. He is not religious. 6 Jer 31:33-34. See also Ezek 36:24-29. 7 John 1:14. 8 John 1:18. 9 Micah 6:8. 10 7 Psalm 32:1, 85:2; Prov 28:13. 11 2 Peter 3:13; Isaiah 65:17, 25, 66:22; Rom 8:21; Rev chapters 21-22.