Dear People                       Whom God Loves,

March 9, 2008

Dear People Whom God Loves,

BELIEVERS/NON-BELIEVERS VIII
CHRISTIAN VISION

Last time, we saw that we are all born into this world of hatred, sin, injustice, prejudice, oppression, and abuse. We saw also that Jesus was born into this same world. He was born into history just as we all are. By the fact of being born into this world, we have all been twisted, maimed, and drawn into deep patterns and into personal patterns that lead us to choose to sin. Thus we are perpetrators of abuse ourselves. Jesus was a victim as we are. So it is easy to see how our Father raising Jesus from the dead applies to us as victims. It is harder to see how what the Father did in Jesus applies to us as sinners.

There is a Jesus problem. How can what God did in Jesus affect us who sin? This problem is because of what scripture says. Hebrews reminds us that though Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, Jesus was without sin. This seems to make Jesus different than us and so, how could the fact that the Father raised Jesus from the dead affect us who are sinners? In other words, how could Jesus' resurrection give us hope of being forgiven?

We turn to what Paul wrote in II Cor. 5, 21. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us." This says to me that even though Jesus did not sin, he bore the weight of sin. Paul is even stronger than that when he says that God made him to be sin. If God made him to be sin and raised him from the dead, then sin has been wiped away. In other words, our sins do not put us at enmity with God. Even though we sin, God is still on our side. God has no enemies.

People may think that God is an enemy, but they are mistaken. God is always for us, and we are loved no matter what we do.

We need not be hopeless, because we are loved in the midst of our worst possible sinning. That Love we name God is always holding us and aching to penetrate us deeply to transform the mess we are in.

As we begin to believe this, the hope that is engendered helps us to open to that healing, merciful Love and allow it to transform us in a long, painful, and difficult journey. We are forgiven. We just don't know it.

What God did in Jesus, God does in a similar fashion to all of us. We are all forgiven sinners. How will that realization affect the way we relate to ourselves, other Christians, believers who are not Christian, and those who do not believe? This affects our relation to everyone on the face of the earth.

More next time.

Smile, God Loves You,

Father Clay

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