In “Suffering and death: the magical doorway to salvation” (Feb 4/10), it really is “magical” what’s happened to us. Sin got a foothold on this planet, producing a rot in the human mind we could not reverse, but God not only cured the rot he transformed it into our salvation, too. Try doing that with a mouldy banana or a rusted piece of metal, where the rot and rust are so bad it’s impossible to salvage anything. But God takes the unsalvageable and turns it into salvation, by taking upon himself (as the human Jesus) the suffering and death we brought on ourselves and transforming them into joy. That’s the marvel, but how does it work? How can sin be turned into joy?
As a grandparent, I got a little glimpse of how this works when our 5 year old granddaughter broke one of our dishes. It was beyond repair and she was devastated. She fell on the floor, crying her eyes out. I didn’t yell at her or get angry, and I’m so glad I didn’t. Instead, I got down on the floor with her, hugged her tightly and said, “Cheer up, all is forgiven!” It had a magical effect on her. She stopped crying, looked up and said, “OK,” and off she went, happy and free. From an unsalvageable dish to joy. What a marvellous transformation!
How did it happen? By the same process Jesus transformed our unsalvageable mess into joy. In the same way that he absorbed both the pain and penalty of our sin into himself, I too absorbed the cost of the dish and my granddaughter’s pain. And what was her reaction? Instant relief, peace of mind and joy. I imagine she could hardly believe her luck. Here she was sitting in a pile of broken dish parts being hugged – and at no cost whatsoever to her, either. She was forgiven, loved and free to go.
Which is exactly what God does with us. We bring all this suffering and death on ourselves but God comes as Jesus and doesn’t hold any of it against us, nor does he expect us to pay for what we’ve done. He absorbs it all himself.
How can you not want to hug a God like that? But that’s exactly what he’s after, a hug. A hug of relief, peace of mind and joy when we realize God knew our pain, shared every bit of it himself, and absorbed the cost of all our broken dishes himself, leaving us forgiven, fully loved and free to go – free in the knowledge he’s that kind of God.
Filed under: From nothing to everything
