When traveling on a long trip (maybe as much as 2 hours) with my very young children, they used to ask, “How close are we?”  People are asking, “How close are we to the end?”

• A world-wide pandemic.  This is the first event which has been experienced and suffered by the entire world (177 countries/territories) all at once. 
• The Russian invasion of a peaceful sovereign nation, Ukraine, has altered the geo-political landscape. (Finland and Sweden are joining NATO.)  
• Iran is negotiating with Russia and other countries to attain nuclear power. 
• Political breakdown, decaying morality, social strife, economic uncertainty. 

In times like this it is important to understand that Jesus gave us a blueprint to understand what we are going through and how we are to respond. It can be summarized in three commands:

1. Be Watchful
2. Do not be alarmed
3. Stand firm

In times like these Jesus calls us to pray for stronger backs not lighter loads.  Let’s look at what Jesus says about the very times we are in and how he calls us to respond. 

The End of the World As They Knew It

Jesus has already experienced what we know as Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter Sunday.  People were declaring him to be the Messiah.  He has cleared out the Temple as a rebuke to the leaders of that day.  In Matthew 23 he condemns the leaders as corrupt. Jesus is now at the Temple.  There is anticipation that Jesus will bring a political revolution.  Two days before His crucifixion, Jesus says these words:  

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.  Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God.

Matthew 24:1

They weren’t kidding.  The Temple was 37 acres.  Some of the stones were several tons.  The temple was considered one of the most beautiful structures of the Roman world. There were 18,000 men who labored to build it.  Its location on Mount Moriah made it look like a mountain of gold. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, wrote that when the sun shone on it, “it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes.”

Jesus continues:

 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “ I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Matthew 24:2

The midrash, which is an ancient commentary of the Old Testament, stated that Israel is at the center of the world.  Jerusalem is at the center of Israel.  The temple is at the center of Jerusalem.  The center of God’s work and presence on earth was the temple.  This was God’s very house.  For it to be destroyed was unthinkable. But what Jesus said was fulfilled with jaw dropping accuracy.  In 70 A.D. (less than 40 years from this time) the Romans invaded the city and ordered both the city and the temple be levelled to the ground.  Soldiers gutted it by fire and then literally pulled the stones apart to reclaim valuable metals embedded in them. After it’s destruction, it looked like a city that had not been inhabited.  In 50 years of this destruction there was not a single Jewish inhabitant in all of Israel. 

Whenever this happens the nation is dispersed and becomes mixed in other populations.  

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 24:3

The word for coming in the Greek is “parousia.” This means appearance, like appear in greater power, and did not relate to a second coming or return in the minds of the disciples. In a Sesame Street episode, the friendly blue character, Grover, teaches kids the difference between “near” and “far.” He begins close to the camera saying “near,” and then runs away yelling “faaaaaar.” His lesson is helpful to read what Jesus is saying because the disciples are thinking near.  But the verses we will look at are far. Jesus describes six events which will occur with increasing frequency. He calls them “birth pains.”

All these are the beginning of birth pains.   

Matthew 24:8

When Brenda and I took Lamaze class (a class on labor and delivery) we learned that when contractions start you need to get to the hospital and the more frequent they become the closer we are to the delivery. These “birth pains” or contractions are the wake-up calls which are preparing us for something better.

Contraction # 1: Reestablishment of Israel. 

³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ (Things are heating up.) Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁴ I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.   

Matthew 24:32-35 

The fig tree is symbolic for Israel. Miraculously the nation of Israel was reestablished in 1948.  After 1900 years of being dispersed through the world, as well as being the most persecuted and hated people to ever live, and coming out of the Nazi Holocaust; Israel maintained its ethnic and religious identity and reestablished itself as a nation.  No nation of the earth has ever done this.  In fact, sociologically it is considered impossible. 

Further, they were outnumbered 80/1 by the Arab populations who fought them from the surrounding areas. To add to this, they were an immigrant community of farmers. 

“Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day, or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.

Isaiah 66:8

1948 was the time when the contractions started.  The world started to look considerably different.

Contraction # 2: Growing deception. 

For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

Matthew 25:5

When the light comes on the bugs gather to it. The spread of deception has greatly increased since this time.

Contraction # 3: Increasing warfare and conflict. 

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,

Matthew 24:6

Will China invade Taiwan? Will Iran be an aggressor against Israel? Is Poland the next target of Russia? There will be increasing speculation along these lines. Since 3600 B.C. it is estimated that there have been 14,500 wars in which 3.5 billion people have been killed.  If you were to tally up the property damage of all the wars it would amount to a belt of gold 30 feet wide and a hundred feet thick around the earth. War is not new. Yet, the intensity and frequency of war will increase.

but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

Matthew 24:6-7

The word for nation in the Greek is ethnos. This appears to indicate the break up of ethnic groups in nations. Nations will split and divide into separate nations.  In 1948 the United Nation was composed of 66 countries.  After 1948 there were an additional 128 countries that came into existence.  Some of these were nations that grew out of ethnic divisions. Think for example of North and South Korea in the 50’s.  North and South Vietnam in the 60’s.  Yugoslavia split into five different countries. 

Contraction # 4: Escalation of natural disasters. 

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Matthew 24:7

Luke adds these words:

There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places…

Luke 21:11

Slate magazine predicted this to be a century of disasters.  That has proven accurate.  Hurricanes in Gulf Coast. Flood fatigue in much of the country. Snow fall shutting down the south. Yes, Texas getting more snow and ice than Michigan, where I live.  There was once the hope that infectious diseases could be eradicated.  But now it is more prominent.  Since 1980 outbreaks of infectious disease have tripled. 

Contraction # 5: Increased falling away. 

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, (Matthew 24:9-12)

In our lifetime more Christians have suffered and been killed for the faith than all the other centuries combined.  

Contraction # 6: Rapid spread of the gospel. 

These are the birth pains, so where is the baby?  The Good News is that in the mess there is a message. 

¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24:13-14

What are you saved from?  A mind that is fractured and pulled apart by the rising epidemic, anxiety and depression. For those who stay focused on God and his mission, they will be a part of the rapid spread of the gospel to the nations.

What do you need to do?

View these times through the lens of patience.

Stand firm and do not be alarmed.  How do I get this patience?  It is going through         tribulation that produces the ability to go through tribulation.  Your ability to walk through the difficulty you are in right now will come through walking through the difficulty you are in right now. I can hear the response, “Oh I hate that.”  The testing of your faith produces patience.  We need to pray for stronger backs rather than lighter loads.  Instead of proclaiming with the Psalmists, “I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,” we ask God to “airlift me from mountain top to mountain top experience.”    

View through the lens of purpose

Watch As I grew up in 1970’s I can remember the Bee Gees, Bell Bottoms, Candy Cigarettes, and of course, Star Wars. As a child, born in 1969, I was far more into Scooby Doo than politics of any sort. But I do remember the long lines at the gas pump.  Oil prices doubled in 1979 due to the Iranian Revolution which held American hostages and was threatening to push Israel into the sea. Gas prices quadrupled in 1973 because of OPEC embargoes due to American aide to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. This was a result of the Iranian Revolution, a revolution which was holding American hostages and threatening to push Israel into the sea. Before that the price of oil quadrupled in 1973. Along with this:  

• Inflation was at 14.5 percent in 1980. 
• Crime was at its highest making major cities looking like something out of a batman movie. 
• Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and we armed and trained a group called the Mujahidin.  These would become the Taliban. 
• American cities were in turmoil over forced busing causing many to abandon cities for a more rural location.
• 1973 the Supreme Court legalized abortion.

To be honest, the 1970’s was a time of contractions. But it was not the final time, obviously. I can honestly say, like I did in response to my children’s question, “How close are we?” “We are closer than we have ever been.”  So the words of the Savior are as relevant as ever:

• Be watchful
• Don’t be alarmed
• Stand firm

In the mess we have a message.

I recently had the privilege of teaching a class on biblical end-times prophecy. It was an enlightening time for all involved, teacher and student alike. Something we learned rather quickly through the course of our eight-week study was how well-saturated so many concepts from end-times prophecy are in our culture.

Most of us, regardless of whether we are practicing Christians, are at least vaguely familiar with end-times imagery. For example, not everyone may know they come from the book of Revelation, but most of us have heard of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Not everyone may know what it means, but the term “rapture” is one most people have heard thrown around at least once. In this same way, some people may not know who the antichrist is or what he does, but they certainly have heard the term several times before.

The same goes for the doctrine that is central to end-times prophecy along with the Bible as a whole: the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Nearly everyone has heard of it. Large swaths of the population have, at bare minimum, some vague idea of what will transpire when Jesus returns and how his return will take place.

However, despite Christ’s return being a rather widespread idea within our society and especially within the Church, in many (most?) instances, our knowledge of it is surface-level—if that. If someone we were discipling were to ask us about it, we may struggle to articulate a thorough, comprehensive thought on the matter.

The nature of Christ’s return is not a doctrine the believer can afford to leave so hazy. We will never have all the answers or learn all there is to know about the matter on this side of eternity, but we can have an informed view on the topic because scripture has a lot to say about it. The purpose of this article is to provide a basic summary of all the major things one must know about the next time Jesus comes to earth.

It Will Be Bodily

Theologians often refer to the coming return of Jesus Christ as bodily and glorious. Let’s discuss the first half of that statement first. When we say that Jesus’ return will be bodily, we mean that he will literally and physically come back to us. He will be there with us in the flesh. Visible. Tangible. Consider these confirming verses:

So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:28

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

Revelation 1:7

In the same way we can have a face-to-face conversation with a friend, or in the same way we can physically embrace a loved one, so it will be when Christ returns. He will dwell among the beloved creation that he has lovingly rescued from death, and this time, he will never leave. We will be able to brush our hands over the holes in his hands and touch the gash in his side.

It is important to emphasize the bodily return of Christ, as over the years (and even now) there are some who have offered alternative, fallacious views of the nature of his return. They may claim that he will return “in our hearts” or that perhaps his return is a metaphor for a widespread societal shift in morality yet to occur. These and theories like them are incorrect. It is worth repeating once more: in his second coming, Jesus Christ will literally and physically come back to us.

It Will Be Glorious

Now we tackle the second half of Jesus’ “bodily and glorious” return.

The second coming of Christ will be glorious in more ways than one. For one, it will simply be a fantastical event that magnifies the beauty and sovereignty of God. Just read!

For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Matthew 24:27

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Matthew 24:30

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

1 Thessalonians 4:16

You can only imagine the indescribably awesome, glorious sight this will be! It will be a glory beyond words or thought. As previously stated, though, this is not the only way it will be glorious. The Second Coming of Jesus will also be glorious because of the new and glorious body in which Christ will return.

Remember reading about Jesus’ resurrected body in the Gospels? It was clearly a human one; the disciples had no trouble recognizing him as Jesus. He was able to eat and do other normal activities mankind partakes in. And yet, it seemed to be the typical body we would be used to and then some. Like a Human 2.0.

In this glorious form, Jesus could walk through walls (John 20:19). He could suddenly appear out of nowhere (Luke 24:36). Most obvious of all, this form transcended death. Jesus being broken and battered and ultimately slain did not stop it coming to be.

Why does this matter to us? Study these passages from Paul:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 3:20-21

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:20

Jesus Christ’s will return as the first, or the “firstfruit” of all who will follow him. When he returns, those in Christ will be risen up into new and glorious bodies as well, free from suffering and sorrow—they will be like the bodies we had before…but better!

The Second Coming of Christ in his new and glorious form signals to us how he has conquered death definitively. Not just for himself when he rose from the dead, but for us as well.

It Will Be Unexpected

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

Matthew 24:36

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Matthew 24:44

Scripture tells us to be ever watchful, for Christ’s return will not be a predictable event. Far from it. He is going to return when he is least expected. This is why we must be on our guard, always being mindful that he will one day return.

It’s a good thing we have this warning, too. Sometimes, if we do not keep our eyes on the prize, then we tend to lose motivation. Jesus Christ’s return reminds us of the awesome inheritance we have to look forward to, and it inspires us to push onward in our discipleship and our mission. We don’t know when it is, and we certainly do not want to be caught slacking when he finally arrives.

Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Revelation 3:3

It Will Be Triumphant

When Jesus Christ comes back, he will be here to stay. He will have complete dominion over the world to rule and cast out evil, and that is precisely what he will do. Upon his return, he will have Satan cast into a prison for a thousand years and reign as the undisputed King of the World with all of his children.

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. ² He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³ He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. ⁴ I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵ (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:1-6

After this thousand-year reign, which a future article will explore more in-depth, Satan will be released from his prison for one final confrontation against Christ. Rest assured, it will never be a close fight. He will lose, and he will lose badly. The power of Jesus will prevail over evil once and for all.

⁷ When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. ⁹ They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. ¹⁰ And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Revelation 20:7-10

That right there is why Satan is surely not looking forward to the time when Jesus Christ comes back to earth. His time is limited. When Christ arrives, the destruction of wickedness will be assured. Jesus Christ will have the final word, and he will emerge triumphant.

So…

Anticipate the Future

Ultimately, we should not be seeking to know all this just for the sake of head-knowledge. It is the physical, glorious, and victorious return of Christ that should fuel us in all that we do.

If you feel discouraged in your discipling relationship and are having trouble finding motivation to continue, look at what is to come. Ask yourself if the labor you are struggling through right now is worth the end result of having this person join you in celebration when Jesus returns.

If you feel like your spiritual gifts and the unique talents with which God has equipped you are useless—like they are not actually accomplishing anything—then take a pause. Look to the return of Jesus Christ. God has wired you in a precise, unique way to accomplish his purposes in a way that nobody else can in order to usher in the wonderful end result of Christ’s Second Coming. Take heart in that. What you do for the Kingdom right now matters. Your service to God right now matters.

Jesus Christ is returning one day. In the meantime, roll up your sleeves and get to work!

Appreciate God’s Patience

You may be reading about these wonderful things that will transpire once Jesus returns and thinking “gee, why doesn’t God just hurry up and have Jesus come back already?” An eternity of abundance with God, after all, is infinitely better than our current situation. So why the wait?

Simply put, it is because of God’s loving patience. His desire is that none shall perish, and he wants as many people as possible to come to Christ before the end of days arrives.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 

2 Peter 3:9

This waiting period before Jesus Christ’s return is an act of divine mercy that once again demonstrates the goodness of our God. He loves us more than we could understand and wants to pour out mercy upon mercy. Be glad, and use this time as we wait to lead more of the lost to him.

Questions commonly asked when it comes to the ministry of healing are:

• Can we always expect God to heal us? 
• Should the ministry of healing be a regular part of the church’s ministry? 
• If I’m not healed physically what does it indicate? 

In answer to these questions, the bottom line is that healing is to advance the mission and message of Christ. Sometime this is done through making the sick person well, and sometimes it is done by empowering the sick person to live well. To explore this question further, let’s take a deeper dive into Acts 3:1-4:4. This gives one of the best descriptions of God’s purposes in healing, and then serves as a springboard to answer some of the challenging questions.  

God’s Purposes for Healing

 ¹One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 

Many of the Jews prayed three times a day. This practice developed when the first Jewish temple had been destroyed in 586 B.C. Nonetheless, the practice continued after the temple had been rebuilt. Peter and John, fresh off the heals of Jesus’ resurrection, continue in this custom as seen in verse 1.  

²Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.

Often times, if not most of the time, people undergo physical illness or defects for no detectable cause.  We can’t say, in many cases, cancer, miscarriages, diabetes, asthma, etc. was caused because of something a person did or did not do. The only causal connection goes back to Genesis 3 where sin entered the world bringing physical suffering.  That is where this guy is in this story.  He was “lame from birth.”  

Not only is he born this way in physical suffering; he is in social suffering, as well. He does not have a social net of support.  There is no Medicaid, no SSI, no public assistance.  He has to put food on the table through begging.  Nonetheless, he is strategic and resourceful.  He begs at a highly trafficked area at the gate of the temple where people entered and exited to worship. People would have been going to the temple with money to give. This probably made some more charitable. It is also important to note that because of his defect he is not allowed into the temple courts. He was excluded from worship to God.  

³When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. ⁴ Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” ⁵So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 

As this man begs for money, Peter, in essence looked at him saying, “Read My Lips.” This guy does not grasp what is about to happen. At best, he is hoping for a generous gift.  He is not believing in faith for a miracle.  He is not claiming his healing.  He is not sending in $200 to a TV ministry.  When Peter says to look at him he wants him to grasp the message behind the miracle. The miracle can be viewed as signposts to a deeper message. We see three signposts that this healing miracle points:

Signposts # 1: Healings point upward. 

⁶Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 

What we will see is that Peter does not even pray for this guy’s healing.  This miracle is to authenticate the message of Jesus which the apostles are now proclaiming.  The ultimate goal is not healing, it is the glory of God through highlighting the message of “Jesus Christ of Nazareth.”  Healing is secondary.  Through the attention that this healing brings, Peter is able to proclaim to the crowd at the temple:

¹⁵You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. ¹⁶By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

The focus was not on the man’s physical recovery, as wonderful as that was. Rather, it was to highlight and authenticate the message of the apostles regarding Jesus as the Savior. The writer of Hebrews reinforces this point:

³This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. ⁴God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Hebrews 2:3-4

Signpost # 2: Healings point forward.

Going back to Peter and John’s interaction with the lame man, notice Peter’s initiative.

⁷Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. ⁸He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

There is no longer an exclusion from the temple. This man is now healed physically, but it points to a new reality all of the world gets to look forward to–restoration physically, socially and physically. If you go to the movies you usually encounter sneak previews: short promotional trailers which give a taste of what is to come. Miracles, including healing, show what is to come.  They point forward to the kind of restoration that Jesus was going to bring to the whole world with his coming rule and reign on the earth.  The prophet Isaiah, approximately 700 years before Jesus, describes this world in which the Messiah will usher:

⁵Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶Then will the lame leap like a deer,

    and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

    and streams in the desert.

Isaiah 35:5-6

It is key to understand that the miracles done by Jesus and his followers were not pure displays of power but displays of his coming restoration which the Old Testament has prophesied. Other than Jesus’ ascension he never flew like Superman; he didn’t just use Jedi telekinesis to move objects at the Last Supper; during his suffering before and during the crucifixion, Jesus did not heal like Wolverine. (There is nothing for comic book geeks and nerds to get real excited about in the Gospels.)  Jesus did nothing on the level of magic tricks, daredevil stunts, or awe-inspiring displays of showmanship. The reason is that he was wanting to transform hearts and minds toward his kingdom.  

When the Savior healed leprosy, cured blindness, stopped storms and even raised the dead, these kinds of miracles show us that God is no happier with the brokenness of the world than you and I are. God did not create the world with pain, storms, blindness, disease or death. All of this came through the corruption of sin. Miracles, which include healing, give a sneak preview to the world as God will make it to be again. That is Peter’s concluding statement to the watching crowd:

“Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.“

Acts 3:21

Healings point downward. 

  Moving on the Acts 4:1-4.

¹The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. ²They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. ³They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 

There is no reward, nothing like a CNN interview, no Time magazine “Man of the Year” cover story. Instead, it is go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200. The miracles in Acts often get the miracle worker in trouble. The lame man gets to walk; Peter and John get confined to prison. The same was true of Jesus’ ministry. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead John writes, “From that point on they determined to kill him.” (John 11:53) Tim Keller observes, “By taking Lazarus out of the grave, he put himself in.” When Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood who came up behind him and grabbed his garment, the power “went out” from him. Healing for the world will come as life and power and money and opportunity—go out from us.

What do we learn about healing?

Be willing to pay the cost.

When God gives power to heal others, it makes us vulnerable. It costs.  We’re supposed to pour out our money and power and opportunity as genuine sacrifice. Sometimes we must preach unpopular messages and opposition comes, but that should be done in the midst of outpourings of love and healing. Our community should say about us, “We don’t believe what those crazy people teach, but thank God they’re here because they do so much good.”  

⁴But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

Pray for biblical priorities.   

God glorifies himself through making sick people well, and other times he does it through empowering sick people to live well.

Does God always heal?  Yes, but not in the timing and way we always pray for healing.  Aren’t we healed by his stripes, according to Isaiah 53:5? At times we do experience sneak previews of the kingdom world to come through miracles and healings, but the Bible has already given us the ultimate spoiler alert. Ultimate healing will be experienced with the new and resurrected bodies.  Christ overcame death, but we decay and die.  But there will come a day that we will not die.

God glorifies himself through making sick people well, and other times he does it through empowering sick people to live well. I believe we should pray for the sick with the idea that God will heal. I think we should do it more often that we do. But we need to pray and believe with a kingdom focus. Sometimes healing is a process as we pray, love, serve, visit and care. Through someone’s illness community is built, and the church becomes tighter with God. 

Press for biblical proclamations.

The miracle is that he brought the man from the outside into the inside.  He was outside the temple—separated from access to God.  The physically healing allowed him access to God.  There are plenty of people who are in perfect physical health—selfie obsessed with amazing bodies–but their lives are empty, unhappy and worst of all condemned by sin.  If someone falls off a bicycle and breaks a leg, he can go to the hospital and get it fixed. You stagger around on crutches for a while. Eventually, he starts to walk normally again. You can fix a broken leg, but you cannot fix a broken relationship with God.  That is accomplished through the gospel.

As I started my journey with Christ I sometimes heard the message that it is always God’s will to heal every sickness or physical problem: flu, arthritis, cancer, multiple scleroses or a back ache. All these are outside of God’s plan or will and need to be removed.  The most important basis for this claim is Isaiah 53:4-5:

 Surely he took up our pain

    and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

    stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed.

Some claim that the healing of our bodies was achieved by Christ on the cross. Jesus not only bore our sin but our sickness. God not only made Christ to be sin (2 Corinthians 5:21) for us, but also made him to be sick for us. This means Jesus took on the flu, ulcers, cancer, tonsillitis, etc. in his death. One teacher of this perspective is Andrew Womack, who expresses this belief as follows:

The Lord redeemed us from sickness just as much as He redeemed us from sin. He would no more want us to be sick than He would want us to sin. Those are radical statements to many Christians because we’ve been taught that forgiveness of sins is what salvation is all about. Well that’s certainly a vital part of salvation, but that’s not all that Jesus accomplished. We were also healed by His stripes. Sickness is not of God just as sin is not of God. Thank You, Jesus!

Gloria Copeland echoes this idea in a similar way:

Jesus bore your sicknesses and carried your diseases at the same time and in the same manner that He bore your sins. You are just as free from sickness and disease as you are free from sin. You should be as quick to cease sickness and disease in your body as you are to cease sin.

What this means is that if you’re not healed, it is due to your lack of faith. Healing has been secured for us in the atonement—and is ours to claim and lay hold of in faith.  As Kenneth Copeland instructs: “God intends for every believer to live completely free from sickness and disease.  It is up to you to decide whether or not you will.”

What about this teaching and claim? I will make the case that sin was fully dealt with on the cross but the effects of sin–sickness–will not be completely dealt with until the return of Christ. It is not a question of whether God will heal all illness but when.

Did Christ die for our sickness?

Let’s be clear, Christ did not die for our sickness. Sickness is an effect of sin but is not a sin. There is no guilt in having diabetes, glaucoma, blindness, etc. It is our sin that sends us to hell not our sickness. Scripture tells us to “confess our sins,” but nowhere does it say we should seek forgiveness for arthritis. We are not instructed in any way to confess, “Lord, forgive me for this flu.” Jesus did not experience sickness during his atonement. Rather, he took the wrath of God against sin. (Romans 5:8-9) He carried our sin by becoming sin. He did not carry our sickness by becoming sickness.

So, what does it mean that “by his wounds we are healed?” Sin is the ultimate cause of many sources of pain, difficulty and destructiveness in the world: poverty, pain in child birth, natural disasters, illness etc. Jesus did not die for the effects of sin. Rather, he died for sin and as a result he will ultimately overcome those effects when he returns. By his death he has laid the foundation for the ultimate overthrow and annihilation of all disease (and other suffering), which will occur at his second coming.

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Philippians 3:20-21

At that time death will be destroyed.

²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1 Corinthians 15:25-26

Those who claim that Christians should never be sick because there is healing in the atonement should also claim that Christians should never die, because Jesus also conquered death in the atonement. He paid the price of sin in order that one day, when he returns to glorify his people, he will wholly do away with sickness. We experience forgiveness and fellowship with God now because of Christ’s atoning death, but we await all of the benefits of that blessed relationship when he returns.

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 8:23

Healing Through Not In the Atonement

So, is there any healing in the atonement? The answer is YES. Were it not for Jesus making atonement for sin, we would have no hope of healing, either now or later. The redemptive suffering of Jesus is the foundation and source of every blessing, whether spiritual or physical. Because of this it is more accurate to say there is healing through the atonement rather than in the atonement. This way we avoid suggesting that because of Jesus’s death we are guaranteed healing in this life. It is not a question of whether our bodies are healed but when. There is physical healing through the atonement, but this isn’t guaranteed until the final resurrection.

So What About Matthew 8:16–17?

What, then, are we to make of Matthew 8:16–17? It reads:

¹⁶ When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities
    and bore our diseases.”

We’re told that Jesus “healed all who were sick,” and that “this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’” Are these healings, performed by Jesus, the result of the atonement? The answer would be yes. As Jesus brought forgiveness, healing and deliverance was based on credit through what would be given in the cross. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that healing will always occur now as a result of that work. But, even with this, was Christ’s healing ministry his end game? After all, the people he healed still died. Lazarus was raised from the dead, but he eventually died again. People were healed but the curse wasn’t completely reversed. Jesus died for the sins of men, but men still continued to sin. He defeated death but His followers continued to die. There is an ultimate fulfillment of Christ’s atoning work that will not be realized this side of eternity.

In summary, we do not see the New Testament church going around and confessing and claiming every illness into extinction. Paul left Trophimus behind during one of his missionary journeys because of illness (2 Timothy 4:20). He recommended wine to Timothy for his “stomach and [his] frequent illnesses” (1 Timothy 5:23). Epaphroditus got so sick he nearly died (Philippians 2:25–27). And sometimes God sent sickness to discipline members of his church (1 Corinthians 11:29–32). Paul had a “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7) and asked God to take it away three times to which God responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

How Do We Handle Illness?

Realize the blessings of health when you become ill.  

We seldom celebrate health with the same intensity that we gripe about our illness. When sick take the opportunity to thank God for and remind yourself of the blessing of health. Even though in our sin the world is broken, health is a good gift of God.

Reach to be ultimately new. 

We don’t just want to get well, we want to be new. Everything from a head ache to strep to the flu should remind us that we are due for a serious remodeling. Don’t sell yourself short of what we ultimately have coming to us. Every ounce of hope is anchored to every second of Christ’s agony. Yes, by his wounds we are experience full healing.

Next post we will look at why God heals some people and not others.

Today’s article will be continuing our two-part Gospel series that began last week. To read the previous installment on this topic, click here.

Upon understanding the definition of the Gospel and its centrality to our faith, a new doorway of questions is opened up to us, namely these: what is the human response to the Gospel and what are its effects on our lives? After all, if it is such a pivotal part of what we believe (and indeed, it is the foundation of everything we believe), then should it not do great things in our day-to-day lives as believers striving to honor God? Yes, it should, and yes, it absolutely does.

Let’s investigate.

Human Response to the Gospel

An individual, upon receiving the Gospel message, may respond to it either positively or negatively. This means they may either receive it with open arms and joy for the wonderful gift they are about to receive, or they may harden their hearts and choose to reject it. The following paragraphs highlight these responses.

Rejection

God does not instill the Gospel with an irresistible power that overrides the free will of the individual and leaves them with no choice but to accept it. He is, of course, at work in their life behind the scenes, preparing them with the option to respond to the Gospel positively, but ultimately they must choose whether they accept or reject it by their volition.

There is no one reason a person might reject the Gospel, but every reason stems from the hard-hearted idea that they are self-sufficient on their own, in no need of forgiveness or a relationship with God. One person might reject it because they find the story too far-fetched. Another might reject it because it threatens their current lifestyle, and that makes them incredibly uncomfortable. Others might because they choose not to care, content to keep their life where it is without adding in something as life-changing and groundbreaking as Jesus Christ.

The point to remember here is that our response to the Gospel is our choice. In the end, believing it or rejecting it is up to us. God has given us free will. We can choose relationship and abundance with Him—or we can choose a life (and eternity) without him.

Acceptance

While accepting or rejecting the Gospel message is our choice, it is impossible to accept it without the prevenient grace of the Holy Spirit, which, as stated in Anthony’s article on the topic, “is a grace that prepares the soul to effectively hear the Gospel by lessening their spiritual blindness and strengthening their will to knowingly accept or reject revealed truth.”

“No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

John 6:44

In other words, it is God who makes us aware of our sin, our need for a savior, and the redemption we may find in Jesus Christ. Without him, we would all die a slow, agonizing spiritual death here on earth and then suffer an eternal one in the next life.

Should a person, through the miracle of prevenient grace, accept the Gospel, then there are a few things that would go on before and during their initial response.

Read the words of Christ:

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Mark 7:20-23

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

John 8:34

The first part of this individual’s response would likely be one of conviction. They would begin to understand just how far down the black depths of their sin go. They would realize they have fallen utterly short of a holy and just God; because of their wickedness, they have disobeyed them, and in so doing they have separated themselves from him. The Gospel would convict them by bringing them to knowledge of their fallen state apart from Jesus.

The second part of their response takes form in a desire for the saving grace of Jesus Christ and the subsequent relationship with God that opens up to them. They see their life now, and as they read about the life of Christ and the purpose/meaning he offers, they see what their life could be. And they want it. This desire culminates in them placing their faith in Christ and beginning a life of following Jesus—something that is entirely their choice, but impossible to do without the work of the Holy Spirit.

Effects of the Gospel

The Gospel message is the lifeblood of our faith. It completely and miraculously transforms the life of the believer in many wonderful and tangible ways. We will start with the most obvious, but nonetheless pivotally important, of these.

Salvation

After hearing the Gospel message and accepting the gift Jesus Christ gave us on the cross, we receive the indescribably and monumentally joy-filling gift of salvation. We are saved from our sins—saved from an eternity separated from God. We are provided with the peace that passes understanding as Jesus lifts the burden of our sin-stained life from our shoulders.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16

This newfound peace and joy changes the way we perceive the world, causing us to cast off our old senses of hopelessness and despair in exchange for life-sustaining purpose and hope.

It Shifts our Morality

Along with the Gospel’s life-sustaining purpose and hope comes a lifelong shift in our conduct and our thoughts. You may have heard of the regeneration and sanctification of the Holy Spirit before. Regeneration happens the instant the believer accepts the Gospel message and places their faith in Christ; in that moment, they become a new creation of God. Sanctification is then  the gradual process in which their behavior becomes more and more aligned with the will of God.

We would also do well not to forget the part the Gospel plays in shaping the believer’s shift to a more God-honoring set of values and behaviors, for within the pages of the four Gospels are God’s instructions on how to live rightly.

It is from the Gospel we learn that we must always, without exception, put God first and honor him with every action we do—every thought on which we dwell…every breath we take.

And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.“

Matthew 22:37-38

It is the Gospel encouraging us to treat our neighbors with the love of Christ:

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Mark 12:31

It instructs us not to lust after worldly treasures:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

It tells us to lower ourselves to servant status so that God’s Kingdom may be spread:

And he [Jesus] sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

Mark 9:35

It commands us to leave the judgement of others to God, for we are fallen, sinful creatures unworthy of judging without hypocrisy:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Matthew 7:1-2

These are just a handful of many, many life instructions found in the Gospel. The most amazing part is: the believer, as they progress in their faith, desires more and more to act the way Jesus instructs them to. More and more as God’s love fills them and they continue to follow Christ, they desire to model Jesus—to be as much like him as a human being can be.

Why is this? It’s because the Gospel has yet another powerful effect in the life of the believer.

Joy and Meaning from Mission

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not something we passively receive. It is something we actively live out every day as the Church. At the end of Matthew, Jesus gives us all an important mission.

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20

What you have just read is the life-goal of every Christian, new or old. We must go out and make disciples, growing the Kingdom of God so that as many may enter into eternal community with him as possible.

This great commission gives new purpose and meaning in the life of the believer. It is the lens through which they see the world, so much so that it affects something as mundane as their vocational life. In the past, they may have worked as a carpenter, but now they work as a carpenter for the glory of God! Others, upon seeing their diligent and cheerful work, will perhaps be drawn to them, opening up avenues for discipling relationships. In this same way, a Christ-following college English major may study to the glory of God, showing others there is something different about them and entering into potential discipling relationships as a result. The Gospel, when applied correctly, positively changes every aspect of our life so that it is oriented towards honoring the Lord with all our hearts.

Winding Down…

If you are to take anything away from this two-week study of the Gospel, I hope it is this: the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the foundation of everything we do as Christians. We receive from it the hope of salvation, instructions on how to live, and our purpose here on this earth.

There is a reason it has transformed countless lives throughout thousands of years. There is a reason it skyrocketed the Church across the globe two thousand years ago. The Gospel has power. And significance. And hope beyond measure.

Let it transform your life.

Imagine you are going out to lunch with someone God is calling you to disciple or a friend who knows you follow Jesus.

For the first half-hour, things are going great. Your chemistry is more than adequate. Productive conversation is flowing. Your food is even a step above the quality you would expect from a typical diner. Then, out of nowhere, your lunch partner asks you a question.

“So what’s the deal on this whole Gospel thing? Why is it so important?”

Your fork, hallway up its ascent to your mouth, freezes in place. You instantly recognize this as one of those “important questions” to which you absolutely must have a comprehensive, satisfying answer.

Your mind races a bit as you stiffen up, and you begin to stutter out some form of a response. This, you think, is exactly what Peter was talking about when he instructed us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

So far, you are failing in that endeavor. You know deep down why the Gospel is significant, but the task of putting the why into words is proving to be a challenge.  

We have likely all experienced a time where we were tasked with explaining a pivotal concept or doctrine in our faith, only to find it had become such a familiar, second-nature part of our lives that we had a hard time explaining why we believe what we believe.

When it comes to the Gospel and its importance to our faith, this simply cannot happen.

With that said, the purpose of this article is to hone in on a concrete definition of the Gospel as well as explore why it is central to everything we believe and do as Christians.

First Things First

We will not get far in our understanding of the Gospel or our ability to articulate its purpose-giving brilliance to others if we do not know exactly what it is at its core. An algebra teacher cannot teach a mathematical expression he does not understand. A sociologist cannot lecture on a societal ill with which he is unfamiliar. The same principle applies to teaching the Gospel. We must know its definition. Some of you may find this woefully basic, but it is important to grasp walking before one learns to run.

We will start with the literal translation of the word “gospel,” which comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “god-spell,” which means “good story.” That word in turn derives from a Latin word meaning something akin to the phrase “good news.” One verb form of the Latin word even means “to bring or usher in good tidings.”

This makes sense. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, at its core, is the good news of God’s unconditional and grace-instilled love for humanity: it details the story of God sending his fully divine and fully human son Jesus Christ to earth to be the perfect sacrifice for humanity’s sin, taking on God’s wrath in our place and then beating death three days later by rising again and offering all who place their faith in him eternal life.  Just about every Christian of every denomination and every biblical scholar of every background will agree to this. That, however, by no means suggests there is universal agreement on the precise definition of the Gospel.

As it goes with most theological topics, researching “what is the Gospel?” into your Google search bar or even asking biblical scholars and seminary professors will not return to you a unified answer. Now, it is likely none of the answers would contain radically different “good news” stories, but their presentation of the same “good news” story may vary.

The Gospel Coalition, which is a great resource for those researching biblical topics, presents three different viewpoints on the definition of the Gospel, with the major change between them being a difference in emphasis. Some of them emphasize certain elements more than others. Let’s explore this.

One viewpoint, which is tailored to the person receiving the story, focuses on what it means for the individual: we have all sinned against a perfect and altogether just God, and we deserve due punishment for our wickedness—but God so loved us that he sent his son Jesus to die for our transgressions and reconcile humanity with God. Three days later, he rose again, conquering death and offering eternal life to all who follow him.

The next shift in emphasis laser-focuses on Jesus’ story. It details Christ’s mission, his love for humanity, his sacrifice, and his resurrection to paint a vivid picture of who Jesus is and what it means that he would do something of this magnitude for us.

The third notable variance in defining the Gospel focuses on what it means for all of creation. It starts from the fall of humanity in the garden of Eden, which brought forth sin/decay into the world and subsequently launched creation’s descent into brokenness. It climaxes with Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection, which offers humanity salvation and promises eternal life in the New Heaven and New Earth, where creation is made new and freed from the brokenness of sin.

None of these are bad definitions of the Gospel. Their shifts in emphasis can even be practical and useful, depending on the personality of the person you are presenting the Gospel to (as well as the setting you are presenting in).

However, I think there is a way to take the content of each point of view and condense it into a singular, more complete, all-purpose definition and presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We may take the strong call for personal response and conviction of the first, the revelation of Jesus’ Christ perfect love and character in the second, and the effects of the Christ Redemption on a cosmic/eternal scale found in the third viewpoint to compile the following statement:

The Gospel is the story of God’s mission to restore the brokenness of creation, which was brought on by the sin of humanity, through sending his son Jesus Christ to earth as a fully human, fully divine person. This Jesus lived the perfect life no human ever could and then died as the ultimate sacrifice for the wickedness of mankind, taking the fullness of God’s wrath upon him so that whoever places their faith in him does not have to, instead receiving eternal life with God because their sin is no longer held against them. He conquered death three days after by rising again and later returned to the Father. He will one day return to judge evil once and for all, as well as enjoy eternal community with God’s children in a wholly restored and revitalized creation free from sin and death: the New Heaven and the New Earth.

Why Is the Gospel Central to our Faith?

Now we know exactly what is meant by the term “Gospel.” This allows us to have a coherent discussion on why it is central to what we believe and what we do as Christians. In other words, we can now explore why it is the foundation of our faith and, as a result, our lives.

It is the Culmination of God’s Plan to Redeem Us

The events that unfolded in the Gospel were the most important in human history. They are the centerpiece of the entire Bible. They are the culmination of God’s plan to restore the brokenness of creation.

None of this is hyperbole. Starting from the first sin in the Garden of Eden and the chaos that followed shortly thereafter, God put into motion a beautiful plan to bring us back to him through Jesus Christ. We recognize it as the defining moment of the Bible because every major biblical event preceding it is building up to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We see this when God slays an animal to clothe the naked shame of Adam and Eve, pointing to how the slaying of Jesus would cover our shame thousands of years later (Genesis 3:21).

We see this when God makes a covenant with Abraham that he will father a great nation, which will later turn out to be the nation of Israel: God’s chosen people who will be set apart from the rest of civilization by reflecting his love and glory to the rest of the world—the chosen people from whom the Messiah will be born (Genesis 15).

We see this when the book of Leviticus shows the sacrifices and ceremonial laws the Israelites had to undergo in order to address their sin against a holy and just God, demonstrating humanity’s fallen nature and our desperate need for a lasting atonement with our creator.

We see this in the books of first and second Kings and Chronicles, in which Israel demonstrates its need for a divine, perfect Christ-King because its sinful human kings bring them toward dysfunction and death. As these generations of rulers pass by, we see the lineage of David continue to grow, eventually leading to the birth of Christ.

We see this in the books leading to as well as during the Babylonian Exile, where prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Daniel tell of a coming savior who will right all wrongs in the world and atone for the world’s sin.

We even see the centrality of the Gospel after Jesus’ death and resurrection take place. The rest of the Bible is dedicated to the response his atoning sacrifice creates: we see his disciples follow the great commission to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We see the Church of Jesus Christ grow in the book of Acts, and we see Paul and other apostles spread the Gospel across the entire world.

Those are just brief snapshots of the centrality of the Gospel. There are many more. It is intricately woven throughout the biblical story.

The Gospel Leads Us to Salvation

It is because of Jesus’ atoning work in the Gospel that we can have salvation. That is the only way we may be reconciled to God and enjoy a relationship of love and abundance with him. It is because of the Gospel message that we realize we have fallen short of God’s glory, recognize our need for forgiveness, and discover the path to eternal life. Without it, we would still be enemies of God, lost in our wickedness and fleshly desires.

Read what Paul has to say concerning the Gospel and salvation.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…

1 Corinthians 15:4

Without the blood of Jesus as detailed in the Gospel, we would all be lost, with no access to relationship with God and no joyful future to which we could look forward.

The Gospel Drives Us Onward

It doesn’t stop at just hearing the Gospel. It’s not a one-time deal in which you place your faith in what Jesus did and then never stop to think about it again.

It is quite the opposite, actually. The events in the Gospel define the life and actions of the Christ-follower. Upon hearing the indescribably, unfathomably good news of salvation and accepting Christ’s free gift, you are not to just sit back and keep that to yourself. Why would you? An unconditionally loving God has just given you eternal life and a purposeful existence!

The primary goal of the Jesus-follower, then, is to tell others the good news of the Gospel and make disciples. We are to use the unique gifting with which God has lovingly designed us and share with others the same message that changed our own life.

This is not optional, either. It is a command. Look no further than the Gospel itself. I mentioned the Great Commission earlier. Let’s read it in its entirety now.

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20

The Gospel is not just the source of salvation for the Christian; it is the source of mission as well. It is the reason for everything we do as Christians.

A Closing Reflection on God’s Redemptive Love

Yes, the Gospel is what brings us infinite joy. Yes, the Gospel calls us to mission. Those are concepts worth talking about, and furthermore, they are worth cherishing.

But I want to close today by proposing this: the Gospel is the most vivid and powerful glimpse at the glorious love of God we have, and that is as equally important an aspect in its centrality to our faith as all the other reasons are. I suppose nobody, regardless of their theological insight or the depth of their faith, can fully comprehend what it is that has actually occurred in the Gospel story.

I do not mean that we cannot understand what Christ did and how we are to respond to it. That much is clear. I mean I do not think the finite human mind can grasp the boundless act of love that has taken place in the life of Christ.

God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, who exists shrouded in glory outside of time—God, who is beautiful in every way imaginable and unimaginable, capable of holding the whole of the expanding universe in his hands as all its brightly lit galaxies stretch forever onward—is mindful of his lowly, rebellious creation. I am not the first person to wonder at this; even now a famous Psalm of David might come to your mind.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, ⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

Psalm 8:3-4

We see this profound observation demonstrated most powerfully in the Gospel. God was not just mindful of us. He wasn’t just aware that we were alive. He, an infinitely glorious and majestic being, came down to us as Jesus Christ in all the confinements of mortality and finitude. He lowered himself to servant status so that he might save the very people who met him with scorn, hate, and derision.

This act of selfless love came to its apex in the crucifixion, where Jesus died to eternally save those who spat upon him. Those who beat him. Those who tortured him relentlessly with smiles on their faces.

I do not know that we even have a category of love to place this in. Likely not, as we (or I, at the very least) do not have the mental faculty to fully process this.

It is just another marvelous mystery about the life-sustaining, purpose-giving God we serve. He is all that is worth living for and fully deserving of our awe. That is yet another lesson the Gospel teaches us.

Adam sinned a long time ago, yet I am born a sinner today because of him. How could this possibly be fair? Is it just and righteous for God to have the entire human race to be born in a sinful state simply because some naked guy ate from a forbidden tree? The doctrine of original sin faces two common objections: First, where is the fairness for everyone being so severely punished or condemned for two people’s sin. Second, why would God create a perfect world only to see it become cursed when Adam sinned?

In this article we will address these two common objections and then respond to three common questions regarding original sin. The questions are:

• Are We Punished for Adam’s sin?
• What about infants and children?
• Isn’t the doctrine of original sin unhealthy for society?

Objection # 1: It is unfair that we are punished for Adam’s sin.

The short answer is that we are not punished for Adam’s sin. Punishment would mean that we suffer the guilt and condemnation for what he did. We do not. We suffer from the effects of the original sin but not the guilt. When our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God, they lost the gift of God’s favor that protected them from death and suffering. They experienced a diminished goodness. This diminished goodness was extensive. Yet, it was caused by God removing his direct closeness and presence. After losing this, the rest of the human race was born in a state separate from this complete favor from God.

Let’s be clear, only Adam and Eve suffered the guilt from their sin. Everyone born since has suffered the effects of their criminal act but not the guilt. Trent Horn says that a way to think about this is to imagine a man is given an inheritance that makes him rich, but in his greed he steals more money from the estate of his deceased relative. The man’s wife and children, who didn’t know he did this, are thrilled about never having to worry about money again—until the police arrive and arrest the man, and the courts take back all the money he inherited. The courts don’t punish the man’s family members, because they did nothing wrong. However, the man’s family members still suffer because they would have been blessed with riches if he had not stolen more money. This is the best illustration of how many people can suffer the effects but not the guilt of one person’s sin.

Objection # 2: God was stupid to create a world that could be so easily corrupted.

The world we live in is one where future generations either benefit or suffer from the actions or conditions of those who have gone before them. We don’t normally find fault with that kind of system. (Though certain very flawed political systems are built on reversing this and making everything equal in result through force of law.) It is, still, impossible to imagine the world any other way. Genetic science has shown that of all the billions of people in the world today, we all have a common ancestry from one man (Acts 17:26), and the differences among us add up to about 1/10^th of 1%. It is lower than miniscule. That means that what makes us human consists of a 99.9% commonality–one human race. We are all in this together, both the good and the bad.

A person can contract a disease which has been passed down from their ancestors. Another can inherit genes which makes him very athletic. This is just the way it is. In both cases, this is neither “fair” nor “unfair” that they received something from their ancestors because everyone does–good and bad. If Adam and Eve (and others after them) had not sinned, we would not say, “It’s not fair I am born into such a good condition, because I did nothing to earn it!” If you believe in the concept of inheritance, be it financial, genetic, or spiritual, then you have to accept that human beings are capable of leaving either good or bad inheritances for their children. That is just the way it is. This is the way God designed the world starting in the original creation.

Common Questions

Are We Punished for Adam’s Sin?

If we are punished for Adam’s sin then that would be unfair. We are condemned or punished for for our own sin. None of us will stand in judgement for what Adam or anyone else has done. Further, none of us are forgiven for the sin of Adam or anyone else because we are not guilty of it.

Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.

Deuteronomy 24:16

The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

Ezekiel 18:20

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Romans 14:4

 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10

Paul expresses this very point when it comes to understanding our sin in relation to Adam’s sin. Paul triumphantly declares:

Romans 5:12

Consequently, jut as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

Romans 5:18

God in his majestic providence took humanity’s greatest defeat and turned it into an opportunity to show us his greatest victory. As one Easter song, the Exultet, declares:

“O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!”

What about infants and children?

While all infants have inherited a sin nature from Adam (the absence of God’s direct blessing), God extends special grace to these infants and young children. R.C. Sproul explains that “infants who die are given a special dispensation of the grace of God; it is not by their innocence but by God’s grace that they are received into heaven.” Sinful nature, then, is not sufficient reason for God to condemn the child, for where salvation is by grace, condemnation is by works–not contracted sin but committed sin.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

John 3:18

⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Jude 4

Those who have not had opportunity to do works which explicitly and willfully reject God are not condemned. It is unscriptural to see condemnation for those who have no willful rebellion or unbelief; they have never suppressed the truth; they have no understanding of sin’s impact or consequences; and they have no ability to choose salvation.

John MacArthur writes:

“…there is no place in Scripture in which a person suffers the judgment of damnation on the basis of anything other than sinful deeds, including the sinful deed of disbelief–a conscious, willful, intentional choice to disbelieve. Furthermore, God does not charge people with sins until sins are committed.”

John Piper commenting on Romans 1:18-19, writes in relation to infant/children and accountability:

“God only executes this judgment on those who have the natural capacity to see his glory and understand his will, and refuse to embrace it as their treasure. Infants, I believe, do not yet have that capacity; and therefore, in God’s inscrutable way, he brings them under the forgiving blood of his Son.”

For added comfort and assurance, we remember that King David had a child who was sick at infancy and then died. After his time of praying and grieving, he made this declaration:

 “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him…”

2 Samuel 12:22-23

Isn’t the doctrine of original sin unhealthy for society?

In a recent interview, Alain de Botton, a famous British atheist, said, “I love the concept of original sin, the idea that we’re all fundamentally broken and fundamentally incomplete.” When asked why de Botton explained:

Because [original sin] seems to be such a useful starting point … Imagine a relationship in which two people think they’re great—you know, perfect—that’s going to lead to intolerance and terrible disappointment when they realize that they’re not … perfect. Whereas imagine a relationship that begins under the idea that two people are quite broken and therefore they need forgiveness …

When asked to define “broken” he replied:

By broken I mean “not quite right” … So that’s why the concept of original sin seems so plausible and applicable and also kind, because it basically says, “Look, when you meet someone new … just assume that something major has gone wrong here.” Treat everybody you meet as though they were laboring under some really big problem, basically. That’s the starting point of any encounter.

The source of meeting us at this starting point is the grace which is given in Jesus Christ.

If there is a God, why did he create such things as viruses, which are the cause of Covid-19? To reconcile a wise and good Creator with destructive viruses like Ebola, Influenza and AIDS is for some impossible. So, how do we account for them? How do we reconcile the existence of horrible plagues like Covid-19 with a wise and good Creator. The best way to account for them, as well as other harmful elements in the world, is to understand that a world which was perfectly designed became broken. This brokenness is transmitted through the very cells of living things. This is explained in detail in a section known as The Fall in Genesis 3. The Fall describes sin entering the world through the rebellion of Adam and Eve. The Bible shows that there was originally a perfect design (Genesis 1-2) that now has breakdowns which began and have been passed down from The Fall.    

This article will answer four questions: 1) What was this perfect design like? 2) How do we understand the cause of the breakdowns which allow for viruses that continue to this day? 3) How can we still believe in the goodness and wisdom of God with viruses like Covid-19? 4) How do we find hope in a broken world with so many other destructive breakdowns?

A Perfectly Designed World 

Genesis 1 unfolds the story of God creating the world. At the end of creation, Genesis declares:

 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. 

Genesis 1:31

Very good means that in the original creation there was no evil at all. This means that there was no:

• moral evil (sin)
• natural evil (anything in the physical world that causes suffering)
• biological evil (anything in the biological world that causes suffering)

There was no disease, no physical degeneration, no death. There would have been a perfect repair process as human DNA became damaged.

The Fall and Entropy

In this perfect environment, God gave this warning:  

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:16-17

Adam and Eve disobeyed and the power of death came into the world. God’s favor toward humanity was severely weakened. The joyous relationship God and his image bearers shared was fractured. The closeness of God’s presence was removed–this brought death. This removal of God’s favor and close presence effected every square inch of the universe. The home that had been created to perfectly serve and satisfy humans was now infected with the curse of danger, frustration, and pain. This is described below after Adam & Eve’s sin:

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow     you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Genesis 3:14-19

Given humanity’s role as ruler, God responded to man’s sin by cursing the entire dominion of humanity:  

• animals were cursed (Gen. 3:14)
• relationships within the sexes became difficult (Gen. 3:16)
• labor in childbirth became severely painful (Gen. 3:16)
• the ground was cursed and work becomes burdensome (Gen. 3:17, 19)
• plants developed thorns and thistles (Gen. 3:18)
• human diet changed (Gen. 3:18)
• the human body became mortal (Gen. 3:19)

Entropy

How did this take place? Adam and Eve, who were ultimately taken from dust will return to dust. (Genesis 3:19) This returning to dust expresses the biological process of decay. This decay reflects what is known as the scientific law of entropy or the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law tells us that there is less energy to repair and restore living systems and organisms. This, then, brings disorder and decay. One way to look at entropy is to imagine two children, each having a bedroom. One is messy and the other is neat. The messy bedroom has more entropy causing disorder than the neat room. To undo the entropy of the untidy child’s room requires a large input of energy. Entropy tells us that the room of the universe is becoming more and more untidy and there is less energy to restore it. The law of entropy is recognized by science as a basic principle pervading the whole universe.

Dr Abner Chou explains entropy as follows:

This explains why a car has to have a radiator to rid the engine of the otherwise destructive waste heat that would destroy the engine. In mechanical devices friction between moving surfaces creates heat, so that all the energy driving the mechanical device cannot be completely converted to useful work. This waste heat is responsible for all mechanical failure. Electrical motor burnout, light bulbs burning out, appliances dying—all these happen because of the second law. Mold on bread, rusting cars, houses needing constant cleaning are additional examples of the randomness that is ongoing and incessant.

Paul appears to describe the effects of this law below:

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Romans 8:20-21 

Let’s look at three words from these verses: subjected, frustration, bondage.

• Subjected means that God put the law in place as part of the curse which all creation is subjected.  It is an unbreakable scientific law. Paul describes this as a “bondage to decay.” The universe is enslaved by it, and there is no natural principle available to supersede it. 
• Frustration means there is a waste of energy in the universe which brings a lack of efficiency.
• Hope means that since this law has been imposed by God, he alone can and will supersede it so that all of creation will experience “the freedom and glory of the children of God.” There will be ultimate liberation from this decay caused by entropy in the future.

Because of this entropy, the effective energy for detecting and repairing damage to the information stored in DNA loses its efficiency. This leads to mistakes and errors in copying known as mutations. Mutations accumulate as cellular repair mechanisms fail to keep up with the rate of mutations. Humans add 100 to 200 new mutations per generation. Viruses, like all living things with genetic material, mutate and can become harmful and even lethal.

The Goodness of God and Viruses

Viruses have a very sophisticated information code which suggests they were deliberately created. It appears that they were a part of the original creation. They are clever machines which regulate life on earth. The population of viruses on Earth is estimated to be 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That is 10³¹. What are they all doing? The vast, vast majority of them are not infecting humans, but rather they are infecting bacteria and keeping them in check from overwhelming the planet. In our bodies alone, each of us has about 100,000,000,000,000 individual bacteria. That’s about ten times more bacterial cells than human cells in our bodies. They provide all kinds of useful functions for us, particularly for our immune system and in digestion. It’s safe to say that life as we know it wouldn’t work without them.

When left unchecked bacteria will take over. For example, E. coli bacteria can reproduce every 20 minutes. So, if you start with one bacterium, in 20 minutes there will be two, and in forty minutes there will be four, and at one hour there will be eight. If that went on unchecked, by the end of a twenty-four hour day, the population would double 72 times. If that would go on unchecked for a year, it’s a number so big that it would be a mass nearly as large as the earth. Tony Goldberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison states, “If all viruses suddenly disappeared, the world would be a wonderful place for about a day and a half, and then we’d all die – that’s the bottom line.” So, viruses are a defense tank for keeping the entire earth from being overwhelmed with bacteria.

Here is the challenge. Because bacteria mutates, viruses do as well to combat them. But every once in a while a virus will mutate that will infect and do harm to humans. These strains do not defend the body but attack it. The Covid-9 virus, which caused the world-wide pandemic, was one of these strains and an extremely efficient one at that.  

What Does this Mean?

The brokenness of the world bears witness to a world that was once whole.

Skeptics may taunt those who believe in God as the Creator saying things like, “What a great job your God did with the Covid-19 virus!” What is seen above is the vast majority of viruses (over 99%) are beneficial, but some go awry and cause suffering. But this is not evidence against God as Creator because the breakdown proves the original and good design. A car breaking down on the highway certainly does not prove that no creative and wise design was involved in making the car originally. The challenge with the the naturalistic evolutionary perspective is how complex and intricately ordered systems develop from breakdowns (mutations) and incomplete parts somehow come together. The world is still waiting for the first example of this. The breakdowns necessarily come from a design that was already working.

There is hope in our suffering.

It’s interesting that God speaks of sweat, thorns and thistles (vs.18-19) when describing the curse to Adam and Eve. God could have chosen to reveal the damaging effects hurricanes and earthquakes, famines or pandemics. Instead, God decides to focus on three things: thorns, thistles, and sweat. Why did God emphasize the particular pains he did? What if he was planting a precursor of the gospel into the human story? As you think about God’s pronouncement of the curse using the imagery of thorns, thistles, and sweat, consider Scripture’s account of Jesus’ journey to the cross.

Luke records a night in which Jesus sweated so intensely it was like drops of blood hitting the ground (Luke 22:44). Matthew also writes, “They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and placed a staff in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him: ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’” (Matthew 27:29). Jesus is forced to wear a crown of thorns on his way to the cross–a byproduct and symbol of the curse.

A crown is normally a sign of authority and honor, but Jesus’ executioners use this as a cheap and painful prop to mock him. Before Jesus hangs on a cross to absorb the wrath of God, the curse literally hangs on his head as thorns. Dripping from his body as blood-soaked sweat. As Jesus stood silent before His mockers, the imbedded points of each thorn would have been sharp reminders of his mission–to overcome the curse of sin.

Thankfully, we now live on the other side of the cross where Jesus still wears a crown, but one that is no longer a symbol of the curse. The next time you wrestle with a result of the curse, whether it’s questioning a natural disaster, an unexpected diagnosis, or pandemics remember Jesus bore the weight of sin to ultimately redeem humanity from such suffering. Jesus once wore your curse; you now wear his righteousness. Because of this, a resurrected world, one without thorns, awaits.

Princess Diana of Wales has been an inspirational icon to many, both in her life and after her tragic death. She has many heartwarming quotes attributed to her—quotes such as “anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can,” or perhaps “hugs can do a great amount of good—especially for children.”

However, the quote I think of when she is mentioned is her life advice regarding the heart:

“Only do what your heart tells you.“

Princess Diana

Princess Diana is not alone in making this assertion. You have likely heard the advice to “just follow your heart” quite often. It is a well-saturated idea in our culture. Following your heart is a pursuit you are to prize above all else.

Well, biblically speaking…it’s bad advice (with all due respect to the Princess). Scripture tells us our hearts are desperately wicked. Self-serving. Thoroughly instilled with sin.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9

This is bleak news, and it is a drastically different view of humanity than the one the world espouses, but it is the truth. The reason for our depravity is the sin nature that every single human being has, which all stems from original sin.

What Is Original Sin?

Original sin is the idea that all of humanity is born with a proclivity to rebel against the perfect order of God and disobey his commandments because Adam, the first man, brought sin into the world through his own disobedience. This event is known as the Fall.

I like the way GotQuestions, an excellent resource for Christians researching theology, puts it:

[Original sin is] the moral corruption we possess as a consequence of Adam’s sin, resulting in a sinful disposition manifesting itself in habitually sinful behavior.

GotQuestions

Take a look at the origins of original sin in scripture:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” ² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” ⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:1-8

This is an account of the first sin. The fall of man. There is a lot of information and implications about original sin to unpack from what we just read, so let’s dive in! This passage sheds light on original sin because:

It Demonstrates What It Is to Sin

The original sin is a perfect, simple-to-understand picture of what it is to sin: it is to disobey. It is God telling us not to do x or telling us to do y, only for us to do x and not do y. It is spurning a holy, just, and loving God, directly going against his instructions in the same way a teenager goes against his parents’ instructions when he stays out past his curfew or goes to a party to which he was not supposed to go.

Original Sin Brought Death, Decay, and Pain

Before the original sin, there was no death. There was no pain or suffering. Thorns and thistles didn’t even spring from the ground to terrorize rose-garden enthusiasts!

When God initially created the world, it was flawless…and then man sinned. Zoom down to Genesis 3:16-19 and see what happens when God confronts Adam and Eve over their rebellion.

To the woman he [God] said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” ¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. ¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Genesis 3:16-19

As you can see, sin introduced us to dysfunction, suffering, and misery, followed by death. Man could no longer live forever.

Upon reading the previous passage, though, you may wonder how it wasn’t God’s fault all these horrible things entered creation. After all, he does seem to be the one making them happen, doesn’t he? To understand why they are not his fault is to understand why they had to be there.

When people think of God, they often think of only one part of his nature: his love and mercy. Maybe his compassion that led him to send his Son to suffer and die for us. These are wonderful attributes of God’s character, and they are worthy of meditation. However, we also must understand that God is a God of justice, righteousness, and holiness. These are part of the essence of who he is, just like love (in fact, they magnify his love, as you will see later on in this article).

Think about it: why did Jesus have to die for us? The answer is sobering. Sin necessitates death. Romans 6:23 directly informs us that “the wages of sin is death.”

As the righteous and just judge and creator of the universe, God cannot allow sin to go unpunished—that would make him unjust. Furthermore, nothing tainted by wickedness can enjoy relationship with him or rest in his presence because he is utterly, unfathomably, no-words-to-describe-it holy. And good. And full of unmarred beauty.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!

Psalm 96:9

There is none holy like the Lord; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.

1 Samuel 2:2

It is in his perfectly just nature to punish sin. This is why he gave Eve pain in childbirth. This is why he allowed the ground to be cursed with thorns and thistles. This is why he told Adam and Eve they will one day return to the dust.

Sin necessitates death.

Original Sin Separated Man from God

²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3:23-24

It is no inconsequential detail that Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden after the original sin. Their departure from paradise demonstrates how sin separates us from God. Eden was the place in which they physically dwelled with God. We know this from way back in verse eight when God walks through the garden in the cool of the day.

In forcing them to leave, God shows us the relational wedge sin places between him and mankind. This is why we are in need of reconciliation with him in the form of a savior. This is why we feel so far from God when we disobey him. Just as you hurt the bond between yourself and a friend when you wrong them, we hurt the bond between ourselves and God when we wrong him. And all sin is a wrong against him.

Original Sin Unleashed Evil into Humanity

The original sin was much more than just an isolated event. It was a cataclysmic tragedy that set off a domino-effect of human wickedness. When Adam and Eve sinned, humanity became infected with a sin nature. Read what Paul has to say about the sinful nature every human has inherited from Adam.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

Romans 5:12

Here, we clearly see Paul telling us the origin point of our sinful nature. When Adam, the representative of humanity, sinned against God, he passed on that same rebellious and God-defying inclination to his descendants. Now we are all born into sin, in dire need of a savior so we may have reconciliation with God.

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Psalm 51:5

The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

There is a lot more to this idea of inherited sin nature, and we will discuss it more in next week’s article on the transference of original sin.

Original Sin Showed God’s Love

Remember when I said God’s justice and righteousness magnify his love? Here is why.

Reading about the consequences of original sin may leave you feeling down. This is understandable, as it is a lot of bad news. With that said, it isn’t all bad. The original sin, and God’s judgement towards the sin that followed, powerfully demonstrate his loving mercy.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God could have washed his hands clean of them. He could have disowned them and never given them a second thought. He could have annihilated them off the face of the earth and started humanity over again.

Fortunately, he did not do that. He still loved them. He still stuck with them and their equally sinful descendants. As humanity continued to sin, God continued to love us unconditionally. This love culminated in him leaving unspeakable glory to come down to us in the flesh. He made himself the servant of the very people who should be serving him, only to receive contempt and derision in return. Then, he suffered and died for us, acting as the spotless sacrifice for mankind’s sin so we could be made flawless in God’s eyes.

The almighty judge brought our evil to justice through the death of his son. He didn’t want to destroy us. That is indescribable, glorious love.

What Now?

Take sin seriously like God does. Not just some sin, either—take all of it seriously. It is not a small matter. God is a God of love, but he is a God of justice as well, and he absolutely detests evil.

We cannot let sin have even the smallest foothold in our life. As it turns out, the smallest foothold can abominably morph into the largest, most impenetrable stronghold. We need to constantly take stock of our decisions and our lifestyle to ensure that we are living in a way that honors him and follows his commands. Are we watching something that we wouldn’t have been watching when we were first saved? Are we getting lax with our language? Is it on our heart to perform acts of service and work in the harvest field, but we keep ignoring the call?

Maybe you are doing what I like to call sin-settling, which is a middle ground between eradicating a sin from your life and keeping it in. Perhaps now that you’re only looking at inappropriate imagery on your computer once a week, you feel content with where you are. Perhaps you’re only blowing up in anger at your family members a few times a month, now, so you feel that you are all set.

Don’t get me wrong, any progress you make in beating a habitual sin is cause for celebration, but that does not mean the fight is over simply because it now occurs less than it used to.

To take sin seriously, just like every other aspect of your spiritual life, you will need to humbly submit to God in prayer and rely on the Holy Spirit to be successful. Know that your struggle with sin is not unique to you. This is a battle mankind has fought since the original sin. Take heart and keep fighting.

Were Adam and Eve historical people, the original parents of the human race as Genesis describes? This article will affirm this claim with a solid, YES.  There has, of course, been serious allegation levelled against the truth of the Genesis story. One of the biggest comes from the modern science of genetics. Here are three:

• Allegation # 1: DNA reveals human beings share a common ancestry with primates like chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos. Humanity is not a special creation but the result of common descent with other animals.

• Allegation # 2: The genetic diversity in the present human population requires a much larger gene pool than two people can provide from a recent history. Humanity had to arise from an existing population of no less than 10,000 people to account for existing genetic diversity.

• Allegation # 3: The process of DNA development within the human population would have taken hundreds of thousands of years.

What this article will do is seek to answer each of these allegations and further show that the Genesis account of Adam and Eve as our first parents from approximately six thousand years ago makes better sense of the current data. Further, we will see why a belief in the historical Adam and Eve gives all humanity an equal basis for dignity.

Common Design or Common Descent?

Ever since Darwin, it has been affirmed that primates represent humanity’s closest living relatives.  Current evolutionary literature identifies the chimpanzee as our closest living biological relative. Because of the similarity of the DNA, it is claimed that this is evidence of a common descent. It is estimated that this ancestral line of humans from chimps broke off 3-13 million years ago. If you accept the premise that the difference between chimps and humans could have occurred through gradual changes (mutations) over 3-13 millions of years, that is still not enough time to explain the enormous genetic gap that exists between humans and chimpanzees.

One way to think of how genes are passed on is like the process of copying the text of a book. In the copying process errors are made. In the realm of genetics, DNA are the letters of the text, and the errors are called mutations. The corrupted copy (mutations) is then used for the next round of copying. Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson who holds a PhD in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University, further clarifies, “The DNA in our cells is, in essence, a chemical instruction manual for building and maintaining our anatomy and physiology from conception to death…[which] carries biological meaning. In total, the DNA in our cells is billions of letters long, six billion to be more precise. This is a very large biological “book.”

Jeanson goes on to explain:

When DNA is copied in sperm and egg cells prior to conception, the copying process is imperfect. The rate of copying mistakes (called mutations) has been measured in both humans and chimpanzees, and the rates are fairly similar. About 60 mutations happen each generation. Using rounded numbers, if the human and chimpanzee lineages split 3–13 million years ago, and if the years from one generation to the next are about 20 years, then 150,000–650,000 generations have passed since the two species last shared a common ancestor. In each lineage, about 60 DNA mutations happen in each of those hundreds of thousands of generations leading to an expectation that the DNA of humans and the DNA of chimpanzees should differ by about 18–80 million DNA letters.

The actual difference is much larger. There are actually about 400 million (400,000,000) DNA letters of variation which is at least a 12 % difference. This level of variance creates an enormous and unbridgeable genetic chasm between the two species. Here are just some of the differences on the physical level:

• Humans are about 38% taller.
• Humans are 80% heavier.
• Humans live 50% longer.
• Humans have brains that are about 400% larger.
• Humans can’t interbreed with chimps.
• Humans can’t interchange body parts with chimps.

It stands to reason that if God is the original Designer than there would be common materials used in the designing: materials as DNA, carbohydrates, fats, and protein, when making various animal kinds. Design is different than descent. Genesis 2:7 appears to imply this when establishing that “God formed a man from the dust of the ground…” God did not establish the primates as close cousins but rather as animals in which we are to provide care and stewardship. (Genesis 2:20)

A Population or a Pair?

Population: For many years there was no way through science to know how small or large the human population was like at the dawn of mankind. Fossils and historical records regarding this time give very few clues. Only with the advent of modern genetics have scientists been able to more directly explore this question. Here is how. Through genome sequencing, we know that there are about 3-5 million DNA letter differences which exist among the average human. This is about 0.1% of the total human DNA sequence. From an evolutionary point-of-view, 60 mutations per generation from two originating parents can’t produce this much diversity among humans in just 6,000 years. So, it is reasoned that the genetic diversity had to come from a population of at least 10,000 people. Our human ancestors would have come from this genetic pool, thus allowing for the 3-5 million DNA variations seen today.

Pair: So, how could the genetic variations spring from two people nearly 6,000 years ago? Let’s assume the biblical account of two supernaturally created people, who did not have any genetic differences between due to mutations and, of course, the XX (female) and XY (male) chromosomes, specifying gender. If Adam and Eve decided to fulfill God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28), they would have passed on two identical DNA sequences to their offspring. Adam and Eve would have basically produced copies of themselves — not somewhat modified versions of themselves we are used to seeing in our own children, but identical copies. Being completely identical this would make them clones. In this scenario, the human race would be populated with clones. This is not acceptable, of course.

Rather, God could have created Adam and Eve with built in recessive or latent genetic differences from the start. (e.g., skin color, eye color) Think of it this way, all of us possess 6 billion letters of DNA in our cells. 3 billion of these come from mom and 3 billion from dad. This is a constant going back to every generation starting with Adam and Eve. They would have had the same cellular arrangement — two versions of 3 billion letters totaling 6 billion, and Eve would have had two versions of 3 billion totaling 6 billion. Before the Fall and after the Fall, the two different copies of Adam and Eve’s DNA would have been reshuffled through recombination.

Again Jeanson explains:  

This would make each offspring unique and lead to diversity within the human race. After the Fall, mutations (perhaps at a rate of 60 mutations per generation) would have occurred and added to the genetic diversity in their children, and leading to the production of diverse offspring (in contrast to cloning). Calculations within the parameters of this model match the worldwide DNA diversity that we observe today.

Ancient or Recent?

Is it possible to measure the DNA changes which have occurred through time and calculate how long humans have been in existence? The transmission of 60 DNA mutations from parent to offspring should enable us to mark the passage of one generation to another. However, knowing how much time has passed requires knowing when the clock — whether mechanical or biological — actually started ticking. Most DNA differences may not represent mutations at all; they may have been supernaturally created in Adam and Eve from the start — e.g., Adam and Eve would have been created with genetic differences. Thus, when we’re evaluating the billions of DNA letters in our cells and trying to determine when the differences began arising, it’s as if we were asked how long a clock has been ticking.

The vast majority of DNA letters in our cells do not lend themselves to clear tracking because they are combined with the mother and father. There is, however, a tiny section of DNA about 16,500 letters long called mitochondria (mtDNA) which comes only from the mother. This is a powerhouse DNA which turns food into energy. This DNA is found in both males and females, but only females pass it on to their offspring. Because of this, even evolutionary scientists agree that the current mtDNA differences among modern humans are traceable to a single woman in the past, whom they label “Mitochondrial Eve.” But is this “Eve” traceable back to a woman who was part of a larger population of 10,000 people 180,000 years ago? Or is this the biblical Eve from 6,000 years ago?

To use mtDNA as a clock, the mutation rate can be measured based on either the evolutionary timescale or on an earlier timescale fitting with the Genesis account. Again Jeanson explains this process:

Specifically, we will assume for sake of argument that humans originated a long time ago (180,000 years ago under the evolutionary model) or recently (4,500 years ago…representing the end of the Flood). Then we will predict how many mtDNA differences should have accumulated in the timeframe specific to each model, after which we’ll compare these predictions to the actual number of differences in the current human population. Thus, by multiplying the measured mutation rate of mtDNA by 180,000 years or by 4,500 years, we can make testable predictions about the timescale of human origins.

Comparing these predictions to actual mtDNA differences at the global scale reveals a result that strongly contradicts the evolutionary timescale and confirms the biblical timescale.

After 180,000 years, human mtDNA would have accumulated over 2,000 DNA differences through the process of mutations. In just 4,500 years, humans would have accumulated only 30 to 114 mutations. Currently, in the most genetically diverse populations, about 78 differences exist on average, with a maximum difference of 120. Similar results hold true in animal species.

What does this matter?

Humans are a special creation of God as affirmed in Genesis. This means that whatever materials and processes God used, the results go beyond the natural. We need a real Adam and Eve if we are to make sense of the Bible and of life. People are both created (Genesis 1-2) and fallen (Genesis 3). They are worthy of the highest love and recipients of the greatest redemption.

For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus] the many will be made righteous.

Romans 5:19

Because of this we can make sense of our origins and understand the source of our dignity, even people and groups violate that dignity so often. Blaise Pascal, in his Pensees, gives this insight:

Man’s greatness is so obvious that it can even be deduced from his wretchedness, for what is nature in animals we call wretchedness in man, thus recognizing that, if his nature is today like that of the animals, he must have fallen from some better state which was once his own.

Humanity is one family, one human race, giving everyone equal worth and dignity.

Modern genetics shows us that there is .1% difference genetically between people. Of this .1% difference, skin color, what is called “race,” makes up .01% of the human genetic makeup. This truly shows that race is only skin deep. The genetic differences hardly count for anything. Dr. Craig Venter, head of the Celera Genomics reveals, “Race is a social concept, not a scientific one.” Racial categories recognized by society are just not reflected on the genetic level. This is true at the biblical level, as well. Paul declares:

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

Acts 17:26

There is only one race of people, the human race. We all have a common tie of dignity from God our Creator. In C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan told Prince Caspian, who was disheartened to learn that he was descended from pirates who found their way from our world to the world of Narnia.

Caspian: “I was wishing that I came from a more honourable lineage.”

Aslan: “You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.”

This is reason enough to exalt our dignity and humble our ill-gotten arrogance at the same time.