5-step program! 4 smart solutions! 3 easy payments! 2 effective strategies! 1 piece of advice!
Does it not draw us in to think that all our troubles could magically go away so easily?! Wouldn’t we all love a quick fix to life’s woes?
Living in a world that prides itself in efficiency and results, it’s no wonder the Easter story, and the wild notion that Jesus’ death can transform your life, appear downright foolish. And if not foolish, at least perplexing.
The reality is that we fool ourselves by believing that our bandaid-solutions will make ANY lasting difference to our broken lives here, or in eternity. Because it’s not about steps of improvement to implement, but a Person to know, a Redeemer to save!
Once we see that the real transformative power Jesus offers is the only real solution to our fatal problem, we’re then awakened to the futility of our own self-help efforts.
Like bandaids on a gunshot wound.
Please hear my heart through this intensity of a ramble…
NOTHING has had a greater impact on my life than simply doing life with Jesus.
- Trusting Him with the unknown.
- Trusting Him with circumstances I can’t control.
- Trusting Him with whatever I want to change but don’t know how to (no matter how many bandaids).
- Ultimately trusting Him with the salvation of my very soul!
- To believe that God created all of us for more than what our eyes can see.
Because if we could see it, we wouldn’t need God to do it, that’s why it’s faith! (Pastor Mike Todd said it first)
Sin: The Gunshot Wound
If I really had to reduce it all to a step-program, I suppose that acknowledging our own sin as the problem would have to be the first step. You can then follow that with having the faith to believe God for our solution.
But if we fail to recognize the true consequence of sin on our lives, and acknowledge the fatality of this gunshot wound to our very existence, then I suppose a quick fix bandaid works just fine in deluding us into believing that God sending Jesus is unnecessary or irrelevant.
Thankfully God’s offer of salvation is available to anyone who will to accept it. It isn’t any less true whether you believe it or not.
2 Corinthians 5:21 gives us a beautiful, yet simple synopsis of the Easter story:
God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us. So that in Jesus, we might become right with God.
Unfortunately, until we truly taste and see how GOOD He is, “we basically reduce Jesus to a cultural icon, rather than the living, resurrected Saviour. And apart from Him we can do absolutely nothing” (Dr. Crawford Loritts). That’s why the quick fix can never work. In the ancient world, the sacrificial system offered a way for people to be made right with God. But like I keep saying, it was a bandaid solution!
Today, the sum of our good deeds can make us feel like we’ve earned our way into God’s good graces. And with polarizing views on what good deeds actually look like, it’s hard to know if you’re even getting that right in the first place!
11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest I offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. 14 For by that one offering He forever made perfect those who are being made holy. 16 “This is the new covenant I will make
– Hebrews 10:11-18
with my people on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then He says, “I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds.”
18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
I’m so grateful that Jesus’ sacrifice isn’t only about taking on the consequence of my sin and the reality of whatever awaits us in the afterlife, which is obviously a big deal!
But His sacrifice has amazing consequences in this life too! For an abundant life (John 10:10) and peace beyond understanding (Philippians 4:7).
I need me some peace to get through each day. I need confidence in knowing I can be right with God. That even if I make mistakes, I don’t have to carry the weight of my sin through life. And my identity can now be found in Him.
I don’t have to try to cover my tracks by putting bandaids on gunshot wounds and hoping for the best. I can KNOW with confidence that I’m forgiven, I’m redeemed – for a purpose!
Tim Keller says that Christian identity is the only one that is received, not achieved. This means that transformation doesn’t depend on my performance, but when we accept Jesus’ sacrifice, we receive a new identity as a child of God – forgiven and loved.
And that’s such good news!
Because when it comes down to it, what we really need is good news, not good advice. We don’t need good advice to follow, but good news to believe. One is about tips and tricks, the other is transformative.
I echo Paul’s question in Romans 2:4, don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
This may sound cynical, but unfortunately, I don’t think we actually care for God’s kindness, when all we want is quick solutions to our problems. It grieves me to think that we completely miss what God offers us when we fail to recognize how amazing His mercy and grace really are.
When we reduce the Easter story and God’s plan of salvation to simply being good enough or bad enough, we miss the point! Because that’s not what God’s grace is about! We bring the wrong solutions to a problem only God can rectify. “It’s not about being good or bad. It’s about being dead or alive!” (Louie Giglio) None of us could ever be good enough to get to heaven. No matter how many tips and tricks we try. It’s about recognizing our need for a Saviour, and then being made alive in Him.
For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
– 2 Corinthians 7:10
I guess that would be it. The big tip. The main point. I love how the Corinthians author addresses the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. One leads to repentance, salvation, and life! The other is filled with regret, shame, and death.
Let’s be sorry for our sin, but let’s bring it to the foot of the cross where we can exchange it for fullness of life and a new identity as children of God. Not just a bandaid-solution, but a complete transformation from the inside out.
More than a bandaid
The following verse – stripped of any complex theology, in all its simplicity – is the best possible way I can think to conclude. The story goes like this: Jesus heals a blind man. Religious leaders (who happen to be spiritually blind themselves!) give him flack about it. And all he says is…
“I have no idea what kind of man He is. All I know is this: I was blind, but now I see.”
– John 9:25
From The Overflow 
Christian identity is the only one that is received, not achieved
Powerful Tina! Thanks for this reminder!
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Thanks so much, Al! Happy Easter!
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