Sacrifice or self fulfilment?

The great unravelling. From our porn epidemic rewiring our brains, distorting behaviour and destroying relationships (search, for example, for ‘A science-based case for ending the porn epidemic’ by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry), to areas of global neglect, meddling and hypocrisy that we cannot self-righteously absolve ourselves from, things are coming undone and none of us are immune from the fallout. Selfish individualism and a collective greed and lust for power are everywhere wreaking havoc. 

Jesus said ‘my kingdom is not of this world’. Though he immerses himself fully in the life and sufferings of the world, he teaches and demonstrates a better way. Through his righteous life for us that none of us could live, his death as a sacrifice for our sin and his resurrection, he supernaturally triumphs over death and all that is evil. In this way Jesus not only points us to a better way, but ushers it in. 

God, in the person of the eternal Son, sacrifices, suffers and dies, ‘the righteous for the unrighteous’, so that all who side with him may receive his righteous status and enter this new and perfect coming eternal kingdom under his peaceful, just and loving rule. There, no more pain. No more death, betrayal, falsehood. No addiction, disease, fear or war. No tears, conflict, rejection, disappointment, or loss. No eternal torments!

Jesus shows us what God is like because he is from God and one with God. Jesus says, ‘everyone on the side of truth listens to me’. He also reveals the great paradox that we in the West need to rediscover, as so many of our benefits have come from our Christian roots. Jesus said, ‘Those who seek to save their lives lose them, while those who lose their lives for my sake find them’.

A blessed Easter to you all,
Pastor Mike Steicke,
St Peter’s Lutheran Church, Hobart.