I don't know if you like Bond movies? They used to be a staple on British television over the festive period, though maybe not so much these days. The plot in most of the Bond films is quite straightforward. For me, Goldfinger is
the archetypal Bond film and most subsequent Bond films use the same
basic plot. An evil genius has a plan to take over the world and James
Bond has to stop him (or her? though I don't think there has been a
female Bond villain yet).
This plot line is actually a
pale reflection of the reality of what the Bible tells us has happened
to the world. An evil super-villain, a spiritual being called the devil
or Satan, rebelled against God at some point before human beings came
into existence. Later, when the first human beings were created, he
schemed successfully to lead them into rebellion against God as well and
give up their position of God's stewards and viceroys over creation to
come instead under his evil influence, control and ownership as slaves
of sin. Satan's work was like unleashing a terrible virus into the
atmosphere that would then infect and poison the whole of creation.
Something
is wrong with the world and with us. Deep down we know it. All human
beings are "not quite right." We're not the people we feel we should be.
Often we're not the people we even want to be ourselves. The Bible
tells us we're right to feel that way. We're not imagining it. And the
Bible calls the thing that's wrong with us is a deadly disease called
"sin."
Sin is like a virus that infects and affects
every part of us - our bodies, our brains, our hearts - and all their
functions including our thoughts and our feelings. It is a disease that
is, humanly speaking, incurable, and it only has one prognosis - death.
In biblical terms, "death" is not just physically dying, but an eternal
state of "un-life." Not only that, the symptoms of this disease ravage
our behaviour and manifests as pride, cruelty, anger, hatred, lust, envy
and many other utterly horrible human traits. All the particular evils
trace their origin back to the disease of sin that has infected
humanity, and we every single one of us catches the disease from birth.
It is inevitable for everyone born into this world that they will be
infected, even if there is a latency period during childhood before the
disease goes "full blown".
Another horrible aspect of
the disease is that it is completely debilitating. We are paralysed by
sin. Unable to find a cure. Unable to even want to be cured.
That's
the position we all find ourselves in. That's the way the world has
always been right from the earliest period of human history.
The
story of the Old Testament in the Bible is largely about God calling on
one nation, Israel, to be the people through whom the disease of sin
would be dealt with and through whom the world would be put right. It is
also the story of how that people failed again and again in their
mission, finding out that they themselves were infected with the same
disease as all the other nations.
The New Testament
tells the story of how God came to earth himself, which it turns out had
always been the plan, in the person of his Son, his "second self" who
was born and lived as a faithful Israelite called Jesus of Nazareth. He
showed the character and the wisdom of God, and then in his death he
took on himself the entire disease, to rid the world of it once and for
all, thereby defeating the Evil Mastermind who was behind it all. He
rose from the dead so that not only would the disease have no more power
over him, but that the cure he had created and the immunity from it he
had gained could be passed on to everyone who wants it for themselves.
Not only that, but once we are given the medicine, the power of the
disease is broken and we start the long process of recovering from the
effects of the disease, knowing that one day we will be totally free of
it and able to live forever, even though our body goes through death.
So
how do you receive the cure? It's very simple. You trust in Jesus to
save you and ask him come into your life and cure you. When you ask him, he will do it. Then
you become his friend and stay in a loving friendship with him forever, getting to know him, learning to see
what a life without the disease looks like and trying to copying him in your
life. You'll also find that there's a great crowd of people who have also been saved and now live in a new kingdom. The group is called the church, which means "the gathered ones." The church gets together to thank Jesus, meet his Father who is now our Father too, and to be energised by his Spirit to live as we should and deep down really want to live. Among other things, we continue to work to help other victims of the disease in practical ways in this world and spread the good news that there is a cure available for everyone.
