Can Love Fix It? (Love Fixed It.)

Have you ever built a tower in front of toddlers? With my boys, it didn’t matter what you set in front of them. If it was stacked in a tower, their sole mission became to knock it down. I puzzled over that innate destructive nature. They’d topple the tower and then immediately look at my face to gauge my reaction. I’d act shocked. They’d laugh. I’d rebuild the tower, and they’d knock it down again. This cycle could go on for hours of entertainment.

Life can knock us down with some tough situations: cancer, job loss, death, divorce. It’s hard to explain why these things happen, except that our world is broken and we struggle against a sinful nature in ourselves and in others.

Through one man the world was broken (Adam), but through one man the world has been saved (Jesus).

I’ll find myself skimming over John 3:16 or quoting the scripture from rote memorization: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But when I pause and consider this verse and what it means for my life and for the world, I’m left in awe.

The world was fallen. We were all guilty of the evil of sin, a hideous, malignant cancer that set us in a perilous state of doom, with no way to save ourselves from perishing in utter ruin and destruction. The stain of our sin was so corrosive and deadly that the only means of atonement was sacrifice—a blood sacrifice.

Our holy and righteous God sought to rescue us. Out of His unselfish love, He desired to save us so we could be with Him in glory, but to do so required a penance. A high price was to be paid to wipe away the evil tainting us so we could be made holy again—a precious sacrifice. So God sent His Son, not one of His sons or a stand-in. He sent His ONLY Son. The same Son that the Holy Spirit landed on in the form of a dove and God said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17.)

Jesus, who never sinned, took the evil of our sins, past, present, and future, and endured incredible torture, bled, and died so that our sins remained nailed to that cross. All that was asked of us was to believe and accept that Jesus made this phenomenal sacrifice for our sakes so that we may have eternal life. If we ask Jesus to come into our hearts and be our Lord and Savior, then our sins are paid for, and our reward for merely believing is eternal life in Heaven and a new earth with our Holy Savior.

Our sins had condemned us to death.

But only one man was born to die.

Jesus defeated death.

And because of His love, we are saved by grace,  through faith.